Ultimate Box Set Results: Part 4

Last week, Duranies/fans/readers of this blog voted on which album tracks from the four most recent albums should be considered for a Duran Duran Ultimate Box Set.  As always the results surprise me and interest me as I like to learn about the Duran fan community and  people’s preferences.  I’m fascinated by what songs were the favorites, which ones weren’t chosen at all and what all that shows about the fans’ likes.

Album Tracks Chosen:

The album tracks chosen from the last four albums (Astronaut, Red Carpet Massacre, All You Need Is Now and Paper Gods) were as follows:

• The Man Who Stole a Leopard
• Paper Gods
• The Valley
• Too Bad You’re So Beautiful
• What Are the Chances
• Mediterranea
• Before the Rain
• The Universe Alone

The first thing I notice is that there are no songs chosen from Astronaut.  While some fans chose songs off that album, those songs were not popular overall.  Astronaut’s history is a fascinating one.  I remember when that album came out.  Everyone loved it.  Yet, it has not stood the test of time.  Why is that?  Better albums since then?  Overproduced?  Did they try too hard on it?  Did people’s opinions change after the reunion of the Fab Five changed and Andy left?  Interestingly enough, though, the band still plays Sunrise live whereas they haven’t been playing anything off of All You Need Is Now or Red Carpet Massacre.

Next, I notice that there is only one song off of Red Carpet Massacre, which is the Valley.  Clearly, that album isn’t loved much more than Astronaut is.  The rest of the list has 4 tracks off of All You Need Is Now and 3 songs off of Paper Gods.  What interests me is that the three songs off of Paper Gods are slower, more introspective.  Likewise, most of the songs chosen off of AYNIN are also slower, more artistic in nature.  I will be interested to see how the final album track vote total goes.  Will the album tracks be more artistic while the singles are more mainstream?  We shall see next week!

What Songs Were Not Chosen:

What songs were not chosen by anyone?  There were quite a few, actually!

• Skin Divers
• Tricked Out
• Dirty Great Monster
• A Diamond in the Mind
• Return to Now
• Danceophobia

Earlier in this blog, I acknowledged that the album tracks off of Astronaut were not fan favorites.  Yet, they were favorites of someone.  The same cannot be said for Red Carpet Massacre.  In fact, three tracks were not chosen by anyone.  A lot of people, at the time RCM came out, were excited by the tracks produced by Timbaland.  Now, one of those tracks was left voteless, which was Skin Divers.

I wasn’t surprised that instrumentals were left off people’s lists of album tracks.  In my experience, many people like the instrumentals but they prefer tracks with vocals on them.  Likewise, the song, Danceophobia, has never been a fan favorite for obvious reasons.

What’s Next:

This week, fans will make the final vote for album tracks, which you can do here.  These tracks will be added to the singles that were previously chosen.  Then, we will move on to b-sides/demos.  While we wait for the final vote, does anyone have any predictions?

-A