First of all, I am positive that the goings-on in my own personal life (and those of friends) has taken some of the fun out of the anticipation. There’s hardly enough time to talk to friends and catch up on the day to day insanity much less take the time to obsess what every last new music snippet really means for the new album! I know that as far as I’m concerned, I don’t even spend much time on the message boards anymore – I try to check in when I can, and I miss the times when it took precedence. I just need more hours added to the day, I think.
Secondly, and probably more importantly, I don’t notice much excitement for the new material even when I *do* visit the message boards. Most people aren’t talking about the CD release, they’re talking about the tour, or up until recently, the lack of announced tour dates. I have to say that this reminds me very much of when [Reach up for the] Sunrise was first released. It was the first new Duran Duran song that was released by the original 5 band members in 20 years, and so it made a huge splash with the fan base. People were talking about the band and the excitement was infectious within the community. That first release was on an album soundtrack for Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and naturally that was just the first taste of what lay ahead for the fans, and the band. A few months later, Astronaut was released, and once again, Sunrise was released as a single. This was a completely different version of Sunrise, but you know – we’d already heard the song. Sure, it was different, but it was still very much the same. There wasn’t enough of a difference to make it “brand spanking new”, and I just don’t think the single resonated with the fan base, or the radio, because it felt like more of an afterthought, or a continuation of something we’d already heard once. As much as I hate to say it, I do have similar concerns for this new album. Many fans think they’ve already heard most of the album, and the rest of us aren’t really sure what we’re going to be getting!
As far as I understand, there are two versions of the album coming out – the regular CD, and then a deluxe version. This is where I’m finding confusion because each time I see information listed for the album(s) – it’s a different damn list of songs. Not only that, but I refer back to an article that quoted Wendy Laister as saying that they were working with retailers to offer different versions to different retailers, which leaves me wondering what in the heck I should be buying. Do I order the deluxe version through Amazon? Do I order both the regular and deluxe versions so that way I can have all of the new songs? Will I get all of the new songs through Amazon or do I need to go hunting to find out who else has different copies? What about that DVD – what’s going to be on that? Is it stuff I’ve already seen?? For me, this isn’t about the money – I don’t care about that, but I’m going to be honest – I don’t need 14 copies of the same album. I’d buy them and never complain if they were all different, but I’m going to be furious if I buy several different copies and find out they’re all pretty much the same…. It’s just very difficult to know what we’re getting, and I think that confusion has added to the lack of excitement in some ways.
Which leads me to something else – why would the band decide to put more than one interlude or remix to All You Need Is Now on the album? Why not put those out on a separate CD, because not all of us are slaves to the remixes or even love them. Personally, I like new songs. I don’t want 4 different versions of the same song on the album. That said, I have a pretty extensive collection (what Duranie doesn’t???) of night versions and other remixes over the years, and I do like them – just not when an album is being sold to me as all new material when it really isn’t. Make sense?
Oh sure, I could talk all about the lost momentum with the release being handled like this – but the truth is, I don’t need to do that. I want this to work out beautifully for the band because they deserve at least that. I want this album to be fantastic, which I’m sure it will be as soon as March 22nd gets here (for the US – the rest of you will have it a day earlier and yes, I’m envious.), and we’re all listening to songs we haven’t heard before along with 9 songs that have already permanently inked themselves into the soundtrack of my life. I want to be excited and overjoyed with the idea of getting a new album in just a couple short weeks, it just feels like I’ve already done that for about 4 months now.
-R
