Sense of Paper Gods As a Whole?

This past week has been a quiet one on the blog.  We apologize for that.  It isn’t because Duran Duran has been quiet as there seems to be daily media released that features the band.  On top of that, we got our fourth song off of the upcoming album, Paper Gods.  While Rhonda and I might have wanted to focus on the latest news, real life interfered.  In her case, she worked to get her oldest off to college while I focused much of my energy on getting my classroom ready.  (For the record:  I HATE this time of year.  HATE. IT.)  Despite being busy, we have spent some time listening, thinking, and talking about what has been released lately into Duranland, from songs to articles to interviews.  One of the topics we have discussed is what I hope to focus on here, which is when do individual songs give a flavor of the whole and does the whole equal the sum of its parts.

I bet that probably sounded deep, but it really isn’t that deep.  Let’s start with the second part of that question.  Does the whole equal the sum of its parts?  It sounds like basic math, right?  In this case, I’m talking about Duran albums.  Do all the individual songs add together to make the overall album or is it a situation in which the album is MORE than the sum of its parts?  Let me explain even further with an example.  Let’s take an album like All You Need Is Now.  There are 14 basic tracks on that album, including upbeat songs like All You Need Is Now and Girl Panic, more ballad types like Leave a Light On, deep songs like Before the Rain and more.  When I think about each of those 14 tracks and how much I like them, do they equal how much I like the album?  Let’s go through it with specifics.  What do I think of each track?

Love:  All You Need Is Now, The Man Who Stole a Leopard, Too Bad You’re So Beautiful, Before the Rain

Like:  Blame the Machines, Being Followed, Girl Panic, A Diamond in the Mind, Other People’s Lives, Mediterranea, Runway Runaway, Return to Now

Not a Big Fan of: Leave a Light On, Safe

If you average out my loves, likes, and dislikes, it would seem that I really like the album, but I don’t love the album as there weren’t many songs that I loved and few that I’m not a big fan of.  Yet, as of right now, I would say that I LOVE that album and that it is my favorite Duran album.  Why?  The feel of the album has a whole is MORE than its individual songs.  It is more than the sum of its parts.  I could do the same for an album like Red Carpet Massacre.  When looking at the individual songs, there are many that I like and there are only a few that I truly dislike.  Do I like the album as a whole?  Not so much.  The feel of RCM is not one that I gravitate towards.  When I think of it, it doesn’t make me happy or excited whereas AYNIN is one that brings out a big smile.  This, of course, leads me to the first question and the current material.

As of this blog, we have four songs off of Paper Gods available to us to hear, to download.  Those four songs are, of course: Pressure Off, Paper Gods, You Kill Me with Silence and What Are the Chances?  Obviously, we have lots of songs still to hear.  Yet, do these four feel like they go together?  Are they enough to get an entire feel of the album?  Now, I won’t be able to completely answer that until I have heard the album as a whole.  Yet, I do think the overall feel of the album is coming through.  I can tell what elements run through each song like I could with songs off of AYNIN or RCM, for that matter.  What am I sensing about this album?  One thing that seems clear is that it focuses a lot more on Simon and Nick than it does on John and Roger.  I have read many, many comments, for instance, that compliments Simon on both his smooth vocals but also his compelling lyrics.  As for Nick, the keyboards are front and center in most of what we have heard so far.  In general, I would say that the songs are very electronic.  Another thing that seems clear is that most of the songs seem very full.  People have commented on the layering and the extras from the audience sound in Pressure Off to the chanting to open Paper Gods.  That is very different than say the simplicity found in many Astronaut songs, for example.  I would also say that the songs all feel very slick, very smooth to me, production wise.

Assuming that my conclusion is right and that the feel of Paper Gods is coming through, will it like RCM, AYNIN or any other Duran record be such in that the whole will be more than the sum of its parts?  I think that it will be.  There will be songs that taken individually and judged individually that I will like or love and there will be others that I won’t be as big of a fan of.  What will I think of the album as a whole, though?  That will depend on those trends that I mentioned above.  Now, of course, the majority of songs have not been heard yet.  Will those trends change?  How will this change my feelings about the album as a whole?  In a month, I should be better able to say, won’t I?  Until then, I will continue to ponder what I think of these new songs and the feel of the album as a whole.

-A