All You Need is Now
3/5
Despite the overwhelmingly positive review for Mark Ronson’s recent Record Collection album, the greatest beneficiaries are exotic Midlanders Duran Duran. Not just because this is probably what made Ronson agree to produce this album in the first place, but because it’s given him the opportunity to nerd out over period synth sounds, replicating the precise crystalline synth tones of the pastel era. This, of course, is great news
for nostalgics and newbies alike. Certainly, Durannies old and new will prefer it to 2007’s over-serious The Red Carpet Massacre, but the record lacks the knockout punch.
Stylistically, it could have been a lost album the band recorded just before Power Station and Arcadia smashed their commercial sensibility to splinters. But while the spirit of the glory days are all present and correct, the killer choruses that held everything together are not. Still, hats off to Ronson for constructing the world’s most detailed Duran Duran diorama. Let’s hope the band like it as much as he must do.
