Rio

If you are into the eighties then this was a landmark album from an iconic eighties band that surprisingly has maintained some impetus throughout the subsequent decades. This is a rare album in that one could arguably say that all tracks are equally good, although only some were hit material. The British group Duran Duran was the complete personification of an eighties band, with good looking, fashionably dressed band members and a lead singer (Simon Le Bon) whom female fans swooned over. Their look worked; they were one of the most commercially successful eighties band and their music wasn’t half bad either.

This album was released in 1982 and immediately garnered world wide acclaim, helped along with some over the top, memorable videos for Hungry Like the Wolf, Rio and Save A Prayer. The album went gold in the US on 1 March 1983, and platinum on 26 April 1983, eventually reaching double platinum status. It peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 album chart in the US on March 12, 1983, and remained on the chart for 129 weeks. Their sound is synth-pop, new wave type of stuff and I have seen it classified under Alternative Rock as well. It is fun to listen to and these guys are a good representation of what eighties music embodied. My favorite song on this release is Save a Prayer. If you haven’t done so in a while, take a trip back with a listen to this CD.

Here is Duran Duran performing Save a Prayer in concert.