(1984) Duran Duran - Arena


Review:
Seeing Duran Duran in concert in 1984 was like seeing a video come to life. The group put on a spectacular show filled with impressive light shows and videos. Since the concerts featured so many visuals, the band could not vary the tempos greatly, resulting in music that nearly replicated the studio versions of the songs. Arena accurately reproduces the sound and feeling of these concerts. Duran Duran sound tight and professional (probably due to studio overdubbing), yet Simon Lebon sounds a little winded, possibly because of all the dancing he had to do during the course of the show. The new Nile Rodgers-produced single "The Wild Boys" was added to the album as bait and the strategy worked: peaking at number four, Arena was Duran Duran's highest-charting album and it sold over two million copies. Nevertheless, it's the most inconsequential album in their entire catalog, even if it's fun.
Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Rate





Track List:
A1. Is There Something I Should Know? [4:37]
A2. Hungry Like The Wolf [3:57]
A3. New Religion [5:37]
A4. Save A Prayer [6:09]
A5. The Wild Boys [4:15]
B1. The Seventh Stranger [5:10]
B2. The Chauffeur [5:24]
B3. Union Of The Snake [4:09]
B4. Planet Earth [4:30]
B5. Careless Memories [4:06]


Summary:
Country: UK
Genre: Pop, New Wave


Media Report:
Source : Vinyl
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec, 24-bit PCM
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : ~ 5.5 Mbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 192 KHz
Bit depth : 32 bits (float)