Mark Ronson Takes Duran Duran Back to the Future on 'All You Need Is Now'

posted in: Features • Pop • Rock

The regal reputation of London-born, New York-bred producer/DJ/musician Mark Ronson is based in large part on his track record for producing breakthrough albums by some of Britain’s biggest young pop stars over the last several years, including Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, and Adele. With that kind of résumé, Ronson probably wouldn’t have been too many people’s first pick to attempt a revival of Duran Duran‘s career by overseeing the 1980s icons’ thirteenth studio album. And yet, his is the name you’ll find credited with just that when All You Need Is Now is unveiled.

The original Duran Duran lineup has been back in business since the 2000 release Pop Trash, but their last effort, 2007’s Red Carpet Massacre, didn’t exactly set the world on fire, and in the aftermath of its poor chart and sales performance, the band found themselves outside of major-label land for the first time in their three-decade career. Clearly, the latter album’s follow-up had to be a make-or-break proposition. Enter unlikely savior Ronson, who”as Duran singer Simon LeBon recently revealed on British television, was a fan with a plan. You need somebody with a vision, and Mark’s a fan, explained LeBon. He had a very clear idea of what he wanted to do with this album. He said he felt that we went wrong after [1982 smash] Rio. We had to do a lot of backtracking, added LeBon jokingly. He said ˜I want to make the follow-up album to Rio that should have been made. He was very clear about that, and had a practical way of making it happen.

According to LeBon, the unabashedly ambitious Ronson facilitated this admittedly tall order in part by bringing the band face to face with what he saw as their audience’s expectations. Had I suggested singing a line a certain way, says LeBon, I might have felt a bit self-conscious about it. I might have felt it was a bit retro, a bit old-school. But Mark said ˜No, that’s what people want to hear from you!’ The results of the collaboration must have lived up to even Ronson’s exacting standards; after his labors were completed, he talked the project up, saying I’m a huge Duran Duran fan, and it’s one of my favorite Duran Duran records of all time, seriously. And I’m not just saying that because I worked on it.

In fact, the fanboy tendencies of the superstar producer”who was seven years old when Rio was released”began revealing themselves pretty early on in the process. Ronson, who hosts a weekly online radio show at New York’s EastVillageRadio.com, couldn’t resist sharing his work with the world, and started sneaking snippets of the album’s demos into his radio shows over a year ago, with the air of a naughty schoolboy, remarking at the time They can’t fire me, I’ve got all the files at my house. These are the lost tapes that’ll come out after I die, and they’ll surface on whocares.com. All You Need Is Now is set for a US release today as an iTunes-exclusive digital download, with the physical CD and LP scheduled for February 2011 (probably non-coincidentally, the thirtieth birthday of Duran Duran’s debut album). More recently, Ronson has been giving some of the completed tracks their world premiere on his show, Authentic Sh*t, as well as bringing the band themselves into the studio. And judging from the sneak previews of the uptempo, angular, New Wave-tinged Blame The Machine, the funky-but-melodic dance-pop tune Runway Runaway, the percolating, undeniably ˜80s-flavored Being Followed and the more mid-tempo, anthemic title track, Duran Duran may be ready to revisit the sonic realm of Rio after all.

Track list

  1. All You Need Is Now
  2. Blame the Machines
  3. Being Followed
  4. Leave A Light On
  5. Safe
  6. Girl Panic
  7. The Man Who Stole A Leopard
  8. Runway Runaway
  9. Before the Rain

Bonus tracks [LP/CD]

  1. Mediterranea
  2. Other People’s Lives
  3. King of Nowhere

By Jim Allen

Jim Allen has contributed to a wide range of print and online outlets including RollingStone.com, MOJO, Village Voice, Uncut, VH1.com, iTunes, All Music Guide, CMT.com, The Advocate, Prefix, Blurt and many more.