Medazzaland

CD Cover Duran Duran
EMI

Review by Darren Gawle



You might wonder if this CD is a spoof of that Simpsons joke about Star Trek movies -- Star Trek 6: So Very Tired... -- because, apart from "Electric Barbarella," that's exactly how Medazzaland sounds -- tired, bored, and starting to get a bit cranky.

"Electric Barbarella" (I never thought I'd be saying this) is the highlight of an otherwise uninspired album, going further than anything else Duran Duran has put out in the last ten years to recapture their cocaine-fueled glory days as the Tiger Beat titans of the early 1980's. From that song on, though, Medazzaland begins to lose steam rapidly, and by the end of "Undergoing Treatment," things are starting to look decidedly gloomy.

Now that John Taylor appears to have jumped ship, leaving behind the triumvirate of Simon, Theodore and Alvin*, one wonders if this half-hearted attempt at an album is just the sound of a band (and specifically Simon Le Bon, who looks decidedly uncomfortable in the liner notes) trying to ride out the remainder of their recording contract so they can give Duran Duran the dignified burial it deserved five years ago.


*Yes, I know they're Simon, Nick and Warren. Humour me, I'm just trying to be clever.




First published in Drop-D Magazine on February 1, 1998

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