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1. Duran Duran Albums In Order
2. Duran Duran Hit Singles

Depeche Mode are an English electronic band that formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. The group consists of founders David Gahan (lead vocals), Martin Gore (guitar, keyboards, vocals), and Andy Fletcher (keyboards).Depeche Mode released their debut album Speak & Spell in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene.Original band member Vince Clarke (keyboards, guitar), left the band after the release of the album, leaving the band as a trio to record A Broken Frame, released the following year. Gore took over the lead songwriting duties and, later in 1982, Alan Wilder (keyboards, drums, bass guitar) officially joined the band to fill Clarke spot, establishing a line up that would continue for the next 13 years. Depeche Mode have been a trio again since 1995, when Wilder left.The band last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music For The Masses, established them as a dominant force on the mainstream electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people.In the new decade, Depeche Mode released Violator, a mainstream success. The subsequent album, Songs of Faith and Devotion, and the supporting Devotional Tour exacerbated tensions within the band to the point where Alan Wilder quit in 1995, leading to intense media and fan speculation that the band would split.Now a trio once again, the band released Ultra in 1997, recorded at the height of Gahan near-fatal drug abuse, Gore alcoholism and seizures, and Fletcher depression. The release of Exciter confirmed Depeche Mode willingness to remain together, the subsequent, and very successful, Exciter Tour being their first tour in support of an original album in eight years since the Devotional Tour, although the band had toured in 1998 to support The Singles 86–98 compilation album.Depeche Mode have had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart and seventeen top 10 albums in the UK chart; they have sold over 100 million records worldwide.

Q included the band in the list of the '50 Bands That Changed the World!' .Depeche Mode also rank number 98 on VH1 '100 Greatest Artists of All Time'. In December 2016, Billboard magazine named Depeche Mode the 10th most successful dance club artist of all time.In October 2017, it was announced Depeche Mode will be nominated into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. During the touring and promotion for Speak & Spell, Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying 'there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions'.In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was 'bullshit to be quite honest'.

Gahan went on to say he 'suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore'.Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States).Initial talk of Clarke continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track 'Only You', but they declined.Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, 'I dont know where that came from. That is not true.' The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written 'Tora!

And the instrumental 'Big Muff' for Speak & Spell, was forced to become the band new songwriter.In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: 'Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one.' Alan Wilder, a keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member.Wilder would later be called the 'Musical Director' of the band, responsible for the band sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, 'Alan is sort of the craftsman, Martin the idea man and Dave is the attitude.'

In January 1982, the band released 'See You', their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, 'The Meaning of Love' and 'Leave in Silence,' were released ahead of the band second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982.Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, 'Get the Balance Right!,' was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. In their early years, Depeche Mode had only really attained success in Europe and Australia.

This changed in March 1984, when they released the single 'People Are People'. The song became a hit, reaching No. 2 in Ireland and Poland, No. 4 in the UK and Switzerland, and No.

1 in West Germany — the first time a DM single topped a country singles chart — where it was used as the theme to West German TV coverage of the 1984 Olympics.Beyond this European success, the song also reached No. 13 on the US charts in mid-1985, the first appearance of a DM single on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a Top 20 hit in Canada. 'People Are People' has since become an anthem for the LGBT community, regularly played at gay establishments and gay pride festivals in the late 1980s.Sire, the band North American record label, released a compilation of the same name which included tracks from A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again as well as several B-sides.On the American tour, the band was, according to Gore, 'shocked by the way the fans were turning up in droves at the concerts'.

He said that although the concerts were selling well, Depeche Mode struggled to sell records.In September 1984, Some Great Reward was released. Melody Maker claimed that the album made one 'sit up and take notice of what is happening here, right under your nose.' In contrast to the political and environmental subjects addressed on the previous album, the songs on Some Great Reward were mostly concerned with more personal themes such as sexual politics ('Master and Servant'), adulterous relationships ('Lie to Me'), and arbitrary divine justice ('Blasphemous Rumours').Also included was the first Martin Gore ballad, 'Somebody' — such songs would become a feature of all following albums. 'Somebody' was released as a double A-side with 'Blasphemous Rumours,' and was the first single with Gore on lead vocal. Some Great Reward became the first Depeche Mode album to enter the US album charts, and made the Top 10 in several European countries.The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg was the band first video release, almost an entire concert from their 1984 Some Great Reward Tour. In July 1985, the band played their first-ever concerts behind the Iron Curtain, in Budapest and Warsaw. In October 1985, Mute Records released a compilation, The Singles 81-85 (Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the US), which included the two non-album hit singles 'Shake the Disease' and 'It Is Called A Heart'.During this period, the band became associated with the goth subculture, which had begun in Britain in the early-1980s, and was slowly gaining popularity in the United States.

There, the band music had first gained prominence on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, KSOL ('The Quake') in San Francisco, WFNX in Boston and WLIR on Long Island, New York, and hence they appealed primarily to an alternative audience who were disenfranchised with the predominance of 'soft rock and 'disco hell' on the radio.This view of the band was in sharp contrast to how the band was perceived in Europe, despite the increasingly dark and serious tone in their songs. In Germany, France, and other European countries, Depeche Mode were considered teen idols and regularly featured in European teen magazines, becoming one of the most famous synthpop bands in the mid-80s. Depeche Mode musical style shifted slightly again in 1986 with the release of their fifteenth single, 'Stripped', and its accompanying album Black Celebration. Retaining their often imaginative sampling and beginning to move away from the 'industrial pop' sound that had characterised their previous two LPs, the band introduced an ominous, highly atmospheric and textured sound. Gore lyrics also took on a darker tone and became even more pessimistic.The music video for 'A Question of Time' was the first to be directed by Anton Corbijn, beginning a working relationship that continues to the present day. Corbijn has directed a further 20 of the band videos (the latest being 2017 'Where Is the Revolution').

He has also filmed some of their live performances, and designed stage sets, as well as covers for albums and singles. 1987 Music for the Masses saw further alterations in the band sound and working methods. For the first time a producer not related to Mute Records, Dave Bascombe, was called to assist with the recording sessions, although, according to Alan Wilder, Bascombe role ended up being more that of engineer.In making the album, the band largely eschewed sampling in favour of synthesizer experimentation. While chart performance of the singles 'Strangelove', 'Never Let Me Down Again' and 'Behind the Wheel' proved to be disappointing in the UK, they performed well in countries such as Canada, Brazil, West Germany, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland, often reaching the top 10. Record Mirror described Music For The Masses as 'the most accomplished and sexy Mode album to date'. The album also made a breakthrough in the American market.The Music For The Masses Tour began 22 October 1987. On 7 March 1988, with no previous announcement that they would be the headlining act, Depeche Mode played in the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle, East Berlin, becoming one of the few Western groups to perform in the Communist East Germany.

They also performed concerts in Budapest and Prague in 1988, both at the time also Communist.The world tour ended 18 June 1988 with a concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl with paid attendance of 60,453, the highest in eight years for the venue. The tour was a breakthrough for the band and a massive success in the United States. It was documented in 101 – a concert film by D. Pennebaker and its accompanying soundtrack album.The film is notable for its portrayal of fan interaction. Alan Wilder is credited with coming up with the title, noting that the performance was the 101st and final performance of the tour. On 7 September 1988, Depeche Mode performed 'Strangelove' at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.

The members of Depeche Mode regrouped in Madrid in January 1992, Dave Gahan had become interested in the new grunge scene sweeping the U.S. And was influenced by the likes of Jane Addiction, Soundgarden and Nirvana.' There is so many sounds that are created from the voice that you would not know were taken from the voice, like rhythm sounds.

The number of times I have been sitting in the studio and said, 'I wish I could get a bass that would just go mimics wet, thick hip-hop bass-drum sound.' Then I think, 'Why can't I just go repeats noise into a mic and sample it?' It is obvious; you spend all day trying to get a synthesizer to try and create this sound but you can just go repeats noise and you have got it. Then you can send it through some other device after that, and you have got something that sounds absolutely nothing like a voice, but the source was a voice. It is a very interesting process.' In 1993, Songs of Faith and Devotion, again with Flood producing, saw them experimenting with more organic arrangements, based as much on heavily distorted electric guitars and live drums (played by Alan Wilder, whose debut as a studio drummer had come on the Violator track 'Clean') as on synthesizers.Live strings, uilleann pipes and female gospel vocals were other new additions to the band sound. The album debuted at number one in both the UK and the US, only the sixth British act to achieve such a distinction to date.

The first single from the album was the grunge-influenced 'I Feel You'. The gospel influences are most noticeable on the album third single, 'Condemnation'. A symptom of the slow fracturing of the band, interviews given by the band during this period tended to be conducted separately, unlike earlier albums, where the band was interviewed as a group.The Devotional world tour followed, documented by a concert film of the same name. The film was directed by Anton Corbijn, and in 1995 earned the band their first Grammy nomination. The band second live album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live, was released in December 1993.The tour continued into 1994 with the Exotic Tour, which began in February 1994 in South Africa, and ended in April in Mexico. The final leg of the tour, consisting of more North American dates, followed shortly thereafter and ran until July. As a whole, the Devotional Tour is to date the longest and most geographically diverse Depeche Mode tour, spanning fourteen months and 159 individual performances.

Q magazine described the 1993 Devotional Tour as 'The Most Debauched Rock And Roll Tour Ever'.Dave Gahan heroin addiction was increasingly affecting his behaviour, causing him to become more erratic and introverted. Martin Gore experienced seizures, and Andy Fletcher declined to participate in the second half of the Exotic Tour due to 'mental instability'. During that period, he was replaced on stage by Daryl Bamonte, who had worked with the band as a personal assistant for many years.In June 1995, Alan Wilder announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode, explaining:Since joining in 1982, I have continually striven to give total energy, enthusiasm and commitment to the furthering of the group success, and in spite of a consistent imbalance in the distribution of the workload, willingly offered this. Unfortunately, within the group, this level of input never received the respect and acknowledgement that it warrants.He continued to work on his personal project Recoil, releasing a fourth album (Unsound Methods) in 1997.

Following Wilder departure, many were sceptical of whether Depeche Mode would ever record again. Gahan mental state and drug habit became a major source of concern, with a near-fatal overdose at a hotel in Los Angeles. Despite Gahan increasingly severe personal problems, Gore tried repeatedly during 1995 and 1996 to get the band recording again.

However, Gahan would rarely turn up to scheduled sessions, and when he did, it would take weeks to get any vocals recorded; one six-week session at Electric Lady in New York produced just one usable vocal (for 'Sister of Night'), and even that was pieced together from multiple takes.Gore was forced to contemplate breaking the band up and considered releasing the songs he had written as a solo album. In mid-1996, after his near-fatal overdose, Gahan entered a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program to battle his addiction to cocaine and heroin. With Gahan out of rehab in 1996, Depeche Mode held recording sessions with producer Tim Simenon.Preceded by two singles, 'Barrel Of A Gun' and 'It Is No Good,' the album Ultra was released in April 1997. The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK (as well as Germany), and No. The band did not tour in support of the album, with Fletcher quoted as sayingWe are not fit enough. Dave only eight months into his sobriety, and our bodies are telling us to spend time with our families.As part of the promotion for the release of the album, they did perform two short concerts in London and Los Angeles, called 'Ultra Parties.'

Ultra spawned two further singles, 'Home' and 'Useless'.A second singles compilation, The Singles 86–98, was released in 1998, preceded by the new single 'Only When I Lose Myself', which had been recorded during the Ultra sessions. In April 1998, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Cologne to announce The Singles Tour. The tour was the first to feature two backing musicians in place of Alan Wilder — Austrian drummer Christian Eigner and British keyboardist Peter Gordeno. In 2001, Depeche Mode released Exciter, produced by Mark Bell (of techno group LFO). Bell introduced a minimalist, digital sound to much of the album, influenced by IDM and glitch.

'Dream On', 'I Feel Loved', 'Freelove' and 'Goodnight Lovers' were released as singles in 2001 and 2002. Critical response to the album was mixed, with reasonably positive reviews from some magazines (NME, Rolling Stone and LA Weekly), while others (including Q magazine, PopMatters, and Pitchfork) derided it as sounding underproduced, dull and lacklustre.In March 2001, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Valentino Hotel in Hamburg to announce the Exciter Tour.

The tour featured 84 performances for over 1.5 million fans in 24 countries. The concerts held in Paris at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy were filmed and later released in May 2002 as a live DVD entitled One Night in Paris.In October 2002 the band won the first-ever Q magazine 'Innovation Award'.In 2003, Gahan released his first solo album, Paper Monsters, and toured to promote the record. Also released in 2003 was Gore second solo album Counterfeit. Fletcher founded his own record label, Toast Hawaii, specialising in promoting electronic music.A new remix compilation album, Remixes 81–04, was released in 2004, featuring new and unreleased promo mixes of the band singles from 1981 to 2004. A new version of 'Enjoy the Silence,' remixed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, 'Enjoy the Silence 04,' was released as a single and reached No. 7 on the UK charts. In October 2005, the band released their 11th studio album Playing The Angel.

Produced by Ben Hillier, the album peaked at No. 1 in 18 countries and featured the hit single 'Precious'.

This is the first Depeche Mode album to feature lyrics written by Gahan and, consequently, the first album since 1984 Some Great Reward featuring songs not written by Gore. 'Suffer Well' was the first ever post-Clarke Depeche Mode single not to be written by Gore (lyrics by Gahan, music by Philpott/Eigner). The final single from the album was 'John the Revelator,' an uptempo electronic track with a running religious theme, accompanied by 'Lilian,' a lush track that was a hit in many clubs all over the world.To promote Playing The Angel, the band launched Touring The Angel, a concert tour of Europe and North America that began in November 2005 and ran for nine months. During the last two legs of the tour Depeche Mode headlined a number of festivals including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the O2 Wireless Festival.In total, the band played to more than 2.8 million people across 31 countries and the tour was one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed tours of 2005/06. Speaking about the tour, Gahan praised it as 'probably the most enjoyable, rewarding live shows we have ever done. The new material was just waiting to be played live. It took on a life of its own.

With the energy of the crowds, it just came to life.' Two shows at Milan Fila Forum were filmed and edited into a concert film, released on DVD as Touring the Angel: Live In Milan.A 'best-of' compilation was released in November 2006, entitled The Best Of, Volume 1 featuring a new single 'Martyr', an outtake from the Playing the Angel sessions. Later that month Depeche Mode received the MTV Europe Music Award in the Best Group category.In December 2006, iTunes released The Complete Depeche Mode as its fourth ever digital box-set.In August 2007, during promotion for Dave Gahan second solo album, Hourglass, it was announced that Depeche Mode were heading back in studio in early 2008 to work on a new album. In October 2012 during a press conference in Paris, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher announced plans for a new album and a 2013 worldwide tour starting from Tel Aviv and continuing in Europe and North America.

Martin Gore revealed that Flood mixed the album, marking the producer first studio collaboration with the band since 1993 Songs of Faith and Devotion.In December 2012, the band officially announced signing a worldwide deal with Columbia Records and releasing a new album in March 2013. On 24 January 2013, it was confirmed that the album was titled Delta Machine. 'Heaven', the debut single from Delta Machine was released commercially on Friday 1 February 2013 (although not in the UK).The release date in the UK was pushed back to 18 March 2013 (17 March 2013 on iTunes). The physical release still bore the Mute Records logo, even though the band have now severed ties with their long standing label. Andy Fletcher mentioned in an interview this was due to their 'devotion' to the label and with the band insistence.In March, the band announced North American dates to its Delta Machine summer tour, starting 22 August from Detroit and ending 8 October in Phoenix.

In June, other European dates were confirmed for early 2014. The final gig of Delta Machine Tour took place in Moscow (Russia) on 7 March 2014, at Olimpiski venue.That month, Depeche Mode won the award for 'Best International Group – Rock / Pop' at the ECHO Awards in Germany. Also they were nominated at the category 'Album des Jahres (national oder international)' for Delta Machine, but lost against Helene Fischer Farbenspiel.On 8 October 2014, the band announced Depeche Mode Live in Berlin, the new video and audio release filmed and recorded at the O2 World in Berlin, Germany in November 2013 during the Delta Machine Tour. It was released on 17 November 2014 worldwide. Depeche Mode drew its artistic influences from a wide range of artists and scenes, such as Kraftwerk, David Bowie, The Clash, Roxy Music and Brian Eno, Elvis Presley, the Velvet Underground, and blues. Depeche Mode music has mainly been described as synth-pop, new wave, electronic rock, dance-rock and alternative rock. The band also experimented with various other genres throughout its career, including avant-garde, electronica, pop, soul, techno, industrial rock and heavy metal.In their early years, Depeche Mode were considered teen idols, and regularly featured on front covers of magazines such as Smash Hits.

Following the departure of Vince Clarke, their music began to take on a darker and a gothic tone as Martin Gore assumed lead songwriting duties.Gore lyrical artistry has been recognised as encapsulating themes such as sex, religion, and politics, so much so that many labelled the band lyrical and musical themes as dark and bleak. In response, Gore has stated he feels lyrical themes which tackle issues related to solitude and loneliness present more of a realistic character and are a better representation of reality, whereas he finds 'happy songs' fake and unrealistic: 'I have never seen our music as being over-dark. I think that there is always an element of hope in our music.' One of the most successful bands over the past four decades, Depeche Mode have released a total of 14 studio albums, 10 compilation albums, 6 live albums, 8 box sets, 13 video albums, 71 music videos, and 54 singles. The band have sold over 100 million records worldwide.Depeche Mode have had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart, and one US and two UK number-one albums. The band album Songs of Faith and Devotion hit No. 1 in the UK and US simultaneously, making them one of only eleven UK acts to do so.

In addition, all of their studio albums have reached the UK Top 10 and their albums have spent over 210 weeks on the UK Charts.Music critic Sasha Frere-Jones claimed that 'the last serious English influence was Depeche Mode, who seem more and more significant as time passes.' Depeche Mode have applied their celebrity and cultural longevity to help promote and raise funds for several notable charity endeavours. They lent their support to high-profile charities such as MusiCares, Cancer Research UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust.The band has also supported the Small Steps Project, a humanitarian organisation based in the United Kingdom, aiming to assist economically disadvantaged children into education. Since 2010, Depeche Mode have partnered with Swiss watchmaker Hublot to support Charity: Water, aimed at the provision of clean drinking water in developing countries.In 2014, the partnership hosted a gala and fundraiser at the TsUM building in Moscow, raising $1.4 million for the charity.

Review - Amazon.com:The arrival of The Singles demonstrates perfect timing. With the impulse to treat 1980s pop with irony finally dying and cutting-edge American bands such as the Rapture and the Faint directly sourcing Brit synth-pop, this lavish box set now sounds like a key dance-rock primer. Unlike the other major players in the early 1980s British Invasion of America, Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, Roger Taylor, Andy Taylor, and Nick Rhodes weren't afraid to rock.

They rocked hardest on their early singles, as the glossy black box of the first 13 singles, lovingly recreated for CD, proves. The first eight-from the turbo-powered disco of 'Planet Earth' to the synthetic Beatles-influenced pop of 'Is There Something I Should Know?' -work on the tension between the band's mega-pop ambitions and their rudimentary instrumental skills, creating an eerie, erotic desperation. The full compliment of B-sides-particularly a hysterical, uber-youth club stab at David Bowie's 'Fame'-charm with their gung-ho ridiculousness. 'A View to a Kill' may be slick Bond theme, but this set is so evocative of strange pop times that you'll end up with 'Rio' and 'The Wild Boys' on a permanent mind-loop.Garry Mulholland. To help celebrate the reunion of the five original members of Duran Duran, Capitol/EMI decided to box together Duran Duran's first 13 singles, recreating the artwork and exact track line-up's of each vinyl 12-inch single. They have done a remarkable job!

Each single comes in a slim cardboard sleeve, and each cd's artwork (the actual art on the cd) recreates the original record labels that appeared on each vinyl record. Someone has painstankingly worked on finally giving Duran Duran their due: one of the most underrated groups of all time finally has a collection that they can be completely proud of.Past Duran Duran greatest hits collections have been nice, but haven't been as thorough as they should have been. 'Decade' left off the important hit 'New Moon On Monday'; 'Greatest' presented 'Save A Prayer' in a horribly edited version. 'Greatest' also had confusing and uninspired artwork which the band reportedly hates. Both cd's left off important singles 'Meet El Presidente' and 'Do You Believe In Shame?'

- which don't appear in this box set because they were released after 1985.Everything about this singles box set is perfect. The small box that the cd's are housed in easily fits on a cd shelf. The box isn't ill-fitting or cumbersome like a lot of cd box sets. Autocad set all z to 0. The cd's have all been remastered. These songs have never sounded clearer. If you have the much coveted 'Essentials: Night Versions' (which is now out of print) or the import-only 'Strange Behavior' (both cd's are remix collections), you still need this box set. There are a lot of non-album b-sides that have never been released on cd before domestically (there was a 2 cd Japanese import that collected four Duran Duran e.p.'

S that was released well over a decade ago that contained the b-sides here, but that set has long been out of print). If you are any sort of Duran Duran fan at all, you know that their b-sides are always brilliant.The U.S. Edition of the box set is the same exact edition that was released overseas. The artwork that is contained on the 'Is There Something I Should Know?' And 'The Reflex' cd's are the same as the import 12-inch singles (the American artwork was different.)Also included inside the box is a fold-out poster/booklet. One side is a picture of Simon, Roger, Nick, John, and Andy; the other side is the track listing.Here's hoping that Capitol/EMI plans on following up this release with a second box set, starting off with the 'Notorious' singles.Make sure you look out for the reissues of 'Duran Duran' (the first album) and 'Seven And The Ragged Tiger' (with restored album packaging just like the version of 'Rio' that was released last year) coming this fall!

This is a 'Holy Grail' of sorts for diehard Duran Duran fans: a 13-CD collection of the band's singles from 1981-1985, including remixes and B-sides. I've been waiting for ages to have songs like 'Khanada,' 'Like an Angel,' and 'Secret Oktober' on CD - and here they all are, in one glorious package!The box set might have been presented a bit more economically: each CD corresponds to one single, and therefore features only 2 to 4 tracks. (It really helps to have a CD burner so you can compile your favorite songs onto one or two discs). But reproducing the original artwork on each CD sleeve is a really nice touch. This box set appeals as much to the eyes as to the ears; appropriate, given the importance of visuals to Duran's image.And last but not least - the singles!

Sure, they've been compiled before. But presented in this comprehensive package, songs like 'Planet Earth,' 'Hungry Like the Wolf,' 'Rio,' 'New Moon on Monday,' 'The Wild Boys,' and 'A View to a Kill' remove all doubt that Duran Duran was the premier singles band of the 1980s. It's really tiring, listening to the newly mastered CDs and noticing they don't sound as good as even the early mastered CDs.I end up keeping.both. versions, and listen to the original normally. If I want to hear the 'special fatures' that the remasters have, then and only then do I put them on.Looking at the wave forms on these CDs (as with most of the newly remastered CD), you see plenty of clipping. I really wish the record companies would quit this line of thinking that 'louder is better'. It ruins so many great additions to these CDs.'

Duran Duran Albums In Order

The Singles' is a wonderful recreation of all the original singles that Duran Duran put out. I would recommend it highly for anyone who followed them early in their career as I had. Again, I just wish they hadn't compressed the music. Admittedly, it's not as bad as some others I've heard/seen, but there's still no reason for it. For those that only recall 'Hungry Like the Wolf' and all the countless songs Duran Duran had on the radio, one can easily forget how different, unique and innovative a band like Duran really was in the early 1980s. Duran Duran were no doubt the first 'new romantic' or 'new wave' outfit that bands today like the Killers, Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes, The Bravery, Interpol and the like are influenced by/imitating with a great degree of success. (Who said the '80s were never cool?

The joke is on them now!)This box set showcases that early dark, brooding and eerie 'new romantic' sound combined with the masterful pop/rock music Duran was so famous for, the sound that the aforementioned bands are serving up on their albums some 25 years later. The relevance of the Duran sound has been vindicated by the current rush of today's top acts to say Duran Duran was an influence.All of the hits are here and their 'night versions' are as well. Duran were the masters of the remix in the early 1980s, and they would often re-record large portions of each song for their remixes, highlighted by the stellar 'Planet Earth' and 'Wild Boys' remixes, otherwise known as 'night versions' which were played in the clubs.The big prize on this album are the long lost Duran b-sides, songs that are just as good as the songs that were released on the original Duran albums. 'Late Bar', 'Fame', 'Like An Angel', 'Khanada', 'Faster Than Light' and 'Secret Oktober' are excellent tracks worthy of appreciation today. (All singles come in their own sleeves, complete with original artwork.)Some often forget Duran Duran was indeed a talented and instrumentally gifted outfit. The rhythm section of Roger Taylor (drums) and John Taylor (bass) are at long last getting their dues for the true talent they possess.

Duran Duran Hit Singles

Andy Taylor is an underrated guitarist who shines with both his delicate, atmospheric tones and what quickly became more urgent and rocking sounds, and Nick Rhodes does just the same thing, only with keyboards. Finally, Simon LeBon is perhaps the most brash and over the top front man since Mick Jagger, and that fit perfectly into the Duran style that ruled the airwaves and MTV.You like the Killers? You like the rush of 'new wave' influenced music currently underway? This is a great place to start to see where it all began.Highly recommended.Also recommended by Duran Duran for modern day 'new wave' fans: albums like 'Rio', 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger', 'Astronaut' (their excellent 2004 comeback) and 'Duran Duran' (their debut album).