Retro Spins: Arcadia - So Red The Rose

Call it Arcadia all you want. So Red The Rose just sounds like another Duran Duran album. No surprise, considering it featured three of the five original members, Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor. It was recorded during a break in the band's lineup. While John Taylor and Andy Taylor went off to record as The Power Station, the remaining members kept themselves occupied in this manner.

So Red The Rose isn't a bad album, not by any stretch of the word. In fact, it's kind of enjoyable. However, with that said, it really feels like it could have and should have been the follow up to 1983's Seven And The Ragged Tiger, the last album to feature all five original Duran Duran members until 2004's Astronaut. It's because of this absence of key players, that it seems all the more odd that Arcadia was formed.

Stand out tracks for me on this album were definitely The Promise, Goodbye Is Forever and Election Day. But again, this is probably because of the all to familiar sound they bring with them. I feel like I'm hammering this point into the ground, but it really is the crucial piece here. It just sounds like Duran Duran.

Look, I'm all for band members stretching out and exploring their creativity. However, the point of doing so is to produce something different than what they could have done as a group. Ask Journey. It's their biggest gripe with Steve Perry's solo project, Street Talk (1984). Granted, Arcadia isn't a solo project. It contains the majority of Duran Duran. But again, if that's the case, just make another Duran Duran album instead of forming another group.

Now we're just going around in circles.

Bottom line, album good. Decision to do it under a new name, odd.

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