Whenever I meet fellow '80s music geeks, one of the first things I hear is "Why aren't you more into Duran Duran or Depeche Mode?" It's a fair question -- they were two of the biggest bands of my high school years, and even spawned a movement of teenage girls known as "Durannies," which was definitely a pejorative in the crowd of punks and mods I knew. (I fell into none of these categories; I was known more as "that guy who looks like Howard Jones.") The obvious answer is my penchant for (fun) girl singers, something evidenced by the fact that Blondie and the Pretenders are my two favorite bands, and that I prefer the Cindy and Kate songs to Fred by 100 to 1. But I did have my share of men I adored, like Paul Weller, Richard Butler (Psychedelic Furs) and Chris Isaak, to name a few. And I was an early fan of Duran Duran and Depeche Mode, too. My brother brought home the first two Duran Duran albums after seeing them open for Blondie in 1982, a concert I still have nightmares about missing (even if the concert looked like it was a nightmare!). I was always an album person, but right from the get-go I found myself only interested in the singles. (Couldn't hum a note of "To the Shore," "Careless Memories," "Night Boat," "Sound of Thunder," "Friends of Mine" or "Tel Aviv" if my life depended on it, although I'm fairly certain the latter is an instrumental.) "Rio" took off shortly thereafter, so I heard a lot more of that one. But after "Hungry Like the World" and the titular track, the secondary singles didn't do much for me. (Everyone I know loved "New Religion," but I didn't get it.) By the time "Is There Something I Should Know" came out on the re-released debut album, even their singles stopped exciting me. "The Reflex" and "Union of the Snake" were both pretty awful, although they redeemed themselves a bit with "New Moon on Monday," but then I wasn't too wild about "Wild Boys,"
Depeche Mode were an entirely different case. I loved "Speak and Spell" from beginning to end, and even bought the two-disc reissue a few years ago. But once Vince Clarke left (forming Yaz and later Erasure), I slowly lost interest. Many hardcore fans think the band really came into its own under the leadership of Martin, but with the exception of a few early post-Clarke singles -- like the stellar "See You," which I suspect was Martin trying to mimic him, as well as "Everything Counts" and "Blasphemous Rumors" -- but I hated the increasingly dark sound the band adopted. But unlike Depeche Mode, Duran Duran has still occasionally dazzled me with a new single every so often -- "Skin Trade," "All She Wants Is," "Electric Barbarella" -- none more than the hypnotically moody "Come Undone," from their triumphant "Wedding Album" comeback, which was somehow even better than the brilliant Beatles-esque "Ordinary World." To cut a long story short (quoting another male singer I adore!), I would see Duran Duran in concert today, but would pass on Depeche Mode ... unless Vince has a one-night stand with the boys.
UPDATE: Earlier today, I had accidentally posted "Ordinary World" in the headline and the video while writing about "Come Undone." My apologies for the confusion.
