The idea to review this album began as a comment made by flatmate, who suggested that Rio was “a perfect album”. Not that it’s the best album or the only perfect album, just that it’s perfect. So let’s test that out.
I don’t listen to Duran Duran a lot, and it’s mainly because I’ve never got around to having a proper listen. I’m pretty sure I’ve listened to Rio before, but it’s certainly been a while.
Happily I can say that Rio pretty much is a near perfect album. It has its fair share of hits: its three singles (Hungry Like the Wolf, Save a Prayer, and Rio) were all top 10 hits in the UK, and the album itself reached the top 10 in a number of anglophone countries, including number 2 in New Zealand. The tracks in between are pretty cool too.
The most famous song on Rio is Hungry Like the Wolf. Recently, the YouTube channel 12tone did a really interesting breakdown of the song. It goes into the various compositional and recording techniques that came together to make the song, and since it explains better than I would, I won’t bother. I was introduced to the song (and Duran Duran in general, I suppose) by the DVD extras of the movie Shrek 21. As a kid I always thought the song was kinda goofy, and as it was used for Shrek 2 it really was. It wasn’t until I watched the 12tone video that I really reevaluated and came to love for what it is, an extremely cool song. It’s a bit eighties, and it’s not subtle, but what’s wrong with that?
One of the most interesting tracks on the album for me is the final track The Chauffeur. It’s got a fairly sparse instrumentation, featuring mostly synthesisers and a kind of stilted drum machine part which often sounds extremely 2010s. It originated as a bit of a studio jam and while that’s evident in the finished product, it doesn’t detract from it. It’s cool
As I’ve said, I think Rio deserves to be called “a perfect album”. It’s not perfect, nothing ever is, and to ask that would be too much. But as far as an album can be perfect I think it basically is. 5 stars.
Shrek 2 was my favourite movie as a kid and I often still claim it is my favourite movie. Perhaps it is. The DVD extras contain a “Far Far Away Idol” in which various characters sing in front of animated Simon Cowell. The Big Bad Wolf performs Hungry Like the Wolf. It’s well over a decade since I watched it, but I recall the best performance being Puss in Boots singing These Boots are Made for Walking.