Albums of Note: "Rio" by Duran Duran

Today, the British dance pop group Duran Duran is synonymous with the sleek, fashion-obsessed music scene of the 1980's, but the band came very close to falling apart at its most crucial moment. The 1982 album Rio eventually went double platinum by the time it was reissued in America and grabbed the #1 spot in Australia, both major events that wouldn't have been possible without a real eye for innovation.

Rio is Duran Duran's second album, coming out a year after their self-titled debut. At the time they were relatively unknown outside England. Their popular single "Girls On Film" got pretty frequent rotation on MTV, though it was heavily edited for content. The fledgling cable station hadn't really blossomed into the career-making cultural behemoth it would be for most of the decade and the better part of the next, so Duran Duran didn't initially aim for a lot of TV exposure. Their first music videos were intended more for trendy night clubs that incorporated video components for certain songs. Thus the much longer, much more bass-heavy and certainly much more risque version of the the "Girls on Film" music video (NSFW). The band started out with a decidedly discotheque marketing plan.

This would change with Rio. The album did well enough in the UK but its initial Stateside release nearly tanked. It was only after a number of remastered, remixed tracks produced by legendary studio man David Kershenbaum and a few high-end music videos to accompany them that Duran Duran hit it big in the American market. These music videos were some of the first to ever be treated like short films rather than DIY art projects on VHS. They were shot on 35mm film and shot on location in exotic places like Sri Lanka. These expensive promotional tools proved indispensable to Duran Duran's international success.

But taken away from the innovations of its time, how does Rio stand up? Perhaps better than it did back in 1982. It was difficult back then to take Duran Duran on their own merits. They dove head-first into the fashion component of pop, contracting couture designers to shape their image and nearly killing their guitarist with tropical diseases just so they could shoot their video for "Hungry Like the Wolf" in a jungle. They were signed to EMI Records, long-time home of The Beatles, which automatically created a tabloid frenzy and ultimately distracted from their talent. It also didn't help that the label-crazy world of music journalism was quick to dub Duran Duran as another New Romantics band, which never quite fit and also had damn near nothing to do with the music itself.

Taken wholly on its musical merits, Rio is really a perfect pop record. At just nine tracks long, it's a fast but thoroughly enjoyable ride that demonstrates just how well Duran Duran mixed their rock influences with their understanding of synthesized sounds. The funky bass lines, razor-sharp guitar riffs and non-intrusive keyboard melodies are catchy as all get-out and it's still pretty impressive that Simon Le Bon makes sounding like he's singing into a tin can feel innovative. Rio is one of the best albums of the 1980's and perhaps the artistic pinnacle of Duran Duran's career.