I’ve never been a huge Duran Duran fan by any means. I mean, I’ve spent many a night drunkenly getting down to Girls On Film and Hungry Like The Wolf. Also, A View To A Kill might have been the worst James Bond movie ever until Die Another Day took a Madonna-scented spite shit all over the franchise, but its Duran Duran-helmed theme song was hittin’.
For me though, beyond that Simon Le Bon and co. are largely forgettable. And don’t even get me started on their reprehensible and devoid-of-all-irony cover of Public Enemy‘s 911 Is A Joke.
Forgive me for thinking that they went to their musical grave with the end of the 80s. Apparently not, they’re back in 2015 with a newie:
That’s… not bad. Not bad at all. Not really crazy on Simon Le Bon’s voice or general presence much, but if you’re listening to the heaping loads of pure funk that are permeating this song and thinking that it sounds familiar, it’s because Pressure Off features the funkadelical musical talents of both the seminal Nile Rodgers and the production of Mark Ronson. You may also hear a familiar voice in Janelle Monae working away in the background there.
Like the aforementioned Girls On Film, I could definitely see myself inebriatedly slithering around a dancefloor to this. The more funk in everybody’s lives, the better.
It’s an eclectic mash up of artists that serves as the prologue to Duran Duran’s comeback album of 2015. Hopefully it’s more like this and less like whatever they’ve spent the last 20-odd years doing.