Shamir is back at it again with another cover song, this time choosing to lend his skills to Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran. His incredible falsetto makes for a surprisingly soothing cover, turning the classic 80s pop-banger into a slowed-down rendition saturated by Shamir’s dulcet tones and guitar strummed lazily in the background.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bnvxqHl7_M&w=560&h=315]
It sounds like the kind of song you’d dance to slowly at a prom, or song played at the end of an especially dramatic O.C episode. It’s his second cover in a month, choosing to lend his vocals to a performance of Jewel’s Who Will Save Your Soul.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOg5VxrRTi0&w=420&h=315]
Shamir has had a stratospheric rise to prominence lately, bursting onto the scene in 2014 with If It Wasn’t True, demonstrating his uncanny knack for giving pop, rap and R&B a fresh sound. His unique voice also earned him a place among some of the most individual artists to emerge in a long time.
Last month, Duran Duran announced their tour for later album Paper Gods, with Shamir in tow to support eight of their shows. The Vegas native will be down under soon for a performance at Laneway Festival and a pair of special sideshows:
Thursday 4 February: Howler, Melbourne
Tickets
Tuesday 9 February: Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Tickets
Image: The Guardian
Duran Duran has just released their new single Last Night in the City featuring Kiesza, and it’s time like these that one wonders if Duran Duran know how to spell the word SELLOUT. Last Night is, by all counts, a thoroughly disappointing effort from both band and featured singer. It’s almost as if they had actively attempted to pigeon-hole themselves into a framework of generic pop, because this is as generic as it gets.
An all-too-familiar “four on the floor” beat underscores some decidedly mediocre lyrics: “Living like it’s our last night… like there’s no tomorrow,” sings Simon le Bon, but he might as well have been replaced by Ke$ha. It’s a throwaway performance from all, including Kiesza, whose powerhouse vocals are clichéd and awfully derivative. Utilising her upcoming prowess as a featured artist is perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the track, especially when compared to her own solo bangers like the grimy Hideaway.
It’s not the worst song of 2015 – not by a long shot (especially not when Pretty Girls is still fresh on everyone’s collective memory) – but it’s simply bland, and an unwanted reminder of Duran Duran’s continued attempts to produce relevant music, like an ageing father who wants to be ~down with the kids~. Last Night in the City sounds like a checklist of mainstream pop trends, down to the brass production near the end of the song echoing recent hits like Uptown Funk.
Really, it’s just an unfortunate choice from Duran Duran. Excuse us while we revisit their earlier work and bask in their former glory.
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.