I bought Duran Durans 'comeback' albumS last week, 'Astronaut' (2004) and 'Red Carpet Massacre' (2007), because I grw up listening to their music at home (one of the bhiggest acts of the 1980s)... And I really like how trhey sound so different!! 'The Astronaut' is mainly produced by Nile Rodgers and Dallas Austin, and the result is a quite catchy pop-funk album, ... "The Red Carpet Massacre' is produced mainly by Timbaland and has more of an electro pop vide which is reminiscent of their 1rst two albums IMHO, just usind 'updated' sounds...
My personal preference goes to 'Red Carpet Massacre' (though I've heard those Timbaland programming patterns/synth sounds too much), but the melodies and the arrangements are way catchier... 'Nite Runner', andthe diamond 'The Valley'

So which album do you prefer? "Astronaut" or "Red Carpet Massacre

I thought I'd like Astronaut better, but I ended up listening to Red Carpet more. I liked the lead single from Astronaut, but the follow up failed. Red Carpet has some catchy stuff on it.

I like the feel of "Astronaut" better than "Red", im not into updated sounds on bands that were orinators of sounds. The problem i have with Tim is this record came at a time when he was doing everyones records and honestly i swear i heard alot of the beats on other tracks for other artists, but overall i didnt think "red" was a bad record, to me Duran has never had a bad record, but they also have never had an amazing record, outside of "Rio" to me, they pretty much will also get u a 70-75% record. My other issue with "red" was it really eliminated the band from the record on most tracks, which is why Andy left again. The record that Duran is doing now is more of "what people want" from us is what John Taylor said, he said it really harks back to "rio's" sound and song structures, plus they are now off Sony, so thats a positive thing.

lastdecember said:

Thankfully Timbaland was only on four tracks.

It's pretty amazing that they had recorded 14 songs, but rewrote the album after Andy Taylor left, and brought in Timbaland to help with the reworking of the album. Taylor left because of arguing with Nick and Simon. It was a bit worse because Andy had just lost his father, and was also eventually diagnosed with clinical depression. He also blames management for not getting him a working visa for the United States. The rest of the band expected him to just show up anyway once they had called Timbaland in, but Andy couldn't. He kind of just cut himself off from it all. He never emailed or returned phone calls. They continued to record without him. And Red Carpet is what we have from that.

Astronaut sounded like the Duran Duran that I've always loved, coupled with the reunion, it was just a magical release for a long-time fan. I never fully accepted what they were trying to do with Red Carpet Massacre as a whole. I thought Astronaut was much stronger lyrically and the mood of it, altho there are a few tracks that I'll play from RCM: Skin Divers, Falling Down, The Valley, Nite Runner, and Tempted (when I heard it live in concert).

The Valley is a classic track imo. RCM must be bought only to own that song.

Both are really strong, but Astronaut has a more "classic" DD sound and Andy Taylor's guitar sounds fresh (even for a 00s rock album), but RCM is the better album; surely it will be dated in ten years, and the Timberlake duets are disposable, but the album is full of future classics: The Valley, Falling Down, Zoom In, She's Too Much, etc.

Red Carpet Massacre is better. I like Astronaut, but RCM is my favorite DD album since the '80s.

lastdecember said:

IMO, their debut is an amazing record. It's not quite on the level of Rio, but it's close. I enjoy every song on both.