Seven and the Ragged Tiger

This morning I was listening to Seven and the Ragged Tiger, Duran Duran’s third album. This is a unique combination of insane popularity mixed with the digital age. As I’ve referenced here before, 1982 was the last year for analog, and by that I mean exclusively analog. The digital synths took over instantly in ’83, and you can hear it here. Also, you can hear a lot of sampling. They could afford a Synclavier or something like it. That’s why “The Reflex” sounds so ridiculous. I don’t even know how you do a riff like that. It’s like someone fell over and hit the keyboard and they kept it. I think with all that fame and all that whatever-it-was, the songs stopped coming. That’s why Notorious, a few years later, was such a relief, knowing that they could still do it. They’ve never had insane deep cuts after the first record, and there certainly aren’t many on Seven and the Ragged Tiger, but I would put “Union of the Snake” up against any song of the period. “New Moon on Monday” is so…