The Music
While the albums Duran Duran and Rio were seen by many as masterpieces from start to finish, the sheen was starting to wear thin on Seven and the Ragged Tiger. In the documentary film Extraordinary World, filmed a decade later, Rhodes described the sound as "barely controlled hysteria, scratching beneath the surface".
"Restores danger and menace to a band that was veering dangerously close to the insipid." (Melody Maker)
"Pathetic, useless, no good. It's pretentious, pompous and possibly the first chapter in their decline." (Record Mirror)
"It's apparent that Seven and the Ragged Tiger's content has the band moving ever so slightly into a dance club arena, with the songs leaning more toward their ability to produce a sexier sound through electronics and instrumentation than through a firm lyrical and musical partnership. Even the unreleased tracks trade Duran Duran's handsome edginess for a shinier sound, heard mainly on "I Take the Dice" and "Cracks in the Pavement." It's here that Le Bon and Taylor's personalities begins to get overshadowed by the demand to produce a more synth-snazzy and fashionable style of music." (Mike DeGagne, Allmusic Review: Seven and the Ragged Tiger)
The variety in musical style was expanded upon in the members' side projects during the band's ensuing hiatus. Le Bon and Rhodes focused on the atmospheric, layered sound found in "Tiger Tiger" in their project, Arcadia, while John and Andy Taylor joined with Robert Palmer and members of Chic to create Power Station, built around the rock sound seen developing in "Of Crime and Passion".
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Famous quotes containing the word music:
“Good-by, my book! Like mortal eyes, imagined ones must close some day. Onegin from his knees will rise—but his creator strolls away. And yet the ear cannot right now part with the music and allow the tale to fade; the chords of fate itself continue to vibrate; and no obstruction for the sage exists where I have put The End: the shadows of my world extend beyond the skyline of the page, blue as tomorrow’s morning haze—nor does this terminate the phrase.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Did the kiss of Mother Mary
Put that music in her face?
Yet she goes with footstep wary,
Full of earth’s old timid grace.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)