Notorious
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Album Summary
Notorious was laid down in New York City in 1986, and baby, this was no ordinary recording session — this was Duran Duran standing at a crossroads and choosing to walk straight through the fire. With Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor having departed, the band reconvened as a trio: Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, and John Taylor, three men with something serious to prove. Released on November 18, 1986, through Capitol Records, the album was helmed by the legendary Nile Rodgers — the Chic mastermind whose golden ears and groove-deep instincts pushed the band away from their glossy new wave origins and into a funkier, more sophisticated sonic territory. Rodgers brought in seasoned session musicians to round out the sound, and the result was a production that felt polished, purposeful, and unmistakably rooted in the tradition of great rhythm-and-blues craftsmanship.
Reception
- The title track 'Notorious' proved the trio still had serious commercial firepower, climbing to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and making a strong showing in the UK — a statement record that silenced more than a few doubters.
- The album reached number twelve on the Billboard 200 in the United States and number sixteen on the UK Albums Chart, a respectable and meaningful performance for a band navigating one of the most turbulent periods of their career.
- Critical reception landed somewhere in the middle — those with open ears appreciated the funk-inflected new direction and Rodgers' immaculate production touch, while others felt the raw electricity of the band's earlier work hadn't fully made the journey with them.
Significance
- Notorious stands as one of the most important pivots in Duran Duran's story — the moment a band that could have fractured instead funneled their uncertainty into reinvention, emerging as a leaner, groove-oriented act with a whole new kind of cool.
- Nile Rodgers' production on this album was a genuine cultural bridge, connecting Duran Duran's pop lineage to the deeper, richly textured world of funk and disco craftsmanship that Rodgers had helped define with Chic — and that connection left fingerprints on the band's sound well into the late 1980s.
- With Notorious, Duran Duran began the transition from teen-idol pop phenomenon to a more mature and musically serious act, staking a credible claim for longevity at a moment when the mid-1980s pop landscape was shifting underneath everyone's feet.
Tracklist
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A1 Notorious 106
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A2 American Science 100
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A3 Skin Trade 89
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A4 A Matter Of Feeling 104
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A5 Hold Me 123
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B1 Vertigo (Do The Demolition) 169
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B2 So Misled 108
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B3 Meet El Presidente 119
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B4 Winter Marches On 158
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B5 Proposition 100
Artist Details
Duran Duran burst onto the scene out of Birmingham, England in 1978, blending the sleek energy of new wave with the pulsating groove of funk and post-punk to create a sound so irresistible it practically demanded to be played loud. These five sharp-dressed young men — Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Roger Taylor, and Andy Taylor — became the very heartbeat of the early MTV era, their cinematic music videos and glamorous style making them icons of the New Romantic movement and pinup gods for a generation of devoted fans. Their influence on pop, rock, and the visual language of music itself runs deep, cementing their legacy as one of the defining acts of the 1980s and beyond.
