Duran Duran The Wedding Album

Duran Duran came back out of nowhere in early 1993 with a new album and a huge hit, "Ordinary World." The group sounds more relaxed and mature than it did during their glory days, but not all that much has changed; instead of personifying the days of early-'80s synthesized dance-pop, the music is smooth dance pop for the '90s. Taken on its own terms, Duran Duran (The Wedding Album) works every bit as well as Duran Duran, Rio, or Seven and the Ragged Tiger. "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone" are wonderful pop singles that sit between some passable album tracks and the occasional embarrassment, namely the wretched cover of the Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale." In other words, Duran Duran are back and as good as they ever were.

Twenty years since their pop music debut, Duran Duran issued another greatest-hits collection. As if 1989's Decade weren't stellar enough, this select package was much more solid. Greatest showcased the band's early days of glam rock décor and new romanticism to the alluring sophistication Duran Duran exuded throughout the '90s. The typical synth-powered pop hits are included – "Girls on Film," "Rio," "A View to a Kill" – as well as the signature ballads – "Save a Prayer" – but it might also receive criticism due to its chronological disarray. Still, that gives no reason to fret, for other goodies can be found throughout. The much-neglected "New Moon on Monday" is featured, as well as the band's mature eclecticism of such songs from the self-titled Wedding Album – "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone." The band's experimentation with new millennium electronica found on "Electric Barbarella" again refocuses on Simon LeBon as the center of the band.

Good value compilation for anyone who remembers this decade, very few duff tracks, a good varied selection.

Without a doubt, The Cure is one of the most essentials bands from the 80s with an iconic image that is on pair with superstars of that time such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, Duran Duran and Boy George. Surging as part of the post punk and dark-rock movement, The Cure and especially their leader, Robert Smith, had the cunning ability to create -within their large catalog- multiple hit songs that have become absolute pop classics, without compromising its credibility. The Many Faces Of The Cure showcases the parallel paths of the band members, some of Robert Smith collaborations with other artists, the mostly unknown post-Cure projects by the band’s drummer / keyboardist Lol Tolhurst and by bassist Simon Gallup and of course, their songs, both performed by the band itself and by a large number of artists who have respectfully created fantastic new versions.

Now That’s What I Call the 1990s focuses on the decade’s second half, splitting its time between pop songs and the alternative music that followed in grunge’s footsteps. Pearl Jam and other hard-edged bands are absent from this compilation; instead, slicker groups like Live (“I Alone”) and Collective Soul (“Shine”) represent the wave of mainstream rock that swept through the Clinton era, with Everclear (“Father of Mine”) and Sublime (“What I Got”) thrown in for good measure. Des’ree’s “You Gotta Be” and New Radicals’ “You Get What You Give” help anchor the album’s pop side, while the inclusion of Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be” is a reminder that the decade also spawned many an omnipresent wedding song. Ignoring grunge, Euro-dance, and teen pop makes this a narrow-minded compilation, but for those who like the aforementioned songs, Now That's What I Call the 1990s is an easy way to get them all in one place.