Cheap Big Thing (Music) (Duran Duran) Price

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Customer Reviews of Big Thing

A pleasantly surprising Duran album
Love them or hate them, Duran Duran haven't recorded two albums that sound alike. This one saw them trying to go 'mature' and get accepted by others than young girlies and hard core fans like me. The weird interludes and the sudden stop of the last song, the guitar-screeching instrumental 'Lake Shore Driving', certainly add a strange edge to the album. But the band can't hide their flair for writing catchy, danceable tunes. 'I Don't Want Your Love' with its pumping drum and bass tracks is extremely infectuous, and the moody 'Too Late Marlene' and 'Do You Believe In Shame?' are classic, melodic Duran Duran songs. The slower ones like 'The Edge of America', 'Land' and the oddly beautiful 'Palomino' reveal a more atmospheric and dreamy side of the band. On the latter Nick Rhodes creates some intriguing soundscapes on his beloved electronics. An uneven but daring effort from a band that never sticks to one formula, and deservedly it wasn't the commercial disaster that many would have predicted.

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Duran Duran's Most Overlooked Album
"Big Thing" is the second Duran Duran album since Roger and Andy Taylor left the lineup, and it's also the group's first flop. While it spawned the Top Ten "I Don't Want Your Love" and the lesser hit "All She Wants Is," this album was cooly received by the public, who didn't find it as accessible as "Rio" or "Seven and the Ragged Tiger." But you have to at least give Simon, Nick and John credit for being experimental, as they come up with some really good material on "Big Thing." "Too Late Marlene" is a sorely overlooked album cut, while the compelling tribute to Andy Warhol "Do You Believe in Shame" was virtually ignored by all but the group's diehard fans. And "Palomino" is a straight-up goregous ballad. But the crowning moment is "The Edge of America" which leads up to the disc's closer, "Lake Shore Driving." Simon was particularly disappointed with the lackluster sales of this record, but it's not too late to visit this underrated album which proves that Duran Duran were much more than a bunch of photogenic Brits who made flashy videos.

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Some classics here and there
The song Big Thing sounds very dirty and I wonder if it wasn't written in hopes of reliving another dirty sounding song The Reflex. Fun to listen to though. And I do see a non-dirty, though exploitative, message to it so it seems to be a double entendre. I Don't Want Your Love is one of their hits and it's pretty good, though nothing special. All She Wants Is has a great chorus (it's just "All She Wants Is" repeated over and over again but it works very well for the song, I believe). The verses are weird. Sounds dirty too. And the video for that one, wow. The song Drug is just bad. It's extremely crass, which is the point, but still. I don't like listening to it and it is pretty much the only negative thing on the album. Do You Believe In Shame? is so beautiful and one of their best songs dedicated to three of their friends who passed away. It has some of the most poignant lyrics in it I believe. I also got hooked on Edge of America (which is a rather pessimistic song, if you consider the lyrics "If you're tired of searching, this is where it ends, there's nothing left to lose, nothing to protest, learn to love your anger now, anger here is all you possess, welcome to the edge" pessimistic) which leads right into Lake Shore Driving. Very interesting transition. So I'm unsure if it's basically one song disguised as two or what. But it wouldn't be Duran Duran without complete and utter confusion. Palomino is beautiful too, though the chorus is repeated one too many times if you want my honest opinion. But the music is so pretty that you never want the chorus to end anyway. It's kind of the same with Too Late, Marlene which repeats "Too Late, too late, too late, Marlene (It's too late)" for a full minute or so. Once again, I think the band just didn't want that chorus to ever end, it's so cool.
And I've conspicuously left the interludes and Land out. Nothing to say on those. Well, actually, I really do like Land. It has beautiful lyrics though the tune is kind of annoying in places. It took me a little while to get into it. It's one of those songs you have to give a shot because perhaps you won't like it on first hearing it. As for the interludes, they are very short and I don't think they serve much purpose but they don't detract from the album. Great album for fans, I believe.