Duran Duran – Astronaut

Mine looks and plays fine. It’s quiet and no floor noise. I would say I thought the recording was a bit flat and bass shy. Good tracks though

Nowhere is the original year of release listed, 2004, wondering why.

This was a welcome comeback, but ultimately frustrating since Epic put out two of the weakest tracks as singles. The title track, Nice, and the last 5 songs are excellent, but the rest are blah. Had “Nice” been the first single they might have had a hit. As it was, Sunrise bombed at #89 on the pop chart.

This disc is a sight for sore eyes, I'll tell you right now. Two decades have passed since the original line-up of Duran Duran were together and it's been tough to slough through, believe me. There have been some flashes of talent (Notorious, Decade, The Wedding Album and Medazzland) but for every one of those there have been some horrible releases. You know what they are.

Now with their first actual new release since Arena, the boys have given us quite an album to slap into the player. Opener "(Reach up for the ) Sunrise" is so infectious that I'm still singing along and "Need You More!" is even more of an instant classic. "What Happens Tomorrow" is where you really see the abilities of this band shine very brightly. LeBon's vocal work hasn't sounded this good in years.

Astronaut is a space-age romp through the cosmos with Nick Rhode's keyboard prowess hitting home. "Bedroom Toys" is thoroughly hip hop in nature; this band have never denied their love of this style. And it works, damnit!

It's just great to have a guitarist and a drummer back in the band instead of studio goons and has-beens filling their shoes. Andy and Roger do indeed make "Astronaut" a welcome showing for Duran Duran. Together again, these five are poised to take over the world just as they did during their reign in the 80s. A lot of people expressed doubts about the feasibility of a re-united Duran Duran, here's mud in your eye.

Reviewed 2004

Mine was all good. I‘m happy with the cover and the art-sleeves. Pressing is okay, no reason to spend tears 😁 Sounds better than Medazzaland.

The condition this came in was shameful, the inserts were split at the seams (on both inserts), the inserts nearly tore in half due to how much static had built up inside the inserts, it was incredibly tough to pull out (both vinyls). The sleeve came damaged too, having an ugly crease in the corner. Seeing most people had only received side C and D/second LP twice, I'm at least grateful I have the correct LPs, but this is still ridiculous!

Sounds fantastic, very crisp and clear. This repress is long overdue and so thankful to finally have it!

Looks great, nice sound..all white instead of milky clear and one magenta would have been better..great to have on LP

What is with these notorious (pun intended) bad pressings at the moment. Mine came with a misaligned sticker. With one glued on top of it badly on side D. Sounds great but no Gatefold. After my Medazzaland had no first LP the quality control is laughable right?

I opened this over the weekend to discover there were 2 copies of side C and D vinyl with duplicate inner sleeve, I took it back to HMV and they opened another copy which had the same issue. I'm currently waiting on another copy from Amazon, hopefully I get a proper copy with the correct discs and inner sleeves.