This link'll bring you back to Medazzaland ... I mean, the main Duran Duran page ... Medazzaneverland Overall Album Score: 7.5 out of 10 Well, HEY! This is MUCH better than Thank You. (I've since learned that you have to be a Duran Duran fan to appreciate Thank You from some guy on epinions ... so I suppose I'm not a Duran Duran fan!) At any rate, their 1997 follow-up is no reason to get up excitedly from your chair and start shedding your clothing (unless you're like me and do that kind of thing for fun, anyway). But, this is a tasteful, but totally unexciting set of passive pop numbers. And I do mean that they're "passive." The album has a few bolder moments on it, but there's nothing out here that expresses an emotion or feeling ... or too much of anything with such surefire confidence that we saw on Rio or anything. I suppose The Wedding Album was like this, too, except Medazzaland relies quite a bit on echoey techno beats and stuff like that. It's not like this type of music is bad, either. It was as much of a popular 1997 style as much as anything ... and it can be cooler than anything! In a few cases, Duran Duran takes this 'decadent techno' to the Summer Olympics when they decide to give us stuff like "Big Bang Generation" and "Electric Barbarella." Those songs are so cool because they don't just follow a popular trend ... they make it interesting and fun to listen to. The rest of the songs are pretty much just pleasant-to-listen-to. They lack deeply either on melody ... or the creative instrumentation wasn't 'creative' enough for me to like it beyond what I had to. All in all, though, Medazzaland is a pretty okay pop album. It didn't fare exceptionally well at the Billboard Charts, but that's okay. I find it interesting that Duran Duran is an ever-evolving group, and Thank You (the only time when they weren't following the trends) was the only time that they ever sounded completely washed-up. Overall Album Score: 7.5 out of 10 (It's really cool that Duran Duran managed to gain back a lot of the ground they lost when they released Thank You, and this is a pretty good album! It's tasteful and stuff, but it's nothing to get excited over.) Average Song Score: 7.9 (This is hardly perfect or priceless ... but this is a strong collection of decadent 90s pop tunes.) Album Tilt: 7.0 (This type of music tends to bore the heck out of me ... and Duran Duran doesn't really evade that.) Artist Rating: 7.5 (This is the furthest thing from a groundbreaking album. But this is a fairly tasteful excursion into the decadent style of 90s pop.) Track Reviews Medazzaland 8/10 This is a rather good (but totally unexciting) decadent, passive song that doesn't have a melody to speak of. But it has a mesmerizing beat, and the instrumentation is quirky enough for it to be entertaining. Duran Duran proves once again that as long as their treating the conventions with some sort of passion (and not just blindly following them), they can come up with something interesting that most bands could certainly not do so well! Big Bang Generation 9.5/10 GOOD MELODY!!!!! This is where Duran Duran really displays their strength. Even though they follow the current trends and style to the LETTER, they can make their music extremely good if they want to. And I'm pretty sure they wanted to make a good song here. It isn't bold or dynamic almost by definition (so it'll never really compare to "Ordinary World" or "Rio" or anything like that) ... but this is clearly among their better efforts. I dig the atmosphere, love the melody, instrumentation is PERFECT and innovative ... it's 90s pop, but it's *good* 90s pop. Electric Barbarella 9/10 (This must be a nod toward that old Jane Fonda movie where the band got their name from... yep...) This one features a techno beat. I never cared for techno myself. But Duran Duran's keen sense of melody and their determination to never stop making their songs' arranging sound interesting, polished, and perfect make "Electric Barbarella" a delight! It's not perfect, but this is nevertheless another late-career Duran Duran keeper! Out of My Mind 8/10 Whew! This one is on the very *border* of boredom. But it manages to stay out of it! ... That's even though the song doesn't have that great of a melody. The arranging is still good, but it's not as utterly impressive as it were in the previous two songs. Oh well. Just the same, I simply cannot complain that "Out of My Mind" isn't mildly entertaining! And the only thing I like better than being mildly entertain is being *wildly* entertained ... or maybe a peanut butter M&M. Who Do You Think You Are? 7/10 MmmmmmmmmmMmmmmmmmmm! Too conventional, I'd say. It doesn't have that Duran Duran spice that I had been praising. The melody, while it's good enough to keep the song above water, is rather bleak here. Hmmmm. I guess it's still pretty okay. Silva Halo 7/10 This is certainly more interesting than your average pop-band. It's a minimalistic thing ... but it's really kind of stupid, isn't it? ... And not entertaining, really, whatsoever. I'm not going to call it CRAP, though. Be My Icon 8/10 This is okay! It has a nice, loud chorus and stuff. I'm a bit disappointed with the arranging! The second and third tracks on here completely spoiled me, but this one isn't arranged nearly as interestingly. If it were, then this might be a nine. But I like "Be My Icon." It's certainly more of a breath of fresh air compared to "Who Do You Think You Are?" and "Silva Halo." (This goes on for a bit too long, though.) Buried in the Sand 8/10 This one successfully mesmerizes me ... I suppose ... but it can get mind-numbingly boring. I can sit through this easily enough, but I'm not quite convinced that it deserves to exist. (I don't know ... I'm giving it an 8 because I like all of these crazy noises I hear. This is another finely arranged sucker!) Michael You've Got a Lot to Answer For 8.5/10 WHOAH!!!!! They know my name!!!! ... but what on earth do I have a lot to answer for? I once took a geography test, and there were like 35 questions on it, and so I had a lot to answer for then. I'm glad that they decided to name a song after me ... and I'm even more glad that they decided to make it a relatively well written one. It's quiet, peaceful ... the melody is thoughtful ... Yes, I like this one a lot! Is that what I have to answer for? Okay. Midnight Sun 7/10 Dude! A midnight sun?!?!?! That is FREAKY!!! ...Yet another sign of the devastating effects of greenhouse gases and cow farts. This song is interesting, at least. But the melody is rather drab. Otherwise, the rather lovely instrument and arranging is pretty nice and peaceful. If only the melody were better, this might have been a VERY nice song. So Long Suicide 6.5/10 Again, the instrument-choice and the arranging are too tasteful for me to hate this song at all. But it's totally unexciting. Needs better melody!!! Undergoing Treatment 8/10 This is, yet, *ANOTHER* song by me! How freaking cool is that!?!?!?!? ... No wait. This song isn't about me. Never mind. A good way to close the album! The instrumentation is as weird and quirky as they have been at the second and third tracks were. The melody is actually good. The atmosphere is nice and decadent. It ain't the perfect song by far, but it entertains me. It's hardly worse than the stuff on Madonna's Bedtime Stories. If you're not from Medazzaland, then you're not good enough to send me your thoughts and comments about this album here. *NANANANANABOOBOO!!*

All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. Don't stick that finger at me unless you intend to use it!