11.

Duran Duran – Rio

I remember loving this album when I was younger, but around ten years ago I started appreciating the album again in a new and different way. Everything about this album, from the songwriting to production and arrangement, is fantastic. John Taylor is one of my favourite bass players of all time, and this album really illustrates why, I once tried learning the bass line to ‘Rio’ and gave up after a while. The ‘Night Version’ extended cuts are for me, some of the best club reworkings of popular music and have been hugely influential in how I rework other peoples music (my reworks for Kindness and Metronomy being examples of this influence).

Despite this album being primarily recognised as a pop record, it’s one that stands up even now.