All You Need Is Now

All You Need Is Now
Studio album by Duran Duran
Released	21 December 2010 (2010-12-21)
Recorded	February–August 2010
Studio	Sphere Studios, London
Genre	New wave, pop rock
Length	56:44
Label	Tapemodern S-Curve (US/Canada)
Producer	Mark Ronson and Duran Duran
Duran Duran chronology
Live at Hammersmith '82! (2009) All You Need Is Now (2010) Paper Gods (2015)
Singles from All You Need Is Now
"All You Need Is Now" Released: 8 December 2010 "Girl Panic!" Released: 16 April 2011 "Leave a Light On" Released: 2011 (cancelled)

All You Need Is Now is the thirteenth studio album by the British rock band Duran Duran. Produced by Mark Ronson, a truncated version of the album was released as a download on 21 December 2010. It is the band's first album not released by a major record label; it appeared on the band's own label, Tapemodern in the UK. A physical package was released on 21 March 2011 in Europe on the Tape Modern label (distributed by Edel^[1]), and on 22 March 2011 in the USA and Canada on S-Curve Records (distributed by Universal),^[2] coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the band's first release.

The album first debuted at No. 119 on Billboard 200 on its initial December 2010 release,^[3] with 15,000 copies sold.^[4] It reached with No. 29 on its full March 2011 release.^[5] The album has sold 76,000 copies in the US as of August 2015.^[4] Duran Duran promoted the album through the All You Need Is Now Tour.^[6][7]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMediaNY	[8]
AllMusic	[9]
The A.V. Club	B[10]
BBC Music	(Very Positive)[11]
The Boston Globe	(favorable)[12]
The Daily Mail	[13]
The Daily Telegraph	[14]
The Guardian	[15]
musicOMH	[16]
NME	(7/10)[17]
PopMatters	[18]
Prefix Magazine	(8/10)[19]
Rolling Stone	[20]
USA Today	[21]

All You Need Is Now currently holds a score of 74 out of 100 on Metacritic, certifying generally favourable reviews.^[22] Crispin Kott of PopMatters wrote "it's the best album Duran Duran has released since Rio," giving the album 9 out of 10.^[18] Rolling Stone gave the album 3.5 out of 5 and stated that "Duran's Mark Ronson-produced 13th disc is a return to roots for a band that's all implants – which is part of the album's charm."^[20] Sarah Rodman from The Boston Globe praised the album and said "Simon LeBon’s still sturdy voice soars over coolly funky backdrops and the grooves are some of the group’s most urgent in years."^[12] In the issue March 2011, Mojo gave the album 4 out of 5 (means "Brilliant") and stated "Take Roxy Music, add Kraftwerk, and sprinkle on some Chic, and the result is Duran Duran".

Singles

• "All You Need Is Now" was the first single released from the album. It was initially released on iTunes on 8 December 2010 as a free download. The music video is directed by Nick Egan. Several song remixes were published as album bonus tracks. Because it was released as a free download, the single was considered chart ineligible on sales charts, but did chart on radio airplay charts. The song peaked at No. 38 on Billboard Adult Pop Songs Chart.^[23]
• The second single is "Girl Panic!" It was released as a limited 7" single for Record Store Day 2011 (16 April 2011) with a remix by David Lynch.^[24] The music video was released on 8 November 2011 and was directed by Jonas Åkerlund with appearances by Naomi Campbell, Eva Herzigova, Cindy Crawford, Helena Christensen, and Yasmin Le Bon portraying Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Roger Taylor, and Dominic Brown, respectively.^[25]
• "Leave a Light On" was released as a 1-track promo only single in the UK. It was officially released for the British market after that BBC Radio 2 apparently refused to play the intended single "Girl Panic!" on the verge of the (later cancelled) UK leg in their new world tour.^[26] The song peaked at No. 31 on Billboard Adult Pop Songs Chart.^[23]

Track listing

Note: "Mediterranea", and live versions of previous band hits "(Reach Up For The) Sunrise" and "Ordinary World" were released in the European only iTunes release EP From Mediterranea with Love on 23 December 2010.

John Taylor mentioned in his experience writing "The Man Who Stole A Leopard" that Owen Pallett had written 2 instrumental tracks based on the album, that eventually proved to be "A Diamond in the Mind" and "Return to Now".

Also according to John Taylor, producer Matthew Hager worked on tracks for the March 2011 extended release of the album.^[27] Some of these songs are "Networker Nation", published as bonus track, and "Early Summer Nerves" and "Too Close to the Sun", appearing only on the exclusive limited Best Buy edition.

According to Nick Rhodes, "This Lost Weekend" is "a slow song" sounding "like Motown", and it is "nothing like anything on the album". Although it did not make it onto the final track list, it was released on the vinyl DeLuxe collector's edition of the album.^[28] It was also later released in Japan on the 2 disc CD version of "All You Need Is Now". The Japanese album was released as a stand alone album and as part of a 6 disc combo along with the live concert film "A Diamond in the Mind" on Blu-ray and DVD video and 2 disc live album, with the 2 disc "All You Need Is Now" completing the package.

The Best Buy DeLuxe edition also includes a bonus DVD featuring seven videos: "The making of All You Need Is Now", "All you need is...Mark Ronson", "The art of Clunie Reid", "On the set of the photo shoot", "All You Need Is Now official music video", "Behind the scenes at the video shoot", and "Track by track – the band discuss the creative process".

Personnel

• Simon Le Bon – vocals
• John Taylor – bass guitars
• Nick Rhodes – keyboards
• Roger Taylor – drums

with:

• Dominic Brown – guitars
• Simon Willescroft – saxophone
• Nina Hossain – vocals, spoken words (track 2, 7)
• Anna Ross – backing vocals (track 3)
• Jamie Walton – cello (tracks 3, 9)
• Mark Ronson – guitar (additional chorus guitar) (track 4)
• Ana Matronic – vocals, rap (track 5)
• Tawiah – backing vocals (track 5)
• Kelis – vocals (track 8)
• Owen Pallett – string arrangements, conductor (track 7)
• The St. Kitts String Octet – strings (track 7)

Production

• Produced by Mark Ronson
• Mixed by Mark 'Spike' Stent, assisted by Matty Green
• Mastered by Ted Jensen

Writing

All songs written by Duran Duran with:

• Dominic Brown (tracks 1–7, 9–13)
• Mark Ronson (tracks 1, 5, 6)
• Ana Matronic (track 5)
• Nick Hodgson (track 11)

Charts

References