“We were down to the four of us again, which meant using a lot of drum machines!” Rhodes said. Drummer Sterling Campbell, who had played on Liberty, was no longer in the band, which also affected the album’s sound. The Duran Duran lineup for the Wedding Album included Rhodes, Le Bon, Cuccurullo, and bassist John Taylor. Bring her out and let’s see what you got.'” I think at one point, Nick said, ‘Listen, unleash the diva. My initial idea for the female vocal was quite soft and breathy and sexy. “Come Undone” also benefitted from backing vocals by Tessa Niles, who told Rolling Stone in 2020 that she recalled session co-producers Rhodes and Cuccurullo were “asking me to jump through various vocal hoops and try different things on the chorus and try it in different ways.
Jones recalled the song came together quickly in just a few days and was based on a sinewy riff and drum loop.
The agony (and ecstasy) of romance crops up several times as a theme, although singer Simon Le Bon wrote the lovely, vulnerable lyrics for the trip-hop-influenced “Come Undone,” another big hit from the album, for his wife, Yasmin. The lush first single “Ordinary World” was already a massive hit by the time the Wedding Album arrived in stores, while a dreamy cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale” added introspection and “Breath After Breath” is a beautiful collaboration with Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento. The slinky “UMF” is a Prince-like funk and R&B number “Drowning Man” drew from the sounds and textures of the underground rave scene “None of the Above” was an upbeat contemporary pop song with nimble guitar work and “Love Voodoo” was a sleek, languid electro seduction.ĭuran Duran paired these moments with songs aligned with another of their strengths: introspective ballads. The songs sounded strikingly modern without losing the essence of what makes Duran Duran great: danceable grooves, pop hooks and well-crafted songs. Watch Duran Duran's 'Ordinary World' Video “I would say trusting each other, being able to work together in that room with one mic in the middle, all of us wearing headphones, clapping, singing, whatever - it was just so brilliant.” “That’s basically where the Wedding Album started, right there,” John Jones, who co-produced the album with Duran Duran, told Forbes in 2023. The band settled in at guitarist Warren Cuccurullo’s home studio, Privacy, and wrote songs every day.
That approach extended to the Wedding Album’s recording locale. We weren't about to make a grunge or techno album, but we had our songwriting. “We had grunge, techno and rave culture, which left us in a place where we felt we had to make ourselves relevant to the times. “At the end of the '80s, music changed considerably,” Rhodes said. Rhodes was also acutely aware of how much music had changed since Duran Duran had broken through and that the band needed to evolve if it wanted to stay relevant.
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