Duran Duran - Duran Duran (The Wedding Album) [2LP]

Duran Duran's 1993 self-titled album, known to every fan as The Wedding Album, returns here as a 2LP set, its moody comeback songs spread across four sides.

The nickname comes from the cover, which features photographs from the band members' parents' weddings. The record arrived after a commercially difficult stretch, with Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and John Taylor working as a four-piece alongside guitarist Warren Cuccurullo. With producer John Jones, they built the songs from rawer demo takes and found a more grown-up, reflective voice.

That voice belongs above all to "Ordinary World," a soaring ballad about loss and carrying on, and to the slinky, trip-hop-tinged "Come Undone," both of which put them back on radios on both sides of the Atlantic. "Too Much Information" opens the album with a jab at the media machine, and a cover of The Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale" shows off their art-rock roots.

The album balances glossy pop craft with darker, more textured production, from shimmering guitars to subtle electronic layers, and it holds together as one of their most cohesive full-lengths.

For collectors filling out the Duran Duran shelf, this double vinyl edition is a welcome return for a record that proved they had far more to say after the 1980s.