Arcadia 'Election Day'

Chart Peak: 7

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Simon Le Bon, Roger Taylor and Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran are Arcadia. They had raced to No. 7 by 29th October with 'Election Day' their first single.

A product of the split within Duran Duran that also produced The Power Station, Arcadia were the more obviously related act (so much so that even I noticed) because they had the lead singer. Musically, they seemed closer to Duran territory too, sparing us the ham-fisted attempts and funk and hard rock that the Power Station delivered, concentrating instead on the more electronic sounds of the parent act. Simon le Bon once described their sole album as the most pretentious ever made, which is unlikely to be true, but presumably indicates that they were giving freer reign to ideas that wouldn't have been so welcome in the parent band. However, lacking the time or inclination to listen to the whole thing, I can only say that 'Election Day' itself doesn't sound a lot more pretentious than many Duran Duran songs; presumably it was chosen as lead single for that very reason, to avoid alienating their teenybopper fans. Le Bon sings a load of incomprehensible images through his nose, Rhodes plays lots of overdubbed keyboard parts and Taylor is presumably drumming somewhere in the mix, although he's not in the video. The only surprise is when Grace Jones turns up to deliver a speech towards the end. She's not in the video.

Apparently this song makes little sense even to people who like it, and doesn't seem to have appealed far beyond the Durannies, which arguably makes it a little out of place here.

Available on: So Red The Rose