In spooky and slightly unexpected news, Duran Duran have revealed curveball plans to release... a Halloween-themed album.
The 50-minute long new release Danse Macabre is set to drop on October 27, and will feature collaborations with Nile Rodgers and Måneskin’s Victoria De Angelis. It has been described by keyboardist Nick Rhodes as, “an unusual mix of cover versions, reworked Duran Duran songs and several new compositions.”
The British rock band have scored 30 top 40 UK singles since they formed in the late Seventies, along with two Brit Awards, two Grammys, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“The idea was born out of a show we played in Las Vegas on October 31st, 2022,” he said. “We had decided to seize the moment to create a unique, special event…the temptation of using glorious gothic visuals set to a dark soundtrack of horror and humour was simply irresistible.”
“That evening inspired us to explore further and to make an album, using Halloween as the key theme.”
As well as announcing the upcoming release of the album today, Duran Duran has shared the title track and lead single.
DANSE MACABRE OUT NOW! 💀 https://t.co/12alnZ91uG pic.twitter.com/EpHIk19ZkX
— Duran Duran (@duranduran) August 30, 2023
The sixth song on the album, Danse Macabre does manage to conjure up some of Halloween’s spooky atmosphere. A deep horn plays over a beat as the song begins: “Halloween girl seize the fray / Brothers and sisters lead the way / Shackled to the rhythm, your soul is weighed / So you better get down on your knees and pray,” sings Simon Le Bon.
Duran Duran’s 16th album will also include covers of Billie Eilish’s Bury A Friend, Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black and Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Spellbound.
The band was formed in 1978, with Le Bon, John Taylor, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor being the longest-serving and best known members.
Guitarist and singer Andy Taylor, who was a member of the band in the late Seventies and early Eighties, and then again in the Early Noughties, has made some new tracks with the band on Danse Macabre. He had been unable to join Duran Duran when they were inducted into Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame last year because he was undergoing treatment for stage four cancer.
The full tracklist of Danse Macabre is:
1. Nightboat
2. Black Moonlight
3. Love Voudou
4. Bury A Friend (Billie Eilish cover)
5. Supernature
6. Danse Macabre
7. Secret Oktober 31st
8. Ghost Town
9. Paint It Black (Rolling Stones cover)
10. Super Lonely Freak (Rick James cover)
11. Spellbound (Siouxsie and the Banshees cover)
12. Psycho Killer feat. Victoria De Angelis (Talking Heads cover)
13. Confession In The Afterlife
