The droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart.

When such things were not so easily acquired via the internet, one of my prized possessions was Duran Duran's Carnival EP, featuring club mixes of tracks from both their eponymous debut and Rio. I found it, in all paces, in a record store in Rockland, Maine. That was 1983. I was starting my own private disco.

This past summer I had an argument with a teenager about which Duran Duran albums are the best. We were both at a disadvantage, as she was much more interested in their latest albums, of which I am only marginally familiar, and which I have never heard. She insists Red Carpet Massacre and All You Need Is Now are their two best albums. The expert on such matters remains my ex-wife, who says the girl is not wrong.

Duran Duran - Rio (1982)
Rio
My Own Way
Lonely In Your Nightmare
Hungry Like the Wolf
Hold Back the Rain
New Religion
Last Chance on the Stairway
Save A Prayer
The Chauffeur (165 bpm)

My favorite DD album will remain Rio. Maybe I love this album. Maybe I love the person I was when I first heard this album. No, that's not it, I hated the person I was when I first heard this album. I just love this album. In describing it to my teenage DD fandom opposite (and the other people under thirty I was sitting with) listening to Rio all the way through is like attending the greatest party of your life just before midnight, then throughout the early morning.

Rio is arriving. Hungry Like the Wolf is dancing at 1 AM.

New Religion is making out with someone unexpected in the toilet.

Last Chance on a Stairway is, well, what that song is about.

Save a Prayer is the dawn, The Chauffeur cuts either way whether you are driving home alone or you aren't.

Temperature: 68°
Distance: 5 miles
Duration: 42 minutes, exactly.
Knee bends: 20
Weight: 174.5 lbs.

Huhn. Rounding the fourth mile I began to weary, feeling something like hunger in my abdomen. First time running five miles in the clown shoes. The final drive, however, I was flat-out amazing.

Not actually a dude.