I love 1982 ..... sort of

Regular readers will have noticed, perhaps with some disappointment, that LiM hasn't bothered to continue the tradtional 30th anniversary "I Love.." series as we did with 1980 and 1981. Possibly because as a matter of fact we don't love it much, or at least not as much as the previous 2 or 3 years, musically speaking.
That said, there was still some great new pop music being made and sold albeit a kind of 'second'wave' of new music with a bit more shine to it, thus lacking the gritty appeal of earlier post-punk/new wave tunes.

Duran Duran were a typical example - the short-lived "new romantic" (sic.) trend with the band and its music, influenced by both Bowie and Oxfam alike, developed into the smoother, smarter version of the Birmingham band, which would in fact bring them out of the clubs and into the big wide world. Their second album Rio was released thirty tears ago this month.
The transient single My Own Way at the turn of the year was a logical progression from their 1981 debut although Girls On Film from that album had already shown the way ahead. The 80s were going to be sexy. The first new single from '82, Hungry Like the Wolf, mixed pop-friendly guitar riffs, soft electronics and of course the catchy vocal lines making it a worthy figurehead for the album. The seminal Save a Prayer released some weeks later would take us nicely through the warmer months, thank you, while the album's title track would serve both as summer holiday soundtrack and memory-jerker for the chillier months ahead.
Whatever you think of Duran Duran there's no doubting the fact that they were very much an emblem of their time - the "who gives a damn" attitude of pop against a backdrop of rampant Thatcherism, the Falklands War and a brand new Princess for the People, perhaps unsurprisingly a "Durannie" herself.