On Halloween night 2022, Duran Duran donned a variety of horror movie-esque costumes and performed a very special concert in Las Vegas. The setlist highlighted a selection of their spookiest songs—"Hungry Like the Wolf," "Union of the Snake" and "Shadows on Your Side"—and a bevy of darker covers. From that night sprang the hair-raising studio album Danse Macabre, a delightfully frightful celebration of the band's influences and history encompassing cover songs, choice remakes, and three originals.Most notably, Danse Macabre includes contributions from former guitarists Andy Taylor and Warren Cuccurullo as well as long-time collaborator Nile Rodgers. One of the album's highlights, the slick disco-funk throwback "Black Moonlight," even features guitar from both Taylor and Rodgers; the collision of their individual styles crackles like dynamite. Taylor also contributes majestic guitar to two other remakes of Duran originals: a doom-laden update of 1981's "Nightboat" and a gorgeous, languid version of the beloved "Union of the Snake" b-side "Secret Oktober." The latter, now called "Secret Oktober 31st," weaves ominous sound effects (an uneasy music box, creepy chimes) into the song's signature haunting vocals and gouging bass; the end result sounds like something beamed straight out of a cobweb-covered haunted mansion. Cuccurullo, meanwhile, adds Big Thing-esque guitar stabs on the title track and soul-funk riffing on "Love Voudou," the latter a slinky, string-augmented remake of 1993's "Love Voodoo." Covers-wise, Danse Macabre also sounds inspired, led by a propulsive take on Siouxsie and the Banshees’ gothic howl "Spellbound" (also a highlight of the Vegas concert), a pulsating rendition of Cerrone's electro-disco explosion "Supernature," and a groovy version of Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" featuring Måneskin bassist Victoria De Angelis. However, Danse Macabre's best cover is an adventurous interpretation of Billie Eilish's "Bury a Friend." Bolstered by darkwave synth swerves, eerie background vocals and an arrangement that amplifies the broken-marionette vibe of Eilish's original, the song is playful and macabre in equal measures. The only tune that doesn't quite work is an uneven take on the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" that feels tossed-off and unrehearsed. Make no mistake, however: Danse Macabre isn't a sequel to Duran Duran's (unfairly maligned) 1995 covers album Thank You, but a compelling collection with its own singular appeal. Just listen to the album-closing original "Confession in the Afterlife," a wistful ballad shrouded by emotional ghosts that's deeply affecting. Spine-chilling veneer aside, Danse Macabre is no tricks—and all treats. © Annie Zaleski/Qobuz

After he turned 70, French disco innovator Marc Cerrone celebrated half-a-century in the music business with the release of Cerrone by Cerrone, a continuously mixed set of reworked hits from throughout his storied career. He originally made updated versions of these songs for his DJ sets, keeping the essence of the songs intact but updating the production for contemporary dancefloors. This mix presents the retouched songs in action, blended with a few remixes by other producers, including previously released versions by Dimitri from Paris and Joey Negro. The majority of the tracks feature re-recorded vocals by Brendan Reilly, who appeared on Cerrone's 2016 dance-pop effort Red Lips as well as albums by Disclosure, Basement Jaxx, Duffy, and many others. While he's certainly a skilled vocalist, he doesn't particularly add anything new to the songs, and he often pushes them a bit too far into slick, radio-friendly blandness. He sounds far more like a member of a boy band than a disco diva. The mildly Auto-Tuned vocals on this version of the prog-disco classic "Supernature" render its appearance somewhat of an anticlimax. With all that in mind, the set is still quite enjoyable. The songs themselves have largely held up, and the production mainly stays true to the classic '70s disco sound, seamlessly flowing into more of a disco-house style on several tracks. Dimitri's lush remix of the sweet, saucy "Love in C Minor" is especially grand, and it segues into a strong version of "Je Suis Music." "The Impact," from Cerrone's incredible 2020 space-disco voyage DNA, is a more hypnotic diversion, and a bit of vocoderized lyrics from another song ("The Only One") helps thematically bond it with the rest of the album. "Striptease" is another dazzling, sequencer-heavy highlight. Cerrone by Cerrone is good fun while it's playing, but even considering the format of continuously mixed hits and remixes, 2001's Cerrone by Bob Sinclar is a more satisfying career overview. © Paul Simpson /TiVo

It's something of a mystery why Mute Records waited until early 2006 to release Goldfrapp's third album, Supernature, in the U.S. After all, when it came out in the U.K. the previous summer, it made the duo into a bona fide chart success, to the point where the album's terrific lead single, "Ooh La La" -- on which Allison Goldfrapp channels Marc Bolan's dippy-cool vocals and lyrics over a shuffling, glam-tastic beat -- drew comparisons to former S Club 7 star Rachel Stevens' similarly glam-inspired hit "Some Girls." While Goldfrapp might balk at being called (or compared to) a pop act, it's undeniable that the duo has streamlined and simplified its sound since the baroque Felt Mountain days. It's also undeniable that Supernature is some of Goldfrapp's most accessible work. Coming across like the missing link between Black Cherry's sexy, sharp-edged dancefloor experiments and Felt Mountain's luxe soundscapes, Supernature sometimes combines the best elements from those two albums into something great, and at other times renders them into something surprisingly bland. Along with the aforementioned "Ooh La La," the upbeat tracks find Goldfrapp becoming the robo-glam-disco gods that Black Cherry suggested they might: the starkly catchy "Lovely 2 CU," the fabulously blasé "Ride a White Horse," and "Satin Chic," which could single-handedly make honky tonk pianos fashionable again, all use the duo's inherently theatrical style to very catchy, immediate ends. Interestingly, though, the sweeping ballads that used to be Goldfrapp's forte are the most uneven tracks on Supernature. It's not that tracks like "Time Out from the World" and "Koko" aren't pretty and ethereal enough, but they're just not that distinctive. Likewise, "Fly Me Away" is pleasant, but maybe a little too pleasant -- it almost sounds like it was commissioned for a travel commercial. However, "Let It Take You" shows that Goldfrapp can still craft gorgeous, weightless ballads, and "Number 1" nails the laid-back sexiness that many of the other slower songs attempt. It's surprisingly heartfelt, too -- is there a sweeter compliment than "you're my Saturday"? It would be unfair to say that Supernature's stripped-down pop is a dumbed-down version of what Goldfrapp has accomplished in the past, since it takes a certain kind of smarts to hone songs into instantly catchy essences like the album's best tracks. Yet, as delightfully stylish and immediate as Supernature is, it's still hard to escape the nagging feeling that Goldfrapp could make its ethereal sensuality and pop leanings into something even more compelling. [Supernature was released in the U.S. with the bonus track "Beautiful," which originally appeared on the U.K. Number 1 EP.]© Heather Phares /TiVo

This fun mix album finds modern French dance music artist Bob Sinclar taking an inspired romp through the back catalog of one of his big influences, Cerrone. It is an ideal pairing, because both musicians favor rhythm-heavy dance music with a catchy, upbeat feel. As a result, Sinclar has no problem honing in on the strengths of Cerrone's work, and this helps make Cerrone By Bob Sinclar a consistently engaging listen. Sinclar wisely avoids tinkering too heavily with the sound of the original tracks, instead choosing to intersperse large portions of classics like "Love in C Minor" and "Music of Life" with judiciously chosen snippets of other, lesser-known tracks to fill the gaps. This approach not only preserves the integrity of the original material but also shows how forward-thinking much of it was. Sinclar also throws in a couple of inspired mash-up-styled remixes, the most notable being the collision of his own Cerrone-inspired "I Feel for You" with the Cerrone favorite "Look for Love." The end result is as much a solid collection as it is a mix album: For this reason, Cerrone By Bob Sinclar can be freely recommended to electronica fans and classic disco enthusiasts alike. © Donald A. Guarisco /TiVo

In 1982, Cerrone was determined to forge ahead; and, for the Paris native, that meant paying a lot less attention to the type of Eurodisco that had endeared him to European audiences in the late 1970s. You won't find a lot of Eurodisco on 1982's Back Track; instead, this vinyl LP emphasizes sleek, sophisticated R&B/pop and is often quite mindful of the sounds that urban contemporary stations were playing at the time. Memorable items like "Stop on By," "Strollin' on Sunday," and the title track (which enjoyed some urban contemporary airplay on the East Coast) don't sound anything like "Love in C Minor" or "Take Me," but they have a lot in common with the material that Kashif and his allies were producing and writing for Evelyn "Champagne" King in 1981 and 1982. However, Cerrone acknowledges his past with an interesting remake of "Supernature," which features singer Nanette Workman and is more R&B-minded than the original version. And "Trippin' on the Moon" has a European dance-pop flavor. But Back Track is an R&B album first and foremost, and while it isn't among Cerrone's essential releases, it's solid and respectable. © Alex Henderson /TiVo

The vast majority of European disco artists who were active in the late '70s never recorded live albums. Eurodisco was aimed at dance clubs, and conventional wisdom has it that live recordings don't fare very well on the dance floor. So it came as a surprise when, in 1979, Malligator released this live Cerrone album in France. Recorded at the Paris Pavilion on December 1-2, 1978, this two-LP set wasn't a major club hit. But for Cerrone's more devoted fans, In Concert serves as a generally pleasing document of what he could do on stage with a live band. The album gets off to a surprisingly hard-edged rock/soul start with an enjoyable, if unremarkable, performance of the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin'." By opening on a tough and gritty note, Cerrone lets you know that you can't expect the live Cerrone to sound exactly like the Cerrone of the studio, and sure enough, live performances of "Supernature," "Je Suis Music," and "Rocket in My Pocket" have a harder, grittier edge than the studio versions. Even "Cerrone's Paradise" and "Love in C Minor," which were quite lush in the studio, become tougher and more rock-influenced on stage. Cerrone's various singers don't hesitate to belt, and the Parisian drummer plays more forcefully than on his studio recordings. In Concert isn't perfect, but it has a lot more pluses than minuses and is an interesting release that shows us an overlooked side of the Eurodisco icon. © Alex Henderson /TiVo