Arcadia was the arty quarter of Duran Duran's side project. Members Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes were left to complete it after Roger Taylor left the group. They still strove to create the "western evocative of east" blueprinted by Japan's Tin Drum. They didn't achieve it with this, but it's certainly the best album Duran never made. Like earlier work Rio, the sleeve perfectly describes the record inside. The opener "Election Day" is darkly romantic irking toward erotic and has brass stabs not dissimilar from their Bond score View to a Kill. The following songs are lighter: "Keep Me in the Dark" and the U.S. single "Goodbye Is Forever." "The Flame" has a sharp beat and sultry bass groove that nods at Nile Rodgers. Two dream works, "Missing" and "Rose Arcana," precede "The Promise," which guests Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour, Sting, and Herbie Hancock. "El Diablo" has a latin flavor but still sounds like two Englishmen daydreaming of an escapade to El Salvador. Finally, to the dramatic splendor of "Lady Ice," a fantastic conclusion to a very good album. Thankfully, Arcadia chose not to pursue this album like their other Duran offshoot. ~ Kelvin Hayes, All Music Guide
Mark Egan (?), Mark Egan (Musician), Arcadia (Producer), Arcadia (Main Performer), Sting (Vocals (Background)), Herbie Hancock (?), Larry Alexander (Engineer), Larry Alexander (Mixing), Carlos Alomar (?), Carlos Alomar (Musician), Gabriel Bindi (?), Gabriel Bindi (Musician), Dean Chamberlain (Photography), Pierre Defay (?), Pierre Defay (Musician), Raphael Dejesus (?), Jean Claude Dubois (?), Jean Claude Dubois (Musician), Ron Saint Germain (Mixing), David Gilmour (?), David Gilmour (Musician), François Kevorkian (Mixing), Simon LeBon (Vocals), Simon LeBon (Band), Simon LeBon (Producer), Bob Ludwig (Mastering), Andy Mackay (?), Jay Mark (Mixing), Nick Rhodes (Keyboards), Nick Rhodes (Band), Nick Rhodes (Producer), Alex Sadkin (Producer), Alex Sadkin (Mixing), Masami Tsuchiya (?), Budd Tunick (Production Manager), David Van Tieghem (?), Phil Burnett (Mixing), Roger Taylor (Drums), Roger Taylor (Producer), Nick Delre (Mixing), Nick Delre (Mixing Assistant), Billy Miranda (Mixing), Billy Miranda (Mixing Assistant), Philippe Laffont (Assistant Engineer), Sally Francomb (Hair Stylist), Wendy Whitelaw (Make-Up), Tony Viramontes (Illustrations), Steve Jordan (?)
"Keep Me in the Dark"
Released: 1986 (Philippines only)
So Red The Rose is the platinum-selling album by the Duran Duran-spinoff group Arcadia, which was released in 1985 — the only album the band ever released. It included the singles "Election Day", "Goodbye is Forever" and "The Flame".
Musically, the album was a more lush, ambient affair than the previous output of Duran Duran. The songs explored new sonic spaces and a number of the tracks were quite lengthy.
The album's artwork featured painted ink drawings inspired by the sketches of Jean Cocteau as well as an innovative "light space" photograph of the band by Dean Chamberlain, who also directed the video for the song, "Missing".
Some versions of the album and related singles contained a numeric code in their artwork, though versions in some countries simply used randomised numbers which did not decipher to anything intelligible. The code was a simple substitution cipher, numbering the letters of the alphabet (e.g., A=1, B=2, C=3, and so on).
The album title is almost (but not quite) palindromic, whether by accident or design. Reading backwards from the "s" in Rose, and swapping the "d" and "h" creates the palindrome.
