So Red the Rose

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So Red The Rose
Studio album by Arcadia
Released	November 1985
Recorded	April-June 1985 at Studio de la Grande Armée in Paris
Genre	Electronic music, Synth pop,
Length	43:36
Label	Parlophone Capitol/EMI (US)
Producer	Alex Sadkin and Arcadia
Professional reviews
AMG link
Singles from So Red The Rose
"Election Day" Released: October 1985 "Goodbye Is Forever" Released: January 1986 (US) "The Promise" Released: January 1986 (UK) "The Flame" Released: July 1986 "El Diablo" Released: 1986 (Spain only) "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".

There were many musical guests on the album, including David Gilmour, Herbie Hancock, Grace Jones, and Sting (who provided backing vocals on "The Promise").

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".

[edit] Encrypted messages

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.

[edit] Track listing

1. "Election Day" - 5:29
2. "Keep Me in the Dark" - 4:31
3. "Goodbye Is Forever" - 3:49
4. "The Flame" - 4:23
5. "Missing" - 3:40
6. "Rose Arcana" - 0:51
7. "The Promise" - 7:30
8. "El Diablo" - 6:05
9. "Lady Ice" - 7:32

[edit] Singles

1. "Election Day" (October 1985)
2. "Goodbye Is Forever" (January 1986)
3. "The Promise" (January 1986)
4. "The Flame" (July 1986)

[edit] Personnel

• Arcadia are:
  • Simon Le Bon, vocals
  • Nick Rhodes, keyboards
  • Roger Taylor, drums
• Alex Sadkin, producer