So Red the Rose


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". The album peaked at #23 on the Billboard 200 in January 1986 and at #30 on the UK Albums charts in December 1985.
There were many musical guests on the album, including David Gilmour, Herbie Hancock, Grace Jones, and Sting.
The album's artwork featured painted ink drawings by fashion illustrator Tony Viramontes of fashion model Violeta Sanchez as well as an innovative "light space" photograph of the band by Dean Chamberlain, who also directed the video for the song, "Missing". Nick Rhodes said of the model Sanchez on the album cover, "She had an elegance to her, an old style classic beauty".

Box sets

As part of EMI's massive Duran Duran reissue plans, a jewel case 3 disc boxset of So Red the Rose was released 12 April 2010. It included the entire album, single mixes, the b-sides "She's Moody and Grey, She's Mean and She's Restless" and "Flame Game ", four versions of non-album track "Say The Word", and an unreleased instrumental mix of "The Promise". The DVD contains the original 1987 video release Arcadia.
But in 2008 a previously existing, more complete LIMITED EDITION for Japan fan club was remastered into 6 CD single set, comprising all the singles ever released for the Arcadia project, also including 'Say The Word'. The packaging is a 'so red the velvet', faithfully replicating the original single sleeve artwork, plus 8-page fold-out picture booklet of lyrics and biography.

Encrypted messages

Some versions of the album and related singles contained a numeric code in their artwork, this code allocated random numbers to letters. The numbers on the cover say "So Red the Rose" and then the surnames of the band members being "Rhodes, Le Bon and Taylor ".

Track listing

1985 original release

  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

    2010 reissue

CD1

  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
  10. "Say The Word " - 4:30
  11. "Election Day " - 4:31
  12. "Goodbye Is Forever " - 4:17
  13. "The Promise " - 4:46
  14. "The Flame " - 4:06
  15. "Say The Word" - 5:08
  16. "She's Moody And Grey She's Mean And Restless" - 4:29

    CD2

  17. "Election Day " - 8:39
  18. "Goodbye Is Forever " - 6:45
  19. "The Promise " - 5:44
  20. "Rose Arcana" - 5:33
  21. "The Flame " - 7:17
  22. "Say The Word " - 6:33
  23. "Election Day " - 9:09
  24. "The Promise " - 7:06
  25. "Goodbye Is Forever " - 5:15
  26. "Say The Word " - 5:48
  27. "Election Day " - 9:04
  28. "Flame Game " - 2:51
  29. "Election Day " - 8:28

    DVD

  30. "Introduction"
  31. "Filming Election Day"
  32. "Election Day"
  33. "Filming The Promise"
  34. "The Promise"
  35. "Filming Goodbye Is Forever"
  36. "Goodbye Is Forever"
  37. "Filming The Flame"
  38. "The Flame"
  39. "Filming Missing"
  40. "Missing"
  41. "Credits"

    Singles

  42. "Election Day"
  43. "Goodbye Is Forever"
  44. "The Promise"
  45. "The Flame"

    Personnel

Arcadia