I believe it is not relevant. JT wants to improve everytime, so he will eventually find something to dislike about the latest release.
I'm not doubting that. Of course all artists want to improve on every album; who in their right mind would say "we really want our next album to be three-quarters as good as our last one". And after the excitement and 'newness' of a piece of art has died down, it is only then that a band can sit back and become critical.
Plus bands/people change and evolve. To me Rio is the band's strongest album, and close to Pop perfection. But I'm sure when Seven came out the band would have given interviews and made comparisons where S&TRT was stronger than Rio, and I'm sure that 10 years later when the Wedding Album came out if you were to ask the band about their criticisms of Rio they may have been slightly different again, similarly 10 years later when Astronaut was released and then 10 years after that when AYNIN was released.
The band are different people now with different experiences. Their tastes have changed. They may listen to Rio and hate all the overdubs, Simon may wince at some of his lyrical choices, and John may criticise some of his basslines. Or of course maybe they still love every song and wouldn't change a thing today.
The question that Trevor asked was in relation to a recent interview from
www.duranasty.com/2014/january_2014/duranasty_webzine_february_17_2014.htm , where John Taylor was quoted as saying
"I think the important thing is that we make a great album an album, something that impress people, because I don’t think we all feel that way about the recent album, we all got reservations about it..."I would like to know the answer as well. Do the band really have reservations about AYNIN, their finest work in 25 years??? Do they honestly believe it didn't impress people??? Seriously do they actually read any Duran Duran boards/forums - the praise for AYNIN has been universal, easily the most positive for any Duran Duran record since the birth of the internet.
That quote from John would have made more sense if it was referring to RCM. Some fans love the album, but there were also many fans who weren't impressed by it. After all the negative reviews around the Duran traps I could totally understand a band member coming out and saying "listen we all love RCM and think it's a great album, but we know it didn't impress everybody, so we want to knock the ball out of the park next time around".
So I understand Trevor's question completely. John's quote makes sense if it were an older one referring to RCM. It makes no sense whatsoever if it was referring to AYNIN. None at all.
But because of John's answer, which must have taken him all of three minutes to come up with, we're still none the wiser. I would rather he had taken those three minutes to simply type "That quote was in relation to Red Carpet Massacre" or "That quote was in relation to All You Need Is Now". Even the Venus de Milo could do that in three minutes.
So don't tell me John's response isn't relevant. He didn't answer the question, an answer that could have even been condensed to three or five letters if he wanted to use the album acronyms
Maybe he wasn't sure which interview Trevor was inquiring about? That's the only thing that could explain his answer. Maybe he read Trevor's question and thought "Gee, when the hell did I say that?" I mean the band do give a lot of interviews, but I haven't read too many where they were critical of AYNIN. I would think if you actually said something negative about your last record, that you'd definitely remember it.
See this is the classic example of the problem with Ask Katy. On this and other Duran boards there has been at least one thread, and quite a few posts dedicated to John's quote, discussing whether he was referring to RCM or AYNIN when he made it. A fan actually asks an interesting question that would solve the topic once and for all, a question where the ONLY answer is either "Red Carpet Massacre" or "All You Need Is Now", and the band member posts something which ultimately says nothing.
I love all the guys in Duran Duran. They're all intelligent, witty, and interesting people. It gobsmacks me to think how often they give disinterested, unintelligent answers to Katy.