By far the most striking thing about Rio is the fact that it's a 1980s synth pop album that somehow still sounds fresh today. The bass is obviously the stand out, but there's various interesting things going on from all the band members. Yes, there's some big hits here, but none of them have been overplayed to the point of being stale somehow. Near the end of the 80s I started dating a girl who was a big Duran Duran fan, and she tried to convince me that they were more art-rock than synth-pop. I still don't agree, but this is good stuff, and it brings back happy memories of listening to this album back then. I also remember the slightly dodgy videos that were hard to find, some of them passed around as VHS copies from late night airings on MTV. There's not a single bad track here, and I enjoyed it so much I'm giving it the full five stars.