Ilan Bluestone has spent years circling back to ’80s-inspired sound.
“Paid For Love” and “Can You” both pulled from that world.
“Slow Down,” his 2019 collaboration with Gid Sedgwick, pushed further into synthwave territory.
“Save A Prayer” takes that thread somewhere new: a full trance rework of Duran Duran’s 1982 single.
The track released 31 July 2026 through Black Hole Recordings.
A risk in ’82, a risk again in 2026
The original “Save A Prayer” was a gamble for Duran Duran.
It was a six-minute, synth-heavy torch song from a band better known for fast, danceable energy.
Bluestone and Sedgwick’s version carries that same tension into trance.
The tempo shift is the whole story here. A slow-burning, mood-driven original turned into a track built for the club.
Nothing that made the original work got stripped out in the process.
Read more: Ilan Bluestone Reimagines Duran Duran’s “Save A Prayer”
Ilan Bluestone doesn’t waste the source material
The mix is clean from the first note. Every layer has room to sit, and the groove hits immediately rather than building up to it.
That’s Bluestone’s signature at this point: a track that pulls the room in from the opening bars and holds it there through to the end.
The arc never flattens out.
It builds, releases, and builds again with the kind of pacing that makes six decades of separation between the two versions disappear.
The vocal that echoes the original
Gid Sedgwick’s vocal will catch longtime Duran Duran fans off guard.
The tone leans close to Simon Le Bon’s original delivery, close enough that first-time listeners might assume it’s a sample.
It’s worth noting that Le Bon sang the original “Save A Prayer” himself back in 1982, so the resemblance likely isn’t accidental.
Sedgwick’s other work leans lighter than this, which suggests a deliberate choice to echo the source material rather than reinvent it.
That choice cuts both ways. It keeps the cover tethered to what people already love about the original.
It also means the vocal doesn’t carve out much space of its own, and that’s the one place this release plays it safer than it could have.
Score and verdict for “Save A Prayer” from Ilan Bluestone and Gid Sedgwick
| Criteria | Score |
| Production / Sound Quality | 5/5 |
| Groove & Dancefloor Impact | 5/5 |
| Originality | 4/5 |
| Arc / Journey | 5/5 |
| Final Score | 4.75/5 |
“Save A Prayer” takes a 40-year-old torch song and turns it into a peak-time record without losing the yearning that made the original stand out.
The production and the journey both land at the top of the scale.
The vocal, while effective, stays close enough to Le Bon’s original that it becomes the track’s only real point of debate.
For trance fans and Duran Duran fans alike, this is an easy one to add to the collection.
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