When you have a career with peaks and valleys you'll have your detractors. Yet, overtime an epitaph has been written for Duran Duran they make a comeback. Pop Trash is their first album recorded entirely as the trio Rhodes, LeBon and Cuccurullo.
The follow-up to 1997's Medazzaland is a more cohesive work but instead of pushing towards electronica they've intermingled psychedelic, acoustic, hip-hop and dance. It must have been extremely difficult to choose their first single. "Somebody Else Not Me" is a terrific tune but took about 3 listenings to grow on me. Radio stations rarely give a song that much time to decide if it deserves repeat plays. But there are a lot of great songs to choose from here. Pop Trash's "Starting To Remember" and "The Sun Doesn't Shine Forever" are two of the most beautiful Duran Duran tracks I've ever heard. The album is far from a ballad collection. A strong psychedelic influence is evident on "Lava Lamp" (must be the sitar playing through it) which evolves with an injection of hip-hop on "Hallucinating Elvis" (note Simon rapping in the bridge). "Playing With Uranium" and the guitar-rock agression of "Last Day On Earth" stand out on the album.
My only negative here is that they could have done without the song "Pop Trash Movie" which TV Mania (Warren and Nick) initially wrote for Blondie to record. I'd actually love to hear what she'd do with it. Otherwise, Duran Duran are taking bold new steps here instead of becoming redundant possibly due to TV Mania taking over production duties. My recommendation is to give it more than a few spins before passing judgement.
No comments:
Post a Comment