By Frankie Farrar-helm/entertainment editor
Listen up, ’80s fans — get ready for a musical comeback of epic proportions.
The former British heartthrobs have something to prove, and with its musical revelation released March 22, Duran Duran proves to be both a product of its time and a band with its eye on the future.
Veteran bands willing to adapt themselves to fit in with current musical climates sometimes lose touch with the inner confidence and the fire that put it there in the first place. With All You Need Is Now, Duran Duran has tapped into its musical textures and successfully created a record that’s as contemporary and modern as it is traditional and true in nature.
Duran Duran’s 13th studio album has not only brilliantly bridged the gap between its pop-glam masterpiece, 1982’s Rio, and now but has managed to reestablish itself as a true originator and pursuer of modern, seductive dance music.
Its last project, 2007’s Red Carpet Massacre, produced by expert hip-hop producer Timbaland, was skipped over by fans and by radio despite pop sensation Justin Timberlake’s contributing to the band’s sound and appearing on the album’s lead single, “Nite Runner.”
Saddened by the failed attempt, fans can now emerge from hibernation and put their headphones on.
The funky but not-so-chic, percussion-heavy disco track “Safe (In the Heat of the Moment)” features sexy Scissor Sister Ana Matronic asking “Don’t you wanna be mislead?”
“Being Followed,” resembling something of The Cure, succeeds in seizing the classic Duran Duran sound without sounding too distinguished.
The group takes listeners as far as Germany for “Blame the Machines,” a toe-tapping electric track that compares a drive down the Autobahn to an out-of-control relationship, complete with GPS-style feminine voice direction, which makes the listener wonder who’s really driving.
After a long, hard journey to reconcile with the sound that made it famous, Duran Duran has found it, and they’re screaming it from the rooftops. All You Need Is Now more than exemplifies its newfound confidence and return to its well-deserved throne of music royalty.
Break out your boombox and your Spandex … Duran Duran is back again.
