Following the criminal disregard that British record labels showed their previous album Medazzaland you could have been forgiven for thinking that Duran Duran were over and done with, reduced to touring a greatest hits package to nostalgia fans who survived the fashion crimes of the 1980s. Yet the start of the new millennium saw them bouncing back with another studio album, and with it a few hints towards a new direction. There are some tracks that are undeniably Duran Duran--the sublime wistful balladry of "Pop Trash Movie" and the rousing choruses of "Mars Meets Venus", but these are countered with some bizarre shifts in style--to the shades of Elliott Smith on "Starting To Remember" and an attempt at Smashing Pumpkins light on "Last Day On Earth". It all makes for a very mixed but highly likeable bag, with the notable exception of "Hallucinating Elvis", complete with appalling fake American accents, but this is the exception to the rule. Pop Trash is a return to form with some unexpected extras. --Helen Marquis
