Duran Duran - Pop Trash

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Music reviews of Pop Trash

Music Review: POP TRASH IS ALL POP, NO TRASH
Rating: 5 Stars

Lyricist Le Bon has reached a zenith with his conceptual bookends of "Someone Else Not Me," and "The Sun Doesn't Shine Forever." The former is a not-too-gentle kiss goodbye to a lover, leaving her even though his love for her "is real," while the latter stresses the need for a couple to stay together despite the fact that their relationship is troubled. Both have a potent emotional impact that is uncommon in Le Bon's other lyrics, and their placement on the album seems to underscore the postmodern schizophrenia of our fractured culture. Indeed, the whole album is a gigantic pop-culture reference. "Lava Lamp" is a tribute to a definitive piece of modern kitsch. "Hallucinating Elvis" takes us to a realm where reality and fantasy blur, where the entertainer can no longer see that he is not the person he is imitating -- an appropriate journey in a culture awash in reality shows. "Pop Trash Movie" (written by Rhodes and Cuccurullo) speaks to our media-crazed, star-dazed society, where making trash is perfectly acceptable, as long as it makes you famous. "Mars meets Venus" is a cynical, scathing, albeit humorous, look at modern dating, a la personal ads. "Lady Xanax" personifies our culture's dependence on mood regulators. On the whole, the album paints a picture of a culture that is obsessed with pretending to be more than it is, much like Duran Duran were accused of doing when they hit the scene some twenty-odd years ago. Pop Trash is the sound of former teen idols looking askance at a culture they helped to define, questioning it, laughing at it, then begrudgingly reinhabiting it in a way that attempts to define it in their own terms, rather than the other way around.

Musically, Rhodes and Cuccurullo are to be credited with striking the ideal balance between straightforward pop-rock and heavily produced synth-pop. "Someone Else Not Me" is a deceivingly comforting ballad, belying its heartbreaking intent. "Starting to Remember," "Pop Trash Movie," "Lady Xanax" and "The Sun Doesn't Shine Forever" straddle the line between ballad and uptempo, whereas "Lava Lamp" "Playing With Uranium," "Mars Meets Venus," and "Last Day on Earth" go into full tilt pop-rock. All songs successfully underscore their lyrical content, and are also irresistibly catchy. Taken together, they form a cohesive, consistent, thematically complete opus. This is the best album the band have put out since Rio, and one could make a case that it is the best album they have ever made.

Although this lineup, with only two original members of the band left, may not have seemed much like Duran Duran as we once knew them, the band nevertheless sound as though they had found the post-split identity they had been seeking for almost fifteen years. Instead of sounding banal (e.g., Liberty, Big Thing, and most of "The Wedding Album," other than the hits), or derivative (e.g., the overt Oasis-like stylings and general identity-crisis searching of Medazzaland), here the band sound truly original and comfortable in their skin, making outstanding pop music their own way. While the current reunion of the original Fab Five is a cause for fans to rejoice, one cannot listen to this album without lamenting that Le Bon, Rhodes, and Cuccurullo are no longer recording together. Pop Trash is a wonderful piece of work that deserves more attention than it got. If you should be lucky enough to find a copy, grab it, enjoy it, and wonder if the newly reformed quintet can hope to equal the stellar results this trio achieved here.

Description of Pop Trash

Alternative Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop
• Rock