Pop Trash

"We'll all be famous for 15 minutes," sings Duran Duran in the title song of its first album of the 21st century, and it's entitled to that Warholian perception if anyone is; after all, it doesn't want to have to stage another comeback. The album's title, however, also seems to refer to the its willful eclecticism. There's no over-arching sound here; the point seems to be that the various styles the band employs from song to song here are in its opinion either equally valid or (more likely) equally disposable. That said, this is an extremely likeable album, more genuinely tuneful than anything it's come up with in years. Highpoints include "Someone Else Not Me," a big, pillowy ballad that sounds like the Verve minus the earnestness. "Lava Lamp" is a positively addictive '60s psychedelic pastiche, complete with sitar and what sounds like (but probably isn't) a vocal sample from "A Day in the Life." "Playing with Uranium," has a big, distorted, '90s grunge guitar sound, while "Starting to Remember" could be an outtake from an early John Lennon solo album.