Pop Trash | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 19 June 2000 | |||
Recorded | 1999–2000 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 59:10 | |||
Label | Hollywood | |||
Producer |
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Duran Duran chronology | ||||
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Singles from Pop Trash | ||||
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Pop Trash is the tenth studio album by English rock band Duran Duran. It was released on 19 June 2000 by Hollywood Records. Pop Trash was the band's first release after parting ways with EMI, with whom they had been signed since 1981. It was also the last to feature the trio of Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo. The CD album went out of print in 2001. [1] It was the only album the band released under Hollywood Records. After the album's poor sales, Duran Duran's contract with the label was terminated, and they would not release an album until 2004's Astronaut . The album artwork, created by Andrew Day, features a rhinestone-encrusted car that belonged to Liberace.
From July 2008, the album was made available for sale digitally through the iTunes Store in the United States and Europe, along with Medazzaland . [2] In 2021, the band signed a deal for the album with BMG (along with Medazzaland , Astronaut and Red Carpet Massacre) which saw it being re-issued in the UK on various digital platforms. [3] A CD reissue was released on 17 August 2022. [4]
The band left Capitol Records in 1998 and signed with Hollywood Records, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Vocalist and lyricist Le Bon, increasingly unhappy with the band's situation and the departure of bassist John Taylor, was suffering from a severe case of writer's block during the making of this album. In his stead, keyboard player Rhodes and guitarist Cuccurullo took on more of the songwriting than usual, reworking some of their TV Mania material into some of the songs on the album.
Pop Trash continues where Medazzaland (1997) left off; elements of rock, synth-pop and electronica fused together, with many layers of production. The album is probably one of Duran Duran's most diverse, with songs like "Lava Lamp" including flanged drums and intricate guitars, the catty "Mars Meets Venus" and bizarre "Hallucinating Elvis" full of manufactured bounce, while gentle pop ballad "Someone Else Not Me" featured few effects at all. Heavy guitar pieces like "Last Day on Earth" and "Playing with Uranium" are juxtaposed with softer songs filled with delicate melancholy, like "Lady Xanax" and "The Sun Doesn't Shine Forever".
This album was poorly promoted and did not sell well, although the supporting concert tour sold out at almost all venues, including a week-long stint at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. In March 2001, the band announced they had parted ways with Hollywood Records; Nick Rhodes said "Never was there a place that felt less like a record company: Seven giant dwarves hold up the building. You're listening to these people, and finally I had to say, 'How funny that your corporate logo is a large pair of ears, yet not one of you in here happens to have any.'" [5]
Nick Rhodes later said that Pop Trash was the most difficult album for the band to make: "Things felt very different without John, although he departed during Medazzaland , he had been part of the initial writing sessions and played on several tracks of that album. Our writing process became very different for Pop Trash, also Simon was having difficulty with some of the lyrics at this time, so I ended up writing more of them than I would have anticipated. We had a new label, Hollywood Records, which proved to be, at best, exasperating. As we did not use a producer either, it resulted in Simon, Warren and I having to focus all of our ideas whilst not having a clear vision of what we were trying to achieve with the album. Given that background, we actually think the record turned out well and closed that era." [6]
At the conclusion of the supporting tour for this album, Cuccurullo was dismissed, and the band reunited with its original five members. Duran Duran went without a record deal for a couple of years, while recording their next album and doing extensive touring. They finally signed with Epic Records, and released Astronaut in 2004, with greater success due to the reunion and promotion.
The song "Pop Trash Movie" was recorded first by American new wave band Blondie when they first reunited in 1997. This, and "Studio 54" (a homage to the New York City nightclub of the same name) were both written by Duran Duran. Both songs were the first new material the band released in fifteen years, but none of them were included on the 1998 album No Exit .
Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 52/100 [7] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [8] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [9] |
Entertainment Weekly | C [10] |
HOB.com | [11] |
MTV.com | [12] |
Q | [13] |
Rolling Stone | [14] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [15] |
Salon | [13] |
Wall of Sound | 72/100 [16] |
Critics were generally unexcited by the album, as Metacritic gave it a 52 out of 100. [13] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone [14] said:
The well-named Pop Trash shows off their jaded hooks and nasty wit; it's for fans only, but those of us who still crumple at the opening hiccups of "Hungry Like the Wolf" will be glad for another fix.
Stacia Proefrock of AllMusic [8] said:
Some of the smooth, spacy ballads that were characteristic of their 1993 self-titled release show up here, but more often than not Le Bon is lost in a swamp of overproduction. Completely absent from this music was the aggressiveness and sexuality that made early Duran Duran great – kinder, gentler records could probably be expected from the band as they age, but this album feels careless and flabby instead of introspective.
Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly [10] said:
Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say they didn't model Pop Trash after U2's Pop, but darn if Duran Duran aren't after a very similar juxtaposition of groove-based kitsch and super-sincerity. Not surprisingly, there are ephemeral confectionary delights [...] and a general witlessness, never more than when Simon LeBon keeps crooning "We'll all be famous for 15 minutes" as if he just thought of the idea.
A reviewer for Salon called Pop Trash "a mediocre Britpop album", [7] while Q defended the album and said that "Pop Trash proves to be far from embarrassing". [7] Another negative review came from MTV.com who said that "most of the album is, in fact, pop trash". [12]
Ultimately, the album would become the band's lowest-selling album, and their last until 2004's Astronaut .
The lead single "Someone Else Not Me" peaked only at #53 in the UK, and did not chart at all in United States. However, it made the top 10 in Latvia. Le Bon also recorded versions of this song in Spanish ("Alguien Que No Soy Yo") and French ("Un Autre Que Moi"). The music video for the single was the first to be created entirely in Macromedia Flash digital animation.
The song "Playing with Uranium" was supposed to be released as a single in Italy only, but was available only as a radio promo. [17]
The song "Last Day on Earth" was released in Japan; [18] it was also played during the opening of the Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka.
All songs written by Duran Duran
Bonus tracks on various international releases:
Duran Duran
Additional musicians
Artwork and photography
Chart (2000) | Peak position |
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German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [20] | 80 |
Scottish Albums (OCC) [21] | 88 |
UK Albums (OCC) [22] | 53 |
UK Independent Albums (OCC) [23] | 9 |
US Billboard 200 [24] | 135 |
Duran Duran are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor. With the addition of bassist Simon Colley and drummer Roger Taylor the following year, the band went through numerous personnel changes before May 1980, when they settled on their most famous line-up by adding guitarist Andy Taylor and lead vocalist Simon Le Bon.
Nick Rhodes is an English keyboardist and producer, best known as a founding member and the keyboardist of the band Duran Duran. He is also informally monikered as "the Controller", after being introduced as such on stage by bandmate Simon Le Bon during the Astronaut album world tours of 2004–2005.
Simon John Charles Le Bon is an English singer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the new wave band Duran Duran and its offshoot Arcadia. Le Bon has received three Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.
Warren Bruce Cuccurullo is an American musician, songwriter, restaurant owner and former bodybuilder who first worked with Frank Zappa during the 1970s. He was also a founding member of Missing Persons in the 1980s. In 1986 Cuccurullo joined Duran Duran, becoming a long-term member of the band until 2001. In 2022, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Duran Duran.
Greatest is a greatest hits album by English rock band Duran Duran, released in 1998.
Astronaut is the eleventh studio album by English rock band Duran Duran. It was released on 28 September 2004 by Epic Records. It was Duran Duran's first studio album since Pop Trash (2000), and the first full album since Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983) to be recorded by the most famous five-member lineup of the band.
Big Thing is the fifth studio album by English rock band Duran Duran. It was released on 17 October 1988 by EMI Records. Produced by the band, Jonathan Elias and Daniel Abraham, it continued the sonic musical change the band explored with their previous album Notorious (1986).
Notorious is the fourth studio album by English rock band Duran Duran, released on 18 November 1986 by EMI Records. Produced by the band with Nile Rodgers, the album was recorded between April and October 1986 in several studios in Paris, London, and New York. It is the first album to feature the band as a trio with singer Simon Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and bassist John Taylor, as drummer Roger Taylor left due to being weary of the music industry while guitarist Andy Taylor, wanting to start his own solo career, would play on several tracks before leaving after several aborted sessions.
"Skin Trade" is the second single from Duran Duran's Notorious album, and the band's 15th single. A seductive ballad with traces of R&B, the song showcases a new sound for Duran Duran with lead vocalist Simon Le Bon singing in a Prince-like falsetto, and with a powerful brass section, courtesy of the Borneo Horns.
"Do You Believe in Shame?" is a song by British band Duran Duran released on 10 April 1989 as the final single from their 1988 album Big Thing.
Medazzaland is the ninth studio album by English rock band Duran Duran. It was released on 14 October 1997 by Capitol Records. The album was never officially released physically in Europe until 2022, and was solely released in North America, Latin America and Japan. It reached number 58 on the Billboard 200 and number 66 on RPM's albums chart.
"Hungry Like the Wolf" is a song by English new wave band Duran Duran. Written by the band members, the song was produced by Colin Thurston for the group's second studio album, Rio (1982). The song was released on 4 May 1982 as the band's fifth single in the United Kingdom, 8 June 1982 in the United States. It reached No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart, and received a platinum certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
"Rio" is the seventh single by English new wave band Duran Duran. It was first released as a single in Australia, in August 1982, followed by a UK release on 1 November 1982.
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Mark Ty-Wharton is a British music technologist, informal logician and public speaker who specialises in presentations using sound art. He is best known for his work as a guitarist, programmer, sound engineer and record producer with Adamski, Duran Duran, TV Mania, Gary Numan, Glenn Gregory, The Dandy Warhols and others.
"Out of My Mind" is the 28th single by English new wave band Duran Duran. The song is part of their ninth album, Medazzaland (1997), but was released as a single from the soundtrack to the 1997 Val Kilmer film The Saint.
"Someone Else Not Me" is a song by English new wave band Duran Duran, released as the only single from their 10th studio album, Pop Trash (2000). It charted at number 26 in Italy and number 53 on the UK Singles Chart. It was the last single to feature Warren Cuccurullo as a guitarist.
TV Mania was a British-American electronic band founded in 1995 that consisted of keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, known for the 2013 release of a long-lost album, Bored with Prozac and the Internet?
Red Carpet Massacre is the twelfth studio album by English rock band Duran Duran, released on 13 November 2007 by Epic Records. Most of the music on the final incarnation of the album was completed in late 2006 following the departure of band member Andy Taylor with new guitarist Dominic Brown replacing him, when record producer Timbaland began working with the band. "Falling Down" was the only single released from the album.
Danse Macabre is the sixteenth studio album by English rock band Duran Duran. It was released on 27 October 2023 through BMG and Tape Modern. A Halloween-themed album, the record includes three new tracks, covers and reimagined versions of older Duran Duran material. Former guitarists Andy Taylor and Warren Cuccurullo appear, making their first appearances on a Duran Duran LP since 2004's Astronaut and 2000's Pop Trash, respectively. Nile Rodgers and Victoria De Angelis of Måneskin also feature as guest artists.