Pop Trash

Last updated

Pop Trash
DuranDuran-PopTrash.jpg
Studio album by
Duran Duran
Released19 June 2000 (2000-06-19)
Recorded1999–2000
Genre
Length59:10
Label Hollywood
Producer
Duran Duran chronology
Strange Behaviour
(1999)		Pop Trash
(2000)		 Singles Box Set 1981–1985
(2003)
Singles from Pop Trash
  1. "Someone Else Not Me"
    Released: 13 March 2000
  2. "Playing with Uranium"
    Released: 20 October 2000 (Italy only)
  3. "Last Day on Earth"
    Released: 7 March 2001 (Japan only)

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]

Contents

Release

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 . [2] The album artwork, created by Andrew Day, features a rhinestone-encrusted car that belonged to Liberace.[ citation needed ]

From July 2008, the album was made available for sale digitally through the iTunes Store in the United States and Europe, along with Medazzaland . [3] 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. [4] A CD reissue was released on 17 August 2022. [5]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 52/100 [6]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [7]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [8]
Entertainment Weekly C [9]
HOB.com Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [10]
MTV.com Star full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [11]
Q Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [12]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [13]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [14]
Salon Star full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [12]
Wall of Sound 72/100 [15]

Critics were generally unexcited by the album, which received an average score of 52, indicating "mixed or average" based on nine reviews, from Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications. [12] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone [13] 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 [7] 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 [9] 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", [6] while Q defended the album and said that "Pop Trash proves to be far from embarrassing". [6] Another negative review came from MTV.com who said that "most of the album is, in fact, pop trash". [11]

Ultimately, the album would become the band's lowest-selling album, and their last until 2004's Astronaut .

Singles

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. [16]

The song "Last Day on Earth" was released in Japan; [17] it was also played during the opening of the Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka.

Track listing

All songs written by Duran Duran

  1. "Someone Else Not Me" – 4:48
  2. "Lava Lamp" – 3:54
  3. "Playing with Uranium" – 3:51
  4. "Hallucinating Elvis" – 5:26
  5. "Starting to Remember" – 2:38
  6. "Pop Trash Movie" – 4:54
  7. "Fragment" – 0:49
  8. "Mars Meets Venus" – 3:07
  9. "Lady Xanax" – 4:53
  10. "The Sun Doesn't Shine Forever" – 4:51
  11. "Kiss Goodbye" – 0:41
  12. "Last Day on Earth" – 4:27

Bonus tracks on various international releases:

  1. "Un Autre Que Moi" (French version of "Someone Else Not Me") – 4:19
  2. "Alguien Que No Soy Yo" (Spanish version of "Someone Else Not Me") – 4:16
  3. "Prototypes" – 6:17

Personnel

Duran Duran

Additional musicians

Artwork and photography

Charts

Chart (2000)Peak
position
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [19] 80
Scottish Albums (OCC) [20] 88
UK Albums (OCC) [21] 53
UK Independent Albums (OCC) [22] 9
US Billboard 200 [23] 135

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References

  1. ↑ Caulfield, Keith (2 May 2008). "Ask Billboard". Billboard. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  2. ↑ "Still Pretty", Rolling Stone . 21 April 2005.
  3. ↑ "Pop Trash and Medazzaland on iTunes!". Duran Duran Official Website. July 2008.
  4. ↑ "Duran Duran's Medazzaland is officially available in the UK for the very first time | superdeluxeedition". 19 March 2021.
  5. ↑ "Pop Trash | CD Album | Free shipping over £20".
  6. 1 2 3 "Pop Trash by Duran Duran" – via www.metacritic.com.
  7. 1 2 Pop Trash at AllMusic
  8. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN   978-0-85712-595-8.
  9. 1 2 Willman, Chris (16 June 2000). "Pop Trash". Entertainment Weekly .
  10. ↑ http://www.houseofblues.com/cdreviews/july2000/000728duranduran/ [ permanent dead link ]
  11. 1 2 "MTV Online Review". MTV . Archived from the original on 14 September 2000.
  12. 1 2 3 Metacritic score
  13. 1 2 Rolling Stone reviews on Pop Trash and Motley Crue's New Tattoo
  14. ↑ Sheffield, Rob (2004). "Duran Duran". The Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. ISBN   0-7432-0169-8.
  15. ↑ "ABC Home Page - ABC.com". ABC.
  16. ↑ "Duran Duran - Playing with Uranium". Discogs .
  17. ↑ "Duran Duran - Last Day on Earth". Discogs .
  18. ↑ Guardian article, 2 October 2014
  19. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Duran Duran – Pop Trash" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  20. ↑ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  21. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  22. ↑ "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  23. ↑ "Duran Duran Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
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