Duran Duran
All You Need Is Now

The New Wave in 2011? Perhaps we are going backwards, we had reached a peak, a limit, and are now closing the circle? Or is this peak the void of music produced in the last decade, a void of ideas, an economic void, with bands and singers who have scraped by on "featuring" and "the best of," a void that forced jazz to be made commercial with handsome crooners, a void that even sparked nostalgia for the Eighties?

Duran Duran are bringing us back 30 years with an album that is, in fact, a prize for the ever more tested hardcore of now mature, wild fans, and some aging, nostalgic duranis. A prize because it offers nine tracks that, deprived of third millennium electronic perfection and Duran's now established artistic maturity, could have easily been minor tracks on albums like "Duran Duran" or "Rio" or "Seven And The Ragged Tiger."

Minor, of course: because the freshness and energy of the past are no longer there, there's no track that bursts onto the radio, that stands out despite the critics' opposition and the male public's annoyance. Here everything is glossy, smooth, and too light. The title track, the first single, initially suggests a bigbeat drift, but it's quickly brightened by the chorus, wider, less cryptic, a sound that infects tracks 2 and 3, typically Duranian. Then comes the inevitable "Leave a Light On," the big ballad, not as engaging as "Save a Prayer" but more sober and dreamy.

After the funky "Safe" and the rhythmic but unsuccessful "Girl's Panic," comes the gem of the album, two interesting turns on a piano arpeggio and a good motif for "The Man Who Stole A Leopard." The album closes with "Runaway Runway," perhaps the most fun track, and the introspective "Before The Rain."

Every track is comparable to old pieces by the group: "Electric Barbarella," which was already a return to the olden days, "Hold Back The Rain, "My Own Way, "The Chauffeur," from which the piano in "The Man Who Stole A Leopard" and the percussion in "Before The Rain" are directly retrieved.

But one thing must be said: the tracks are not plagiarisms or copies, they are instead what Duran Duran do best, melody at the center, very light guitars, always funky rhythmic section, and keyboards that dominate even a Le Bon many semitones above the usual.

A return to origins yearned for by fans, rejected by record companies, but refreshing like a breath of fresh air for Duran, after 25 years spent experimenting with styles and genres that were not their forte.