Duran Duran
Red Carpet Massacre
3/5 Stars

Duran Duran throw-ing down with Timbaland? Creamed jeans are made of this! The New Wave legends just became eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (cough) and have a cracking new album to celebrate the latest stage of their artistic journey (rasp). Simon Le Bon, John Taylor and Nick Rhodes sound refreshed from their excellent gig at Live Earth, where they saved the planet with "Girls on Film." They're also contempo enough to sing about sleazy Craigslist sex in "Skin Divers," meeting some lucky lady with "Google-dirty fingers." As for the music, Timbaland has a history of dumbing it down when rock stars come calling, as in his ill-fated Beck team-up on "Diamond Dogs." But he gives the Fab Five a sleek funk track on "Nite-Runner," which could have been a leftover from FutureSex/LoveSounds. Justin Timberlake even arrives to gloss it up — as far as Duran Duran are concerned, the union of the Timber-Snake is on the rise. Tim's other two tracks, "Skin Divers" and "Zoom In," are classic Durannie funk a la "Notorious." The rest, produced by Tim protege Nate "Danja" Hills (plus the band), has the skin-trade title track and another Timberlake collabo, "Falling Down." JT and DD sound in sync — dirty pop boys have to stick together.

ROB SHEFFIELD

Courtesy Rolling Stone