Pop Trash

Pop Trash is an album released in 2000 by Duran Duran. The album marked their first release not under Capitol Records/EMI, with whom they'd been signed since 1981. It was also the last to feature the trio of Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo.

The album artwork features a rhinestone-encrusted car which belonged to Liberace.

History
The band left Capitol 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; pop, funk, 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.' "

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 more success do to the reunion and promotion.

Critical reception
Critics were generally unexcited by the album. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone 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 All Music Guide 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.

Singles
The lead single "Someone Else, Not Me" only peaked at #53 in the UK, and did not chart at all in the United States. However it made the top 10 in Latvia. Le Bon also recorded versions of this song in Spanish ("Alguien Más 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 Shockwave digital animation.

The song "Playing With Uranium" was released as a single in Italy only. The song "Last Day On Earth" was released in Japan; it was also played during the opening of the Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka.

Track listing

 * 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

Additional track on various international releases:
 * 1) "Un Autre Que Moi" ("Someone Else, Not Me" en Français) – 4:19
 * 2) "Alguien Más Que No Soy Yo" ("Someone Else, Not Me" en Español) – 4:16
 * 3) "Prototypes" – 6:17

Singles

 * 1) "Someone Else, Not Me"
 * 2) "Playing With Uranium" (Italy only)
 * 3) "Last Day On Earth" (Japan only)

Personnel
Duran Duran are:
 * Simon Le Bon - Vocals
 * Warren Cuccurullo - Guitar
 * Nick Rhodes - Keyboards

Other credits

 * Sally Boyden - Backing vocals
 * John Tonks - Drums, Electric Percussion
 * Steve Alexander - Drums
 * Greg Bissonette - Drums
 * Luis Conte - Percussion
 * Wes Wehmiller - Bass