Red Carpet Massacre
Album review
Tim Brough

 

While this has been heralded as a much anticipated return to the Duran Duran dance floor, "Red Carpet Massacre" is dominated by its producers. It certainly does make it a club-ready batch of songs, yet it lacks the ready charm of 2004's Astronaut. There's nothing here to rival "Hungry Like The Wolf," "I Don't Want Your Love," or even "Notorious." Like most of Timbaland's projects, making beats seem to take precedence over making actual songs, and for some reason, rinky-dink sounding electronic pulses have supplanted a drummer. It makes the lead-off track, "The Valley" tinkle like a Lego-set instead of a Killer (pun 100% intended) offensive tackle.

This is the primary fault with Red Carpet Massacre. The production lacks meat. There is no muscle, no flesh to these machine driven songs, and other than Simon LeBon's distinct vocals, much of this could have been any other dime-store pop band. There is too much Britney Spears and not enough Brandon Flowers. Saving the album from Pop Trash oblivion is - of all people - Justin Timberlake. The ballad he co-wrote, "Falling Down," is one of the album's highlights. Timberlakes' FutureSex / LoveSounds obviously influenced RCM, as the coolest dance tracks sound like Timberlake personally handed "Skin Divers" or "Nite Runner" directly to the band.

It's just that the old "Sex Pistols meets Chic" aesthetic seems to have gone by the wayside in favor of an updated sound. Only the buzz-saw instrumental and the giddy "Girls On Film" reminiscent title track harkens back to the band's younger days. It makes "Red Carpet Massacre" a mid-level Duran Duran album, on a par with Liberty or Notorious...competent and experimental, just not a late-game stunner like The Wedding Album and Astronaut were.

Download: "Falling Down"

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