Duran Duran Returns With New Music for the First Time in Six Years

The band begins a new album era with “INVISIBLE”

When you’re afforded the legacy of a pioneering video-era band like Duran Duran, then any news on new music should explode on the airwaves. And after being included on several “most anticipated album” lists for most of 2020 and 2021, the band has finally decided to lift the veil on their project, announcing the impending release of their fifteenth studio album later this year, FUTURE PAST.

However, before we even get the album, the band drops a teaser of what’s to come with the first single off the record, “INVISIBLE.” The song is their first release since their cover of David Bowie’s “Five Years” in January, but it’s the first bit of new music from them since 2015 and their Paper Gods era. The song is unlike anything you’ve heard from the band before, steeped in the music of the ’80s they were known for, yet produced in a modern, almost eerily technical way. The warbling vocals and synths create this melody that sounds like an ’80s arena rock track pressed through an old gramophone. The lyrics speak of a one-sided relationship, but work as a larger metaphor for cry of the voiceless.

Of the new song, band member Nick Rhodes said in a statement, “Sonic architecture has always been incredibly important to Duran Duran. I think, with “INVISIBLE”, we really have managed to carve the sculpture the way we wanted it. Sonically, it’s a very unusual piece of music. I think when you merge all the instruments together, it creates an overall sound that perhaps you haven’t heard before.”

The song comes also with a music video, which carries forward the creepy theme of the unrecognized voiceless, but in a visual sense. The video was created in a one-of-its-kind collaboration with Huxley, an A.I. artist whose “mind” has been modeled after the different cognitive processes of the human brain. The visual is a kaleidoscope of color and shapes, morphing into trees, trains, birds, objects, people, and even members of the band. It pairs well with the haunting sound of the song itself, creating an audio-visual experience you’ll probably be unsure of but will still remember for quite a while.

The band’s fifteenth studio album, FUTURE PAST, will feature the production work of Mark Ronson, Erol Alkan, and Giorgio Moroder, as well as guests like Graham Coxon and Lykke Li. The band’s lead vocalist, Simon Le Bon, commented on the album as well, “When we first went into the studio in late 2018, I was trying to persuade the guys that all we needed to do was write two or three tracks for an EP.  Four days later, with the nucleus of 25 plus strong songs in the can, that all deserved development, I realized we’d be in it for the long haul,” he says. “I’m not saying it’s epic, but well … yes I am.”

The album is due for release on October 22, 2021. Till then, listen to the band’s newest single, “INVISIBLE,” below.

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