PLEASE DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK. THE guys in Duran Duran--yes, that Duran Duran--just hate that. "Everyone always says that to us," says keyboardist Nick Rhodes. "But every album we've put out, we have had hits on." Well, OK, maybe not the last one. Now the essential 1980s New Wave band has a new album out, "Medazzaland." The first single, "Electric Barbarella," is rising on the charts--the racy video got pulled last week in Canada, fanning the hype. Mix that with the new "Duran Duran Tribute Album" by various ska bands and a deal with Hard Candy for a line of men's nail polish, and presto! It's Duran Duran for the 21st century.
Their fans don't care what time it is. Hundreds, mostly nostalgia-quaking twentysomethings, waited in line for hours on a drizzly day in New York's Times Square recently to meet Rhodes, singer Simon Le Bon (the only original members) and guitarist Warren Cuccurullo. But the band has changed shrewdly with the times: they wear suits now, and the new, techno-y single makes fun of cybersex--the video parodies Internet porn sites. What could be more '90s than that?
