Duran Duran “Future Past” 2021. Released just a couple of days ago, limited(ish) edition exclusive clear vinyl for “Spotify Fans First” pre-orders. Today, October 27th, is also Simon Le Bon’s birthday (b. 1958)! Future Past is Duran Duran’s 15th studio album and it is GREAT! The track “Anniversary” is pure, crank it to 11 dancing bliss, put it on repeat and as catchy and addictive as any of their other great hits like “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “Planet Earth” or “Reach Up for the Sunrise.” My other top tracks so far (I’m on my fourth listen since getting the delivery two days ago) are “All of You” which has an excellent play-that-fucking-bass John rhythm, “Beautiful Lies” which is synthpop goes funk (the secret Duran Duran sauce) and “Invisible” which was the first song I heard a few months ago with that wild AI generated video. I’m working on really liking the songs upon which they collaborate with other artists (“Give It All Up” which features Tove Lo, “More Joy!” featuring Chai and “Falling” which features Mike Garson). But I’m just so happy that I still love this band and they continue to put out fantastic music.

The title Future Past is also resonating with me a lot: about a week ago an old friend of mine who I met through our mutual love of Duran Duran back in 1984 sent me ALL of her old Duran Duran posters, magazine pictures, little tiny newspaper clippings, etc. In that pile of goodness was a letter I had typed and printed out on my dad’s old dot matrix computer that I literally have no recollection of whatsoever. Apparently my Duranie penpal from California (who I did get to meet in-person I think in the summer of ‘84 or ‘85) and I had schemed to write a book about Duran Duran and sent out this form letter to people requesting photos and must have included some sort of survey that the letter references. Spoiler: that book never materialized.