Here's an article that appeared Wednesday, October 8 as syndicated through the Dallas Morning News:

GROUP RETURNS TO TECHNO SOUND

The lead singer likens this latest effort to one of the band's successful albums of the '80s. First it was U2. Then David Bowie. Now the glam boys in Duran Duran have joined the list of veteran rock acts dabbling in techno.

"We listen to dance music that's made now and think, 'Yeah, we'd like to make that kind of music,'" singer Simon LeBon says, speaking by phone from London. But LeBon grows testy when he's asked if listeners might perceive Duran Duran as jumping on the electronica bandwagon with their techno-flavored song "Electric Barbarella."

"We... invented it," he huffs. "Go back and listen to our early stuff, particularly the dance-rock fusions. It's electronica, or what's called electronica now. We're not jumping on any bandwagons. We're following through with the musical direction we've been taking in the last five, six years."

"Electric Barbarella" (a tip of the hat to Barbarella, the 1968 Jane Fonda movie that inspired Duran Duran's name) is the upcoming single from Medazzaland, its first album since bassist John Taylor left earlier this year. The album is due in stores October 14.

Now a trio -- featuring original keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, who joined in 1990 -- the group explored "some dark, beautiful shades on this album. ... I personally think we've recaptured some of the spirit of Rio," says LeBon, referring to the 1982 album that turned the British group into superstars.

In the '80s, the group's most famous fan was Diana, Princess of Wales, whom LeBon describes "as really a good, fun girl. ...I'm really going to miss her." But LeBon -- no stranger to paparazzi -- refuses to join the chorus of celebs implicating photographers in her death. "Everybody's avoiding the real issue, which is that if the public didn't have a hunger for those pictures, the newspapers wouldn't buy them and the paparazzi wouldn't take them," he says. "Our own curiosity's to blame. It's as simple as that."