Pop Trash - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 52/100
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic
Entertainment Weekly C
Rolling Stone

Critics were generally unexcited by the album, as Metacritic gave it a 52 out of 100. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone said:

The well-named Pop Trash shows off their jaded hooks and nasty wit; it's for fans only, but those of us who still crumple at the opening hiccups of "Hungry Like the Wolf" will be glad for another fix.

Stacia Proefrock of Allmusic said:

Some of the smooth, spacy ballads that were characteristic of their 1993 self-titled release show up here, but more often than not Le Bon is lost in a swamp of overproduction. Completely absent from this music was the aggressiveness and sexuality that made early Duran Duran great -- kinder, gentler records could probably be expected from the band as they age, but this album feels careless and flabby instead of introspective.

Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly said:

Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say they didn't model Pop Trash after U2's Pop, but darn if Duran Duran aren't after a very similar juxtaposition of groove-based kitsch and super-sincerity. Not surprisingly, there are ephemeral confectionary delights and a general witlessness, never more than when Simon LeBon keeps crooning "We'll all be famous for 15 minutes" as if he just thought of the idea.

Ultimately, the album would become the band's lowest-selling album, and their last until 2004's Astronaut.

Read more about this topic:  Pop Trash

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