"Night Runner"

Entertainment Weekly is allowing visitors to stream the new Duran Duran-Timbo-Justin collaboration "Night Runner." The first fifteen seconds – with the clicks, woodblock percussion, and synth-chime melody – sound like Rich Harrison producing TKA, while the bridge turns into robo-Gibb (as in Barry, Maurice, and Robin). It's spare, hooky, and insinuating (I can't wait to hear the inevitable remixes), more vital than anything on Timbo's recent solo album or even Justin's "Summer Love," his least eventful Top Ten. The problem: it sounds like a Justin track on which Simon Le Bon happened to guest (which, for certain people I know, is a good thing). I can understand why Andy Taylor's talent for whammy-bar abuse made him flip through his Rolodex for Rod Stewart's phone number.