By May 2006, after a two-year tour in support of their previous album ASTRONAUT, Duran Duran had completed 14 songs for a record provisionally titled ‘Reportage.’ But according to singer Simon LeBon “When we sat down and listened to what we had done on our own, we didn’t feel we had a lead track, so we got in touch with Timbaland, who was the only producer out there that we knew we all liked.” America’s most pop savvy producer was more than happy to help and a session was duly set up at the Manhattan Center Studios in New York in September of the same year. What none of the band realized prior to taking off in this new direction, however, was that one of their biggest fans, Justin Timberlake, was also keen to get involved in the project, so when they arrived in the US he made room in the middle of his album release campaign to spend time in the studio with them.
But as if this new collaboration wasn’t enough to really change things up, in the midst of all this, guitarist Andy Taylor split with the band, and with his departure the remaining four band members opted to change tack and start over completely.
