It seems silly at this point to talk of yet another comeback from Duran Duran, since we’ve been disappointed in the (recent) past, but there’s some seriously solid buzz surrounding the group’s forthcoming album, All You Need Is Now, produced by Mark Ronson.

Upon corralling his childhood musical heroes in the studio, Ronson said, “I want to make the imaginary follow-up to Rio. The album that was never made.” The producer felt that with so many current bands co-opting bits and pieces of the early Duran Duran sound, there was no need to settle for such approximations; no one can do it better than Simon LeBon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, and Roger Taylor. Ronson just had to tell them to relax and the old magic would return. (Fifth original member Andy Taylor departed the DD fold for a second time in 2006.)

Within Ronson’s very first day in the studio with the foursome, they’d recaptured that missing energy. “If you’re really connected with them you just know when Simon hits a certain note,” Ronson says. “You know harmonically when something is just instant Duran Duran, the keyboards, the sequencing, the melody, the rhythm, the way that John and Roger play together. So you sort of know at once what that next turn should be, what feels right. And it just kept falling into place.”

Rhodes returns the admiration. “[Ronson] revitalised us,” he says. “He found an energy in us that hasn’t been there for a long time. Inspiration is one of the great mysteries of the world, of course, but if you have with you someone you trust, who has huge musical knowledge across so many genres, who is a fan of your band and knows all of the songs, that can only be helpful.”

We’ve got about a two weeks’ wait before judging the full results for ourselves. All You Need Is Now, the band’s 13th studio set, is out digitally on December 21. An expanded physical release and deluxe editions of the album are scheduled for February.

Today, as an early Christmas gift to both lapsed and longtime fans, as well as anyone who can’t get enough of that unmistakable ’80s sound, Duran Duran issued the title track and first single, “All You Need Is Now” as a free download. From the moment the song’s chorus hits, it sounds like Ronson’s desire to have the band return to their New Wave roots has been a successful endeavor:

Free download of Duran Duran – “All You Need Is Now” via iTunes.