The Devils

The Devils materialized through sheer happenstance when ex-Duran Duran colleagues Nick Rhodes and Stephen Duffy encountered each other at a Vivienne Westwood fashion presentation in 1999. Their ensuing exchange stirred up the long-dormant affinity both harbored for new-wave textures. Duffy had fronted Duran Duran until his departure in 1979, after which he gravitated toward folk-inflected songwriting with the Lilac Time. Years afterward he would quip that he had preferred the prospect of becoming the next Bob Dylan over turning into another emblem of glossy 1980s futurism. Rhodes, by contrast, remained with Duran Duran and steered the group toward international pop acclaim. The sleek electronic palette of that earlier outfit finds an echo in the Devils’ buoyant yet faintly gothic sensibility. Their inaugural album, Dark Circles, fuses carnival-esque keyboard washes, antique sampler textures, and serrated guitar lines into a heady swirl. Although the project sidesteps the high-gloss, radio-aimed polish typical of Duran Duran, both musicians retain an affection for direct, self-referential pop laced with glam accents and generous stylistic flourish. That shared sensibility also surfaces in their admiration for Kraftwerk’s steady pulse and the theatrical posture of early David Bowie. Dark Circles preserves the unvarnished intimacy of its bedroom-studio genesis while sounding simultaneously pristine and insistently nostalgic. Far from a mere backward glance, the Devils inhabit any era with equal ease.