It’s not overstatement to say that Duran Duran‘s All You Need Is Now is one of the band’s strongest efforts in years. But the now-quartet’s 13th album, produced by Mark Ronson, did suffer from a befuddling release schedule. A truncated 9-track version hit iTunes just before last Christmas, with a complete 14-track set (plus a few more on the expanded edition) arriving in March. (Maybe the die-hard Durannies ponied up during the holidays, but I held out for spring.)

Duran Duran embarked upon a tour to promote the album, but lead singer Simon Le Bon soon began experiencing persistent vocal problems. After cancelling a series of dates in May, the band’s UK trek came to a complete halt in July. After several months’ rest, Le Bon is back in singing shape, and Duran Duran re-started the All You Need Is Now Tour stateside in September.

With album promotion now back on track, Duran Duran has debuted the music video for second single, “Girl Panic!”, definitely the standout cut on All You Need Is Now. Directed by one of the art form’s most in-demand auteurs, Jonas Åkerlund, the nine-minute film, lensed at The Savoy in London last June, features a parade of yesterday’s supermodels — Cindy Crawford, Eva Herzigova, Helena Christensen, Yasmin Le Bon, and Naomi Campbell — cast as the band members. (Guess who inhabits Simon Le Bon?)

For Duran Duran, a band whose decades-long videography has made liberal use of female models, “Girl Panic!” serves up a brilliant self-referencing visual twist. And while those ladies’ days as catwalk-queens may be mostly behind them, the clip is proof that they remain stunningly gorgeous. Who says beauty fades?

Of course, any student of pop history would be remiss not to mention that George Michael famously made use of models as his mouthpiece, way back in “Freedom ’90”. Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford appeared in his clip, which also provided some equal-opportunity male eye candy.

Purchase Duran Duran – “Girl Panic!” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.