In 1990 duran duran released the album "Liberty". The album didn't impress the charts since it was completely overlooked and didn't receive any airplay. EMI hardly promoted the album and it was the first album without a world tour. A photoshoot at the french theme park "Foire du Trône" in Paris was made for the album cover.
Foire du Trône
The album still has the classic new romantic style we are used to from them but they were also experimenting with more heavy guitar work guided by Warren Cuccurullo. And funky synths from Nick Rhodes. This was the album to move them into the 90's.
Foire du Trône, Paris
It actually did eventually and paved the way for their next succesful album in 1993. They started working on a new album directly after releasing "Liberty".

Warren Cuccurullo (guitar) and Sterling Campbell (drums) were officially addopted as band members. Duran duran was now a band with five members again like the early days. Sterling left the band already in 1991. Warren left in 2000.
Violence Of Summer - single cover
The first single "Violence Of Summer" was the worst choice for a duran duran single ever in history. Although not as bad as "Burning The Ground" which was basically a DJ medley from EMI to promote the compilation "Decade" released before this album in 1989 to end up the 80's.

But this first single is probably the cause of the failure of the album to score. The first single always has to be a strong one. That's a fact!
Serious - single cover
Don't Panic! Because the album includes "Serious" which is in my opinion the best duran duran song ever. It seems Simon Le Bon agrees with me on this point (details here). Just like Robert Palmer. Years later DJ Ferry Corsten used a sample of the song for his worldwide hit "Fire". It was released as the second single but it was already too late to recover the damage done by "Violence Of Summer".
"Liberty" sounds like songs on the previous 2 albums "Notorious" and "Big Thing". Which is classic duran duran stuff. "My Antartica" is a beautiful balad and full of emotional vocals which is of course a trademark from Simon. The heavy guitar from Warren works best on "First Impression". 90's music style is prominent on the funky "Hothead".

Their next untitled album (but nicknamed The Wedding Album based on the cover) from 1993 would bring them back on the charts with the strong "Ordinary World". By then they finally managed to enter the 90's with big success.


Original album cover
Liberty
Violence of Summer / Liberty / Hothead / Serious / All Along the Water / My Antarctica / First Impression / Read My Lips / Can You Deal with It / Venice Drowning / Downtown
 Serious video
My Antartica
Hothead