Click on this link to go back to the main Duran Duran page at your liberty. Would You Care For Liberty or Libercoffee? Overall Album Score: 7.5 out of 10 It's not like I have to take everything the All Music Guide says and call it "Words of Wisdom," but every once in awhile, they're so WRONG that they're DRENCHED WITH IT! AND ALL THEY CAN SEE IS THE "GOO OF WRONGNESS!!!!!" Yes. Go to the All-Music Guide. Read the review. And realize that they are completely, utterly, and by all accounts WRONG about their assessment of Liberty. It's not that this is my favorite album on the face of this Earth, but *crap!* One star? ONE STAR? People might call me insane. People might even call my gerbil insane. BUT WE'RE NOT NEARLY AS INSANE AS THE ALL-MUSIC GUIDE. My impression of Liberty is not one-star dribble. Rather, this is clearly Duran Duran's greatest album ever since Seven and the Ragged Tiger!!! The songs on here are much better than the songs from Notorious and Big Thing. Whereas Notorious, we saw Duran Duran fading into no-talent nothings, and in Big Thing, they delved even further into that hole, Liberty we see Duran Duran getting their edge back! ... Albeit, they adopt a different sound; a 1990 sound. But, if you listen to this album, I think you'll notice that they're as creative with the 1990 pop standards as they were with the 1980 new romantic standards. It might be appropriate on some levels to call this a return to form, but they didn't go back to their New Romantic roots, did they? Naaah. But this is Duran Duran ... a return of confidence ... with an updated sound. (And the arrangements here are GREAT aren't they? It's still early 90s pop, but the production here is absolutely creative and one-hundred percent tasteful. I'm willing to say that Duran Duran was doing to 90s pop what they did with 80s pop. Seriously.) It isn't until the final third when the album gets stale ... and it doesn't really get that bad down there anyway. That said, there isn't really anything on here on par with "Rio" or "New Moon on Monday" or "Girls on Film" or "Tel Aviv." I guess that's why I'm not claiming that Liberty is the best album of their career. Overall Album Score: 7.5 out of 10 (This isn't a rock-and-roll classic, but it definitely is closer to that than being as awful as the All Music Guide might have you believe.) Average Song Score: 7.6 (This is not a bad set of tunes whatsoever. Many of these songs I'd definitely call "excellent.") Album Tilt: 7.5 (While there might be a few relative downers in the album, principally toward the end, this is something that I completely enjoyed listening to.) Artist Rating: 7.5 (This is more than just 90s pop. This is slickly-produced 90s pop with some clever arranging! Yes! Duran Duran are still the artists I kept on saying they were back in my reviews of their 80s albums! Yay!) Track Reviews Violence of Summer (Love's Taking Over) 9.5/10 This is evidence number one that The All Music Guide is full of crap. One-star albums don't have songs like this in them! This is an utterly slick song that's absolutely ON FIRE. The groove is very nice ... the melody compliments it very well. The excess noises I hear spluttered throughout the album might not be perfect ... but at least they're trying to rise above your average Madonna. This doesn't indicate that Duran Duran is lost in the gutter-of-dreck! This indicates that they've returned to form! ... except this is 90s power-pop and not 80s new romantic pop. Liberty 8.5/10 The title track! And it's about ... Liberty! (Whoopeeeeee.) This is also a neat little song that's led by a piano and has a pretty nice tune to it, I'd say. Not quite as nice as "Violence of Summer," but "Liberty" is still a pretty cool slow song with all sorts of neat, slick production backing it up. Hothead 7.5/10 Awwwwwwwwwww! Are you getting all political on us? That's pooey! (Okay ... this isn't groan-inducingly political ... the politicalness of this is too wide to really mean anything important, anyway.) Anyway, this song really isn't that good. And it's semi RAP! What kind of crap is that? RAP. CRAP. It's no coincidence those two words rhyme. Serious 8/10 This is rather bland, actually. Nevertheless, it's not a bad effort at all. This song has a certifiable melody, and it's certifiably not bad. But it fails to catch fire. Nice production, though! All in all, this is a pleasant song. All Along the Water 7/10 You know ... this isn't really that bad at all. It just seems to be directionless. The melody isn't catchy enough for me to become enamored with it. It has a nice enough beat to it to keep my attention. It's strong and confident, though. That's really what was missing in Big Thing. My Antarctica 8/10 The plastic groove this is based off of isn't bad. I like that sort of glass harmonica in the background. I'd say "My Antarctica" was a little bit directionless, too, but this one does have a nice melody to it. And I enjoy it quite pleasantly. First Impression 8/10 This is a toe-tappingly decent rock song with a very nice melody and ... yeah. This is pretty good. This one would have benefited by being a little bit shorter. I had to dock it an extra half-point. Read My Lips 7/10 I thought this was going to be some sort of George Bush song or something! (Ya know, he's the guy that says "Read My Lips, No New Incubators.") But it's not. It's a love song. ... And a strange one at that. It doesn't really have that great of a melody, but the production of it is nice. (Maybe it's a little bit overproduced, but that strange deejay record screeching thing is kinda neat ... and not corny whatsoever.) It's very confident, though. You can't deny that. Can You Deal With it 7.5/10 Oooooof. This one isn't bad, either. It's just a little bit bland. I really dig the production, though. For the record, people who would claim that this "overproduced" is really missing the point. At least Duran Duran is being creative with that aspect of it. Without the production, I would be screaming BLAND at it with real venom. Instead, I'm just mildly pointing out that this is a little bit bland. Venice Drowning 6.5/10 This album is becoming dismal! Well, I suppose we were all expecting it eventually. There's got to be some reason that the All Music Guide gave this album a one-star rating. Just the same, "Venice Drowning" is redeemed by its sheer class and that nice groove. Downtown 6.5/10 This is a not-that-impressive album closer. I like the production and the arranging again. That is this song's major strong point. Other than that, the song doesn't grab me by the ear at all. So. Hm. Please, take the liberty of bashing the snot out of me and my insignificant views. E-mail me here!

All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. Dry land is not a myth. I've seen it!!!!!!!