[2] Andy Taylor would later be replaced by former Missing Persons guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, who completed recording parts of the album in addition to Rodgers and session drummer Steve Ferrone.

Despite being a commercial failure selling fewer copies than their previous releases, it received positive reviews from critics, who praised the band's maturity and production.

The band would regroup in 1985 to record the song "A View to a Kill" for the James Bond film of the same name and performed at the Live Aid charity concert in July of the same year, which proved to be the last time all original members played together.

[4] By the time it came to record the new album at the beginning of 1986, drummer Roger Taylor had quit the group, citing exhaustion and overwhelmed with the band's success.

"I plugged in my guitar, played a few tracks with the engineer in order to honour my contractual obligations and then left to phone my lawyer.

"[8] Keyboardist Nick Rhodes reflected on the circumstances saying, "When John went on the Power Station tour with him, he felt they were growing up.

[9] During the sessions, Taylor began hanging out with members of American rock band Missing Persons which had broken up.

[10] Cuccurullo would eventually become a full-time member of the band in 1989 after their tour supporting their follow-up album Big Thing.

The sound of Notorious was an obvious direction, especially due to the fact that the band's last two hit singles "The Wild Boys" and the James Bond theme "A View to a Kill" were "edgier" but were worldwide successes nevertheless.

The band also commented that the writing process was easier, in comparison with the tense recording sessions of Seven and the Ragged Tiger.

Due to the band's determination to move to a more sophisticated style, the results were more mature such as the negative aspects of the press ("Notorious"), work exploitation ("Skin Trade"), band tensions ("Vertigo (Do the Demolition)", manipulation ("So Misled"), and political intrigue ("Meet El Presidente").

[12] The band named several tracks after several Alfred Hitchcock films, such as Vertigo and Rope – the original title for "Hold Me".

Rhodes and Le Bon said that the writing for the album was easier in comparison to the tension and hysteria-filled sessions of Seven and the Ragged Tiger.

In June 1986, EMI fired its president and went through a reconstruction with the label losing interest in the band in favor of new artists.

"[24] Rolling Stone reviewer Mark Coleman wrote, "Notorious is by far the group's most consistently listenable work.

But while it doesn't plunge to past depths, neither does it scale the giddy heights of irresistible hit singles like "The Reflex.

It's easy to see why the band would choose such a route at this point in their career, but moderate doses of pop enthusiasm would have made Notorious a fuller and more enjoyable package.

The provocative, nightclub brand of martini-sipping pop that does surface is meritorious to a certain extent, felt mostly in the album's two biggest tracks.

"[21] All tracks are written by John Taylor, Nick Rhodes and Simon Le BonDuran Duran Technical Artwork Additional musicians