Bryan Ferry

The Return of Roxy Music

/ Winch / Leave a comment

 

Roxy Music
Manifesto
Atco  
1979
mediocre **
After splitting in 1975, Roxy returned with this forgettable release.
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Roxy Music
Flesh + Blood
Atco 102
1980
released May 1980, reached #35 in US (#1 in UK)
noteworthy ***
Featuring two weird covers (“Midnight Hour” and “Eight Miles High”) and cool originals, this set, as the sleeve design suggests, was an improvement over Manifesto from the previous year.

 

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Roxy Music
The High Road
Polydor 2335 269 (Holland) 
1983
noteworthy ***
Live album (26 minutes), two covers done in their own eccentric style, this time Neil Young and John Lennon, and two originals by Ferry, the band having no problem adapting to the 80s because it was more like the 80s adapting to Roxy Music, as Ferry and the gang played a considerable part in creating the sound of that decade.  This is a worthwhile grab for fans. (And I dig that cover for days.)

 

Roxy Music: Siren (LP) 1975

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Roxy Music
Siren
Atco 127 
1975
released October 1975 (US & UK), reached #50 (#4 in UK)
recommended ****

While Eno likely deserves more credit than given, considering he produced the essential albums by Devo and the Talking Heads, Roxy Music was able to stay strong after Eno split, something that even Eno himself admits.  Meanwhile, Ferry had already launched his solo career, but that doesn’t seem to distract his attention from this set.

 

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While many artists of the late ’70s foreshadow the ’80s (with of course, the previously mentioned Eno playing a big part), Roxy Music was creating the ’80s in the early ’70s.  This album, perhaps more than the previous albums, reveals this fact.

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While they’d been huge in their homeland since the beginning (with all five albums reaching the top 10), by this time, they had found an audience in the states.  This is also the time they decided it was time to call it quits.  Their last single (“Love is the Drug” from this set) was their first US hit.


— winch

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