Roxy Music: Your thoughts?
 

Ok for those who haven't heard of Roxy Music then I'll give a brief rundown.

Roxy Music are an English band comprising mostly of Bryan Ferry (Vocals, Piano), Phil Manzenera (Lead Guitarist), Andy Mackay (Saxophone, Oboe), Brian Eno (Synths) and Paul Thompson (Drums). They are generally considered an art rock band, although through their albums they have touched on many other genres including Prog, Goth, Glam, Proto-Punk, Disco, Synth Rock and others.

They released eight studio albums between 1972 and 1982, having great commercial success in the UK, Europe and Australia. They have influenced many New Wave and some Punk acts with their early albums.

Your thoughts?

love their early albums, especially stranded. but avalon is a lame album

Definately agree with Captain Ron about loving the early albums. My personal favorite is For Your Pleasure. Very cool band in their day.

In every dream home a heartache is one of my all time fave tracks, especially live.

not a particularly big fan

only like the first 2 albums, Manifesto and Avalon

the others are pretty hit-and-miss

Avalon is a fairly late album

why am I so often misunderstood?

i mean Roxy Music, For your Pleasure, Manifesto and Avalon

i'm not a RM newbie - i've been listening to them for the past 20 yrs

I understood what you meant, but if you had written it as below it would have been clearer:

Only like the first two albums plus Manifesto and Avalon

i'm not really a big fan. sorry.

Why is that? And why would you be sorry? I think Brians vocals are fantastic and i always liked their compositions. They are one of those bands that has great cross over appeal in many genres ala Talking Heads. They truly have an original sound that is distinctly their own also. Great band.

well, husky male voices aren't my cup of tea. but that's just me. i want a vocalist that has that clear tone when they sing.

Have you even listened to Roxy Music? Bryan Ferry has the exact kind of voice you are describing. He doesn't have a husky baritone/bass range, he sings in tenor and does it quite well. Be honest you've never heard Roxy right?

Bryan Ferry husky!!!:eek:

those are their worst albums

he obviously hasn't, or bothered to check up a youtube

it's more of his usual spammiing/trolling

Are you referring to Manifesto and Avalon or their first two albums? (Self titled and For Your Pleasure)

well i like the artsy glam rock of the debut and For Your Pleasure, because of the Eno treatments

without Eno, I can only tolerate the smoother disco-ish Roxy of Manifesto or the laconic easy listening of Avalon

manifesto and avalon

Just out of curiousity what do you think of Stranded?

i don't like it much

some songs are just screechy unbearable - Street Life

most sound mediocre

only about one song is good - A Song for Europe

i thought the similar sounding Siren was much better - it at least has the stellar Both Ends Burning

There's not really that much difference in their first 5 albums, with or without Eno.

the first two sound vibrant

the three after that are dead and lifeless, i guess Eno had much more input than just playing "electronics"

I think the first 2 albums they did without Eno are better than the last one they did with him.

are u high? stranded does NOT sound dead or lifeless. jeez put down the crackpipe

The closest album to dead and lifeless imo is Manifesto, which I honestly don't mind. Anyway with Eno leaving some of that experimention is taken away but I'd argue that Stranded, Country Life and Siren are more consistent in quality then the first two albums.

Roxy Music is one of my all-time favorite bands. I love every single album they've put out with "Avalon" actually being my least favorite - though it's my least favorite I still like it quite a bit.

My favorite albums by RM are the first two with Brian Eno. Roxy was at their best when Eno was in the band.

Roxy Music are my favourite band too would you have guessed? ;)

But seriously it's fun comparing their first album to Avalon just to see how much they changed in 10 years. One thing that I think about is what would Avalon have sounded like if Eno was still with them when it was released.

I think you should give Stranded another listen.

Up until Flesh and Blood Roxy Music's back catalogue is almost faultless. I say almost only because of Manifesto, which isn't quite on the same level. Flesh and Blood is awful, but Avalon is a return to form.

I've always felt that Manifesto was their worst album, with F&B as a better version of it.

I think most will agree that those two albums though are Roxy's poorest.

Whats the general opinion on here about Bryan Ferry`s solo albums?

i only have the covers album (These Foolish Things), Let's Stick Together, Boys and Girls and the Dylan covers album.

Only B&G stick out. Though some of the covers are really good and totally unlike the original.

Dylanesque is nice, though it hardly adds anything to the originals. It's more like Dylan songs performed in a Ferry-esque manner.

These Foolish Things is a good album of covers but in general I find his solo work albums below that of his Roxy material. His original material on In Your Mind is quite poor.

you should check out Boys & Girls, though, i'd describe it as Avalon-esque

Thats one of the few Ferry albums of his golden era that i don`t know of. I like the song Boy and Girls though so I`ll check out that album asap.

you better, you bet

IMHO, that's the only one that comes close to Roxy Music greatness

I have Another Time, Another Place, Dylanesque and Olympia.

Another Time is good but as it is predominantly covers it isn't great. Their are times where Bryan gets a bit too country as well, but mostly he keeps within tasteful limits.

Dylanesque immediately struck me as really muscially strong as well as the obvious lyrics strength. Not having heard a lot of Dylan I can't compare Bryan's covers to the originals but nonetheless they are well constructed and very professionally done songs.

Olympia is my favourite of his solo albums so far. Smart, balanced pop/rock here with strong melodies to boot. Bryan's almost croon has aged but it gives the vocals a mature, melancholic feel. As usual there are two strong covers, but the Ferry originals here are where the main strength of the album lies.

Apart from the Another Time covers album I don`t know the other two albums but of the Ferry solo albums I`ve heard I think The Bride Stripped Bare to be the best.

As for the Dylanesque album you`ve mentioned, well most of the best Dylan songs imo are sung by somebody else anyway and normally end up being superior to the Dylan original, from Ferry`s love of covers I`d expect him to do superior versions of Dylans songs anyway.

The album comes across very well, as it is distinctly "Ferry" sounding but it still honours the original. I guess I should check out some Dylan albums so I can see how it sounds next to Dylanesque.

don't bother, Dylan's versions are vastly superior