It's easy to understand why For Your Pleasure is for many the favourite of the studio albums after all, Eno's dada-like contributions are still present (his influence is perhaps most audible on the title track, whose liquidy electronic textures call to mind Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy), and the rawness of the debut (its raucous style revisited most conspicuously in “Editions of You”) is now balanced by a slightly more refined if still ultra-stylized sound.
Filled with lyrical bon mots and clever turns of phrase, Roxy Music captures the band at a stage where its music not only bursts with ideas and imagination but is also fun, a quality that would gradually disappear from the group's music. Hear how deftly, for example, the band segues from the country-styled intro in “If There Is Something” to the epic drama of what follows, and smoothly executes the dreamy Bogart homage “2HB.” One of the recording's major pleasures is hearing how plentiful the contributions of Manzanera and Mackay are, especially when their playing on later Roxy albums is at times meager by comparison. Arresting Roxy touches-castanets and Mackay's oboe in “Ladytron,” for instance-abound, and the group shows itself amazingly adept at tackling any number of styles, whether it be art-school collage (“The Bob (Medley)”), torch song balladry (“Chance Meeting”), or ‘50s rock'n'roll (“Would You Believe?”).
#Roxy music eight miles high full
From the dynamic “Re-Make/Re-Model” on, the collection serves up one stunning piece after another, with all concerned asserting their individual selves powerfully-guitarist Phil Manzanera, sax-oboe player Andy Mackay, and drummer Paul Thompson in full roar and Ferry in full croon, and Eno strafing the music with all manner of squeals and squiggles. Less debut than detonation, the group's self-titled first album still stands as one of the most impressive coming-outs ever. The box set allows one to step back and view the group's output from a more objective perspective in order to trace its career arc-the high points ( Stranded, Avalon) and the low ( Flesh + Blood)-and its stylistic evolution. Bryan Ferry and company distilled a number of influences-fashion, movies, and ‘50s rock'n'roll, to name a few-into an art-rock style that rightfully came to be known as nothing else but Roxy Music. The band's retro-futuristic sound, born in 1971, was like nothing heard before, and its impact was bolstered by a disarming visual presentation and lyric writing that was urbane, wry, and witty. Is there another band whose total album output holds up as strongly as Roxy Music's? There aren't many, and certainly any doubts in that regard are laid soundly to rest by a newly issued ten-CD collection that features digitally remastered updates of the band's eight studio albums and two discs containing non-album singles, B-sides, and remixes. Roxy Music: The Complete Studio Recordings
0 kommentar(er)
