The Best Of Roxy Music

This is probably the best Roxy Music compilation in that it covers both phases of the band's career, unlike, say, the one I bought in the seventies that only went as far as 1975. 

Roxy Music were one of those bands that had two distinct eras - the 1972-75 period, which became know as their "art-rock" years and the reformation years of 1979-1982 which found them releasing classy, lush, lounge-bar music in the style of which their charismatic lead singer Bryan Ferry would record himself over many subsequent years. 

For me, it was the first period that found me becoming a huge fan. I was thirteen-fourteen in 1972 and this other-worldly but stylistically glammy and totally unique appealed to me no end. For many, my wife included, it is very much Roxy phase two that they related to. A lot of people who claim to like Roxy Music have little or no real knowledge of the first phase, which is a shame. It will always be Roxy phase one that really resonates with me on a deep level, even though I like both of them.

What is unusual about this compilation is that, unlike most, which are chronological from the beginning of the band's career, it goes in reverse, starting in 1982 and regressively going back ten years to 1972. Many said that Roxy were ahead of their time, so maybe this proves it! My writing, therefore, becomes more loquacious, so to speak, the further back in time we go - the purple passages come right at the end of this review. Maybe you should start reading the review from the bottom up!

So, what do we begin with?

Well, it's the simply sumptuous bossa nova vibe of Avalon with its unforgettable siren-like backing vocal from Yanick Etienne and wonderfully melodic Andy Mackay saxophone and then, from the same Avalon album we get the smooth, easy on the ear, catchy pop of More Than This. 

Roxy's only number one chart hit was their post-mortem tribute to John Lennon, their cover of his plaintive love song, Jealous Guy, a song enhanced by more Andy Mackay saxophone and Bryan Ferry's infectious whistling bits. The song would seem to have been perfect for Roxy at this point in time. 

Over You, from 1980's Flesh & Blood album, is an infectious, hand-clappy pop number in similar style to More Than This. It is actually quite irresistible. Same Old Scene is very much the sort of thing that Ferry would put out in his subsequent solo career. It sonically perfect and washes over you like a warm bath, but it doesn't ask anything of you as a listener, like, say, 1972's For Your Pleasure album did, but it can give you a perfect background soundscape, should that be what you want.

Oh Yeah - or "there's a band playing on the radio" as most people know it - has a grandiose stateliness about it and an absolute killer of a chorus refrain. The drums, percussion and synthesisers, together with Ferry's classic vocal are pretty much perfection. 

Angel Eyes was, in its single release format that we get here, a smooth piece of typically late seventies-early eighties Roxy-Ferry disco-radio rock fare but in its album version (from 1979's Manifesto) it is a dense, grungy and edgy workout that, although retaining the same basic rhythm and lyrics, is almost like a different creation. Then we get Manifesto's really big hit single, Dance Away, which is also presented on its parent album in a format noticeably different to the one used on the radio which was the one that is used here. Like Angel Eyes, the song is murkier and considerably darker on its album version but the contrast is not quite as great with its single version as it is on Angel Eyes. It sounds simplistic to say, but the album version is much less radio friendly, less syncopated. The best version of the song is the 45 rpm release we get here. Great, that's sorted then.

Now, let's go further back in time - it's 1975. This is quintessential Roxy Music.

Both Ends Burning is five minutes or so of percussive transatlantic disco influenced funky rock and excellent it is too, although many fans from the 1972-73 days hated it. It very much tapped into the US disco thing that was prevalent at the time, with its infectious rhythms and funky percussion. Once again, it showed that Roxy were evolving, musically and stylistically, as were artists as diverse as David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and T. Rex at the same time. Eno must have hated it though, although it wouldn't be long before he too started dabbling in world music and dance rhythms. 

The now iconic opener to 1975's Siren album, Love Is The Drug, with its atmospheric "footsteps on gravel and car starting" intro sounded great in 1975 and over forty years later it still does. It never sounds out of date. I love Paul Thompson's drum rolls before each chorus too. This track had the first of those transatlantic influences that Roxy would come to deal in with its New York City or Paris after dark vibe and disco-ish bass line. This song paved the way for Roxy Music phase two, from 1979 to 1983. Its 1975 single release and appearance as the lead-off track on its album saw the first moment that Roxy started to gain new fans, the sort who would go on to consider this album one of their best offerings, a bit like those who love Springsteen for Born In The USA, Dire Straits for Brothers In Arms or Queen for Its A Kind Of Magic.

Now we get the stunning Out Of The Blue with its great bass line and stunning Phil Manzanera guitar, augmented by Eddie Jobson’s electric violin. This was proper mature Roxy laid-back rock. A fine live version of it appears on the 1976 live album, Viva!.

1974's All I Want Is You, with its storming opening guitar riff, is the most underrated of Roxy's excellent 45s. It is often not mentioned in the pantheon of great Roxy singles, the attention going to Virginia Plain, Street Life and Love Is The Drug. This is a pity as it bristles with pop rock energy from the first second when that huge dazzling guitar riff opening gives it life. Lyrically, it has its beguiling moments too - "don't want to learn about etiquette from glossy magazines..." has Ferry hinting that his new-found cool style is self-created, not learnt from secondary sources. "An old refrain it lingers on - l'amour, toujours, l'amour..." has Ferry dipping into French once more, echoing A Song For Europe slightly, highlighting his cultured persona - he is a lusty, enthusiastic lover, but an erudite, educated one. Gone was the tuxedo for Top Of The Pops, though, it was plain black t-shirt and jeans, but this was a calculated move to show that Ferry could be "cool-casual" as well as lounge bar smooth. The song resurrects the old Virginia Plain abrupt ending too. 

On Mother Of Pearl Roxy Heaven continues - first with with the frenetic first one and a half minutes of breakneck guitar driven rock, before the tempo instantly drops to a slow, plaintive drum beat and high-pitched background guitar interventions as the tension builds up again, rather like it did in Psalm and, bit by bit we slowly reach a climax again. The pace gets just a bit faster, Ferry's delivery gets more urgent, the bass becomes more obvious, the drums more insistent, the guitar parts more intricate. Why, it's just bloody wonderful.

From late 1973, Street Life was a wonderful, upbeat single, from the opening "fade in" of that strange jangling sound (played by Eddie Jobson and mixed with car horn noises), to Paul Thompson's kick-ass drum intro, to its intriguing Virginia Plain-style lyrics ("continental-style Strasse girls might..."), this was, not unsurprisingly, a huge hit. Slotting in easily to the late 1973 glam zeitgeist, the frantic, shimmering pace never lets up, Bryan Ferry's quavering voice and Paul Thompson's drums are on top form throughout. It was one of Roxy's finest singles, perfect in so many ways. 

Do The Strand, from 1973's For Your Pleasure, is another in the collection of killer opening tracks that Roxy albums seemed to specialise in - overflowing with saxophone, Paul Thompson's rolling, glammy drumming and Ferry's hammed-up vocal delivering intriguing, captivating lyrics about rhododendrons, fandangoes, Mona Lisa and the Sphinx among multifarious references. It is up there in the pantheon of Roxy Music off-the-wall classics. Quite how one should dance "the Strand" remains unclear. 

Pyjamarama was an absolutely unique, quirky follow-up to the big hit of a stand-alone single, Virginia Plain. It was a song with precious little traditional structure, just two verses of odd lyrics and plenty of saxophone, keyboards and drums doing their thing. It is virtually impossible to analyse or describe so  will just say listen to it and you will understand what I mean. Compartmentalise it at your peril. 

Virginia Plain was the big one that introduced the world to Roxy Music. Did anyone really know what hit them in September 1972, when Roxy Music appeared on the scene with this wonderful single? Who were Roxy Music? No-one really knew. They were a disparate bunch of middle class students (and down-to-earth drummer Paul Thompson) and they looked like Teddy Boys - like 50s revivalist members of Sha Na Na - dressed at times in what looked like bacofoil suits as if they were Dr. Who extras. They remain, to this day, a group that were totally impossible to pigeonhole and they were all the better for it. They were simultaneously retrospective and futuristic both visually and musically - blaring rock and roll saxophone mixed with odd-sounding tape loops, weird synthesiser noises and powerhouse glammy drumming from Thompson sitting solidly behind Bryan Ferry's bizarre, quavering voice, the like of which had not been heard before. Take the frantically-madcap sound of this track and its strange lyrics as the perfect example, sonically and lyrically. What was that all about? I bought the single in 1972 and was hooked and I remain so. "Make me a deal and make it straight.......". I never, ever tire of the song. 

Re-Make Re-Model was a fantastic start to the group's eponymous debut album, with all the individual Roxy members taking solos in Bryan Ferry’s ode to a car number plate (CPL 593H). This track just sort of summed up what early Roxy were all about - exciting, individualistic, innovative, futuristic, revivalist. All those things rolled into one intoxicating whole. After some background chattering noise the track kicks off into a glorious cacophony of blaring saxophones, searing guitar, thumping drums and bleeping, wailing synthesisers, perfectly blending contemporary, upbeat glam rock with classic riffy rock and, notably, a retrospective late fifties rock and roll vibe. It was a magnificently heady maelstrom of exciting sounds and stands as one of the finest first album/first songs in any era. 

There we are, we've arrived back in 1972. How was it for you? For me it was a new sensation, a fabulous creation, a danceable solution to teenage revolution...