Both tracks are among Roxy’s all-time best. Or the melding of various elements in “Ladytron”: solemn oboe, another C&W verse, and a furious finale with Eno processing Manzanera’s guitar into alien shards. The best tracks rely on structural juxtaposition, such as the journey “If There Is Something” takes from bent country to a dark motivic section (with an outstanding sax solo) to a grand denouement. Rock indeed gets warped on this album, more from a conceptual standpoint than the playing. In the midst of it all is Bryan Ferry’s eclectic songwriting, which he voices in a schizoid gamut from lounge parody (“2 H.B.”, “Bitters End”) to wicked bard. There’s a rock thrust from guitarist Phil Manzanera, drummer Paul Thompson, and bassist Graham Simpson, tweaked by Andy MacKay’s reed work (honking sax, twittering oboe), and manipulated into a spacy haze by Eno’s sonic necromancy. This implies that the tracks aren’t so much songs as artifacts, or system theories, and it’s as truly arty as they ever were. The best comment on the debut came from Brian Eno, who said something to the effect that it had about a dozen possible futures on it. ![]() The individual RM albums are available as Virgin remasters. It’s the meeting place of rock sensuality and the cufflinked classy life that Ferry pouts about in his lyrics. Some of the intellectual atmosphere left with him, replaced by a decadent haute couture of fine musicianship, figurative palm fronds and champagne bottles, tuxedos and forced-grin females. In 1973, Eno was nudged out by Ferry’s domination. And then there’s Brian Eno, whose synthesizer and instrument treatments give the first two albums an otherworldly sound and hipster status. Various bassists come and go - Roxy never had a permanent one. Drummer Paul Thompson’s earthiness grounds everything up through Manifesto. Lieutenants Andy MacKay (saxophones, oboe) and Phil Manzanera (guitar) provide a variety of instrumental interest. The underlying musical basis - Ferry’s four-chord tunes with personal lyrics - remains pretty much the same, though only the settings and decoration change. It’s hard to explain Roxy Music, as they blend a rock essence with pop-art elements (they were an early example of postmodernism), and the gradual move toward smooth romanticism further confuses things. Singer and main songwriter Bryan Ferry’s debonair persona was the one constant, and it spurred his solo career even before Roxy disbanded. They emerged in the early 1970s wearing intergalactic glam garb, offering avant-gardish paeans to Bogart and beauty queens, among other things 10 years and several unclassifiable records later (Was it art-rock? Lounge music from a forgotten future?), Avalon saw them out as polite pop sophisticates.
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