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 Lovin' the Roxy February 19, 2008
Mr. Derek Pike (Southampton UK)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I can't believe I have only just heard this album. Obviously I have been aware of it for what seems like ever due to its infamous cover, but this is the first time I've actually listened to the album and what a treat it is.
I've always liked Roxy Music, particularly the Eno era albums, but I've recently delved deeper thanks to Michael Bracewell's excellent Remake/Remodel book and the equally entertaining Both Ends Burning by Jonathan Rigby, (Both highly recommended if you want to swat up on the influences behind the first album and the a potted history of the band's whole career).
This, their fourth album shows signs of the more polished Roxy emerging which would alienate much of their early fanbase in the band's twilight years. But don't let that put you off, this is a great album that shows the range of styles that Roxy Music were capable of at this point and the world they created around their music.
The opening track, The thrill of it all, is one of the best album openers I can recall, and certainly as thrilling as it's title suggests. Bryan Ferry's confident vocals are an invitation to forget Roxy's previous artier outings and party basically.
Three and Nine is a typically English Roxy oddity which finds Ferry musing over the old days of cinema and possibly even foretelling the advent of the multi-plex. His passion for the old time movie stars has always been obvious and this is an opportunity for him to wallow in this for a few minutes. I don't like the arrangement of this at all, but the lyrics are undeniably charming. All I want is you, is Roxy at their very best, and this was a perfect choice for a single release. I've played this so many times in the last couple of weeks, it really is that infectious. Out of the blue is typical Roxy from this era, I love the intro to this and the rest of the song is pretty good too. If it takes all night is the only real low point for me, coming across like stodgy MOR pub-rock, clashing fairly clumsily with the rest of the album.
Bitter Sweet should sound horribly dated with its oompah faux German stomping, but it is still a treat. This is Ferry at his oddest vocally since the darker moments of For Your Pleasure, and the track is all the better for it. Manzanera, Thompson and Mackay come into their own at the latter end of the album particularly, and this is where the fun begins.
Triptych is the curate's egg of the album with its medieval arrangement, recalling for me at least the music from Peter Davison era Doctor Who. The album wouldn't be the same without it though.
I'm undecided about Casanova, as much as I like it it somehow never really takes off and Really Good Time comes all too soon. Returning to the celebratory mode of the opening track, whilst not quite letting his hair down to the same extent, Ferry offers an end of the party lyric, interspersed with what sound like excerpts from a martial arts movie. A great track that signals the end of the album in a highly appropriate tone.
Roxy pull out the stops for the final track, Prairie Rose. A rollercoaster song in which Ferry's wailings and yearnings for a Texan Beauty (Jerry Hall?) who is "tantalising" him, gives way to a showcase of all the band's talents. I first heard this as the B side of Big Country's East of Eden in 1984 and loved it then. The track serves its purpose by urging you to put the album back to the start and listen all over again, which is exactly what I've just done whilst writing this.
I'm loving The Roxy this year - join me!!
Roxy's best..... December 22, 2007
New Gold Dreamer (Enfield, England)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Rating: 9/10
Best tracks: "Out of the Blue", "Prairie Rose", "Bitter-Sweet", "Three and Nine".
Though critical praise is usually lavished on the Brian Eno-era of Roxy Music, I think both the band and Eno himself did greater things as soon as they parted ways, Eno with his extraordinary run of 1970's work, and Roxy with the two peerless art-pop masterpieces made directly after his departure - Stranded and Country Life - the latter being their all-time high.
Dizzying, intoxicating, arty, trashy, elegant, decadent, funny, melancholic and experimental, Country Life appropriately kicks off with "The Thrill of it All", their best ever album-opener and an unrelentingly exciting, impeccably written dazzler. Bryan Ferry as a vocalist just kept on getting better and better over the first four Roxy Music albums, as did the band, whose playing is electrifying throughout, encompassing all kinds of new directions, genres and styles; it's no wonder that after this, their undoubted peak, the only way was down; that's not to say they turned rubbish, they just never matched this.
The utterly lovely "Three and Nine" is a glorious, nostalgic throwback, the mighty "All I Want is You" one of their simplest, yet magnificently pop-soaked hits, while "Out of the Blue" is a very, very strong contender for the band's greatest ever song. Eerie, swirling keyboards, delirious electric violin, funky bass and probably the most astonishing finale of any Roxy song (Yes! Better than "In Every Dream Home a Heartache"!), "Out of the Blue" is so head-spinningly thrilling it's almost scary, but the thrill of it all pulls you through. Hmm, I'm not sure about the doo-wop-esque filler of "If It Takes All Night", which is definitely the album's only song that you could even consider calling a misfire; it's really closer to pastiche rather than anything inventive (even though it`s a lively, entertaining pastiche), but the album really gets going again with "Bitter-Sweet", a glorious, Germanic cabaret stomp that's this album's equivalent of Stranded's "A Song for Europe", it has drama, power and sweep in abundance; here, Ferry plays the role of the impeccably-suited lonely-heart to a T, and by the time "the show's in full swing", the effect is astonishing.
"Triptych" sounds like some lost 7-inch from the 16th century, and of course, that's a huge compliment; just listen to it...it doesn't sound like anything else the band have done, and is an epic, eerie, beautiful thing. "Casanova" brings it all back down to Earth with a great, dirty riff, while "A Really Good Time" is a pretty, nice respite before the huge, triumphant ode to Texas that is "Prairie Rose", which makes for a wonderful, soaring closer, probably the best closing track on any of their albums in fact. Sleazy brass, lovely guitars and an absolutely fantastic chorus that'll have you going "hey-hey!" all day!
So yeah, Roxy Music (not to mention Ferry himself) reached their apex here; they'd still deliver the goods now and then (on Siren and Avalon in particular), but this is their classic. Great cover too!
 Huge disappointment May 19, 2007
Neil
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
I bought this album when it came out in 1974 having been stunned by the first three Roxy albums and the two non-album singles, Virginia Plain and Pyjamarama. To a sixteen year old male, the album cover was a further strong buying motivator, I have to admit. After getting past the cover and listening to the music, however, my heart sank. I have rarely been as disappointed by an album as I was by this one. The first three albums were brilliant, this one was, at best, fair to middling. Sadly, it was the first step on the way to the sickly middle of the road garbage of the likes of Dance Away, Angel Eyes and Avalon. This is where Roxy Music started to lose their reason for being. After this they were no longer unique, no longer exciting. "The Thrill Of It All" had alas gone, never to return.
If you are considering whether to buy this album, don't until you have bought Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure and Stranded.
The Decline and Fall of Roxy Music November 6, 2005
T Allen
9 out of 13 found this review helpful
This is where it all went horribly wrong. It’s not immediately obvious, though, as first impressions are promising enough. The louche glamour of the sleeve maintains the tradition established with the first album. Two sirens, only three items of underwear between them, outside, caught in the headlights’ glare, pinned against the encroaching foliage – country life chez Ferry?The Thrill Of It All is an effective enough opener. It has the dash of Do the Strand or Editions of You, if not quite the panache. Three and Nine follows, and is a grim harbinger of things to come. Lyrically, it's a tedious conceit and the perky faux pop of the backing seems merely faux. All I Want Is You is dramatically better; perhaps Three and Nine was just an aberration? What immediately follows would seem to confirm this. Out Of The Blue is outstanding and, by itself, makes the album worth buying: Ferry’s vocals urgent and involved, Johnny Gustafsson's amazing bass runs, the lead instruments thrillingly phased. If It Takes All Night is something and nothing, but then things really take a turn of the worse. Bitter Sweet attempts to relive the magnificent mordant melodrama of Song For Europe but capsizes in the Teutonic chorus. The intention was, I expect, to evoke the atmosphere of Cabaret, of Berlin in the 20s, but it's difficult to take seriously. Triptych is another sorry contrivance and Casanova is not much better; only their titles seem fit to grace a Roxy album. A Really Good Time and Prairie Rose are passable minor tracks but not a lot else. In the canon of most artists this would be regarded as a moderate success with a couple of standout tracks, but Roxy’s magnificent standards -- set by the first three albums – were so much higher. Against these,it’s a flop.
A mostly brilliant, album. May 4, 2002
Jason Parkes (Worcester, UK)
11 out of 16 found this review helpful
'Country Life' is where it all changed for Roxy Music; 'Stranded' had moved away and into the avant-garde with 'Mother of Pearl'. They could have gone the Can route or this way...The first three-albums are obviously five-star classics- everything about them is perfect and permanent examples of how 'out -there' pop music can be ('Ladytron', 'Dream Home', 'Song for Europe')...This is where Roxy became a bit more palatable- towards the international-lounge sound of 'Love is the Drug', 'Angel Eyes' & 'Same Old Scene' (all brilliant...). There is a bit of a confusing overlap with Ferry's solo albums- which got weirder as Roxy got straighter- see 'In Your Mind' or 'The Bride Stripped Bare'.The album opens with 'The Thrill of It All', which comes on like a relative of 'Editions of You'; imagine if The Doors had dropped the rock'n'roll cliches. The keyboards and pounding drumbeat make this a logical follow-up to songs like 'Street Life' and 'Amazona'. There is a sense that Ferry is having less to say here- the lyrics capture the fleeting Proustian sensation- the forever moments- perhaps 'Mother of Pearl' wiped him out?...'Three & Nine' exhibits Dylanesque harmonica, before a sublime vocal comes in: "change is here to stay". It is one of the albums blander moments- towards the sound of 'Siren'...'All I Want is You' is a lovely glitter turns penthouse stomp- one of the finest Roxy singles with great guitar from Manzanera. And the bridge is rather special- if people want to know how to write pop-songs properly- come here rather than 'Pop Idols'...'Out of the Blue' is one of the greatest of Roxy Music songs- up-there with 'Sea Breezes', 'Dream Home', 'Mother/Pearl', 'Both Ends Burning'...It seems a lot more epic than it is- a work of great complexity that talks of Lou's "pale blue eyes". Ferry is reaching his luxury-misery, his life becoming a suave-tragic film: "I don't mind if it's only a passing craze/Throwaway lines often ring true". This is one of the strongest reasons why this album has to be owned...'If it Takes all Night' is rather mediocre- lazy in a wonderful manner...'Bitter Sweet' continues the world that 'Sunset' opened up- grandiose like solo Scott Walker. This is a torch song if ever I heard it...'Triptych' is a rather odd harpsichord featuring song- a bit Dead Can Dance ten years before; the lyrics are not unlike a Seamus Heaney poem...'Casanova' is another spine-tingling track- it's an oblique gaze at international emptiness- if Resnais shot 'Emanuelle'? Love the conclusion "Casanova- is that your name/Or do you live there?"- the guitars are in overload equal to Manzanera's Cale/Eno collaboration...'A Really Good Time' has a bit of a cheesey title, the chorus of "we'll have a really good, really good time" not worthy of the transcendental verses: "You're well educated with no common sense" or "You know I don't talk much/except to myself". Roxy were moving towards the middle-ground- though the strings (keyboards?) are rather divine...The album goes out as it came in, on a pulsing, effortlessly cool, rocker- 'Prairie Rose'. A fantastic song that feels like the end of something- and a definite influence on Johnny Marr's sound on 'Strangeways, Here We Come' and Talking Heads Eno-produced 'The Big Country'... The follow-up 'Siren' was a lot blander- despite the brilliance of 'Love is the Drug' and 'Both Ends Burning'. Best stick with the Roxy compilations after this album- and maybe switch to Japan's 'Gentelemen Take Polaroids'? And I still have no problem with the cover- it's not that different to a Boss Hogg album cover when it comes down to it...
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