Product Description

From 1975's SIREN through the rest of Roxy Music's albums and his concurrent solo work, Bryan Ferry was leading up to AVALON. The last Roxy Music studio album (it was followed by numerous collections, both live and otherwise), it is the perfect culmination of Ferry's constant striving for the ultimate sophistication. On AVALON, the styles that the band had explored in the past--funk, jazz, and rock--come together tocreate a texture of remarkable subtlety. The title track isFerry's finest moment. His suave voice turns the romance all the way up, while the band plays in a smooth, light jazz-funk groove and guitar notes shimmer like the sun on water.
"While My Heart is Still Beating" features Andy Mackay's saxophone drifting in around Phil Manzanera's languid guitar lines. "True to Life", a ballad shot through with reverberation, is the kind of song aching to be played late at night with the lights off. From the almost jaw-dropping elegance ofthe opening track, "More Than This", to the closing "Tara",a sparse, evocative instrumental, AVALON is Roxy Music's masterpiece.

Track Listing

1. More Than This
2. Space Between
3. Avalon
4. India
5. While My Heart Is Still Beating
6. Main Thing
7. Take A Chance With Me
8. To Turn You On
9. True To Life
10. Tara

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3603 in Music
• Released on: 1999-11-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Amazon.co.uk Review
Hipper students of 1980s pop might like to pretend that Joy Division and The Smiths had a monopoly on melancholia, but for the older, more suave miserabilist, nothing could match the stylised desolation of Roxy Music's last album. Avalon was recorded in the wake of the band's first number one hit--a version of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy"--and although that song isn't on here, its tortured shadow looms large over "While My Heart Is Still Beating", the title track, and the unlikely Balearic anthem "More Than This". If time has been kind to Bryan Ferry's crumpled Armani chic, it hasn't exactly been vicious to his back catalogue: Avalon sounds even more sumptuous now that the CD age has caught up with Rhett Davis' pristine production. --Peter Paphides

Customer Reviews

Smooth.....nice.....a very fine swansong for a great band.....
Rating: 7.5/10

Best tracks: "More Than This", "Avalon", "True to Life", "Take a Chance with Me".

Roxy Music began life as a raucous, impossible-to-pin-down, rough, ready, post-modern and decidedly futuristic proposition; by the time of their last album, they'd become an entirely different band. Super-smooth, mature, elegant, streamlined and without a single note in the wrong place. I can imagine there may be some people who loved "Ladytron", "Editions of You" or "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" who refuse to have the time of day for Avalon, and vice versa. Roxy Music were certainly building their way towards this album's peerless perfection the moment they made their comeback in 1979 with their sleek, more chart-friendly Manifesto and the following year's Flesh and Blood; neither were classic Roxy Music albums, though they both had their moments, the former in particular. Before Avalon, it looked as though the band seemed like they were merely getting by, in danger of being hopelessly overshadowed by the many bands they'd helped to inspire and influence, their glory days long behind them. Yet Avalon saw them give it one last shot, to spectacular effect. A valid criticism of the album is that it's too-perfect sounding, to the point of being over-mannered. You can tell these songs have been airbrushed and honed to absolute exquisiteness, and for those who like the sound of spontaneity, recklessness or anything approaching surprise, Avalon will not be a favourite. At its best, such as on the mighty "More Than This", the seductive title track and the wonderful "Take a Chance With Me" (unsurprisingly, all were singles), we're talking about Roxy Music at its finest.

The title track, if you're feeling mean, does sound in places like a prototype for what would be Chris de Burgh's hideous forte (sorry, it IS there....) of chocolate box romance (sorry, that should be "rom-aaans"), but it's a beautiful thing, and with its "now the party's over" opening, pretty much a perfect summation of the band's farewell status. It's the kind of late-evening, impeccably tailored, sensual mature pop that loads and loads would try and copy, and yet barely anyone would be able to match. Despite what it helped to influence, this remains one of the band's best ever songs. You can't blame a band for the poorer imitations it inspired, can you? Just try and block out those "Lady in Red" resemblances.....it can be done! The stylish late-night mood-funk of "The Space Between" and "The Main Thing" are terrifically performed and produced, even if they aren't exactly memorable at all! "India" is a beguiling, atmospheric instrumental interlude that's like a sunset-travelogue and, in its own innocuous way, one of the best little things the band ever created. The fine if unspectacular "While My Heart is Still Beating" makes for a very strong point that this is as much a Bryan Ferry solo album as much as it is a Roxy LP, since it's indistinguishable from his own material, yet Ferry himself never was able to recapture the magic present here, though lord knows he'd try again and again and again. "More Than This" is just absolutely, maddeningly perfect, with one of the best Ferry vocals ever, while the band refrain from histrionics, play it perfectly cool and evoke perfect skies, sleek suits, glamorous dresses, exquisite melancholy and bittersweet joy. "Take a Chance With Me" was a single, though many best-ofs and retrospectives ignore it; I have no idea why, as it's absolutely fantastic from start to finish; those guitars just sigh and strut, the rhythms are perfect, and above it all, Ferry gives it that unique feel with that great voice of his. "To Turn You On" might make some go green with its MOR-esque atmosphere, but it's a beauty, especially during that lovely solo. The hidden gem on this album however is "True to Life", a magical, mesmerising thing of wonder with a great chorus. Unfortunately "Tara" is merely an okay, forgettable epilogue.

Compared to the likes of Stranded and Country Life, Avalon lacks excitement, surprise or edge, but it doesn't try to deliver on that level; on its own terms it's a smashing adult-pop album, beautifully played, divinely sad, smooth and oh-so very stylish. In theory it should be hopelessly bland, but it works, it really does. Only a few average (tracks 2, 5, 6 and 10 in particular) songs and a general lack of sonic variety make it less than perfect. Overall though, Avalon is a very fine way for one of the best bands of the 1970's to bow out. Fall for it.

PS: The B-side to the "Avalon" single, "Always Unknowing" is an absolute must for anyone who loves this album, as it's more the same; delicate, dreamy soundscapes....try and find it!

Avalon Roxy Music
Bryan Ferry, what a guy, what a group. More than this, The main thing, Avalon, India, while my heart is still beating, all great tracks. This is not the best album of Roxy Music, that is Streetlife, but worth investing in.

The eighth studio Roxy album�
By the time the eighth and so far final studio album from the lasting remaining 3 core members of the band Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay and Phil Manzanera was released in May of 1982 tensions where running high between the band members, possibly why this collection is such a ground breaker in style and execution.
With the use of atmospheric keyboards and percussion this album set a standard that Mr Ferry has been trying to repeat since the release of this album, the first solo release from him �Boys and Girls� was like a sequel to this recording.

The opening track �More than this� was the first single to be released from this album and got to number 6 in the single chart. The main theme of the song is picked out on the lead guitar with the keyboards playing against it with percussion and strings adding atmosphere for the opening lines of �I could feel at the time, there was no way of knowing�.
�The space between Us� has a big percussion sound than has drums and guitar playing fills with keyboards adding a sense of space and texture.
As the title track �Avalon" starts with the guitar playing the intro with slowly played Latin sounding percussion with the smooth voice of Mr Ferry crooning the opening line �Now the Party�s over�, the song as features a stunning background vocal section singing �Dancin�, Dancin�. Dancin�� underpinned with the smooth sax in the middle section with Yannick Etienne vocals sitting on top of the main vocal track giving a haunting air to the song as the song fades out.

The following track called �India� was played through the P.A. as the band took their places on stage during the �Avalon� tour, this instrumental piece was also used as the B-side to the �More Than This� single, and the music itself is very short and full of texture and space and as the music is about to finish the percussion of the following track begins. �While My Heart Is Still Beating� is another love song written by Mr Ferry and the sax player Andy Mackay, the track itself has layers of percussion and keyboard tracks that are interwoven with saxophone and guitar and some big sounding bass.

Handclaps and bass guitar with more percussion are interspaced with the bass and keyboards that pick out the main theme, of the track �The Main Thing� that was used as a B-side of the single �Take a Chance On Me�, which was the third single from this album and final single released during the life of the band.
This is the next track in the running order and this track was written by Ferry/Manzanera, the song has an a slow intro and then a change of pace with the guitar and sax picking out the main theme, this is interwoven with the main vocal to underline and punch out lines in the song adding a big dramatic feel to the track.
The song �To Turn You On� was an old track that Bryan had written during the recording of �The Bride Stripped Bare� and when they needed a B-side to the John Lennon tribute single �Jealous Guy� this track was used. Bryan Ferry felt this was to good a song to be lost as a B-side.
For the second last track �True To Life� which has a high-hat intro on the drums with percussion with keyboards and a big sounding bass filling out the track which has the opening lines �So it gets to seven and I think of nothing�.
To close this album and in a way to underline the music that had gone before an atmosphere instrumental track �Tara� written by Ferry/McKay that has a saxophone intro which carry�s the main theme that is filled out with keyboards and as the track finishes the sound of waves can be heard crashing on the shore as if to say you made it home.
The perfect end to a superb atmospheric album that still sounds superb today and with the re-mastering by Bob Ludwig sounds even better the sound on the disc is HDCD standard.