Product Description

MANIFESTO was Roxy Music's 1979 return after a hiatus of several years. This second phase of the band continued in the direction begun with their 1975 album SIREN. Lush romanticism now enveloped their sound, softening the barbs and burrs that had been a characteristic since their art school beginnings with Brian Eno at the start of the decade. MANIFESTO yielded several hits and songs of enduring popularity in the Bryan Ferry songbook, notably "Angel Eyes" and "Dance Away". The latter, in fact, sounds of a piece with Ferry's eighties solo work--gorgeous, lush, and exceedingly romantic. This album and its two successors (FLESH & BLOOD and AVALON) effectively form a bridge from the glam-rock of the early '70s to the more sedate, but rich and confident, sounds of pop musicfor adults.

Track Listing

1. Manifesto
2. Trash
3. Angel Eyes
4. Still Falls The Rain
5. Stronger Through The Years
6. Ain't That So
7. My Little Girl
8. Dance Away
9. Cry Cry Cry
10. Spin Me Round

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8794 in Music
• Released on: 1999-11-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Amazon.co.uk Review
The key to Roxy Music's success is that from the start they were grown men playing rock & roll. Coming to stardom in his late 20s, Bryan Ferry had the knowledge and experience to invest his songs with novelty and depraved intelligence, but was sufficiently new to the whole thing that Roxy always sounded fresh. When they started getting on each others' nerves, they had the presence of mind to split up for a while, and reform when they felt like it--the result was Manifesto, a unique, compelling record that could well be their best album. Informed by the rhythms and radiance of disco, with a vicious edge that recalls their early recordings, and the effortless fluidity of Avalon and Flesh & Blood, it's the consummate Roxy record. The singles--"Dance Away", "Trash" and "Angel Eyes"--showcase the album's range, spanning saxophone suavity, fractious rock and hypnotic, disorientating disco. But the real jewel is the title track, a taut tapestry of rhythm and noise that they never topped. --Taylor Parkes

Customer Reviews

Disposable, but fun with it....
Best tracks: "Dance Away", "Spin Me Round", "Angel Eyes".

Roxy Music had taken four years leave before making a commercially successful comeback with 1979's Manifesto; the band still boasted the core members of the band (though a permanent bassist was something that'd never happen), and the style was still there, perhaps even more so. Yet the music was arguably the most lightweight they'd ever recorded up until then (their next album, Flesh and Blood, is even more insubstantial); only a few songs really strike a chord. Yet despite this, this album is entertaining, and even when it does lapse into by-the-numbers Roxy, it's never boring. Interestingly, three of the songs here - "Manifesto", "Trash" and "Angel Eyes" - are available in different versions, and in the case of the first two tracks, the rarer mixes are superior. I say rare; they are available on the fourth disc of the band's The Thrill of it All retrospective box set, so they can be found, (and the box set is brilliant through and through), but it'll cost you more to do so. In the case of "Trash", the alternative version, entitled "Trash 2" (originally a B-side) may lack the punch of the Manifesto version, but overall it's warmer, more substantial, and finally more satisfying.

The cool bass of the opening title track sets the scene of the album nicely; the rhythms are sophisticated, Bryan Ferry is more of a lounge-lizard than ever before and the lyrics are decent. Yet it's also totally forgettable; great to hear when it's on, but difficult to remember afterwards. "Trash" has a killer opening guitar line, and then ends up being exactly what its title suggests; it's fun, lively and totally disposable. Interestingly, this was selected as the first single from the album - it completely belly-flopped- though "Angel Eyes" and "Dance Away" were far more commercially successful and made the band a serious chart proposition once more. Speaking of "Angel Eyes", those hoping to hear the more familiar disco mix of the song might be disappointed to discover it's not here; instead we have a rougher version, closer to rock than dance. It's essentially the same song, and as someone who loves the single mix but has heard it too much, it's a great alternative. "Still Falls the Rain" has nice verses but rotten saxophone during the chorus, while "Stronger Through the Years" is nicely moody and atmospheric, evocative of late-night city streets, though again, I couldn't tell you how the song actually goes! Taken as stylish, all-surface pop fodder, "Ain't That So" is fun, as is "My Little Girl" and "Cry, Cry, Cry", but the bittersweet thirty-something disco of "Dance Away" is genuinely excellent; it made for a great single and has plenty of good moments. The album closes with another gem; the lovely "Spin Me Round" ends the album on a strong note, probably stronger than it deserves, to be honest! Dreamy from start to finish, it's the kind of song the album could have done more of.

Compared to former Roxy glories, Manifesto is no classic, but it is a fun listen, and difficult to dislike.

A strange album, but interesting...
An odd album, is "Manifesto". Roxy Music had got sick of the sight of each other in 1975 and knocked it on the head for four years before reinventing themselves as no longer the darlings of the art school avant-garde but the grand old doyens of the disco, merging rock with danceable tunesmithery to great effect, playing firmly on Bryan Ferry's lounge lizard image.

Thus, we have their "comeback album", which is not nearly the virtual Ferry solo venture that one might have expected (as indeed "Flesh And Blood" and "Avalon" are). "Manifesto" is actually one of Roxy's darkest, most inaccesible albums. From the brooding two minute plus instrumental introduction to the title track, through the bizarre two minute first single "Trash" with its portentous "new romantic" feel, three years early (Roxy always were ahead of their time) to the edgy, obscure version of "Angel Eyes" included here we have a murky, obscure creation. The single version of "Angel Eyes" was far more frothy and ideal for the dancefloor. This one is full of buzzy feedback and introspection.

"Ain't That So" is one of those insistent, souly tracks Ferry would specialise in in his later solo career, while "Cry Cry Cry" is somewhat irritating and experimental in places, with airs of The Velvet Underground's "Rock'n'Roll" in places, along with a melody that seems to bring to mind Ferry's 1977 solo outing "In Your Mind". "Spin Me Round" would not actually sound out of place on "For You Pleasure", it has a magnificent bass line on fade out, as has "Stronger Through The Years". "Dance Away" as included here is the original, heavier mix than its well-known single version. Thus, altogether you don't have the quantum leap into "disco" that is popularly hung around this album's neck. Instead you have elements of "Country Life" and "For Your Pleasure" pared down into bite-sized chunks, with a denser backing and lacking the vibrant camp of those carefree earlier days. As I said, it is a strange album and one that I've never really "got into" as such. Not that I haven't tried. It is this very inaccessibility that makes it interesting. Released in 1979 in the wake of punk, it is remarkable this album survived, but it did.

Remix-hell
This was a great Roxy album when it first came out on vinyl, a mixture of hard edged art rock and suave ballads. The sad thing is that later pressings and the cds replaced the excellent original versions of Angel Eyes and Dance Away with inferior re-recordings or re-mixes. And what did re-mixes in the 80's mean? Mostly adding a metronomical beat-box and killing all dynamics. You'll find the original versions on The Thrill Of It All.
(This review refers to the original cd-version, I don't know which versions of the songs appear on the remastered CD)