Track Listing

1. Don't Want To Know
2. NYC
3. Your Painted Smile
4. Mamouna
5. Only Face
6. Thirty Nine Steps
7. Which Way To Turn
8. Wild Cat Days
9. Gemini Moon
10. Chain Reaction

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #93179 in Music
• Released on: 1999-11-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

CD Description
From his earliest days fronting Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry perfected a coy kind of R&B-based music with a techno-progressive overlay of synthesizers and post-industrial guitar thrash, even as his sly, dry martini vocals and fey lounge lizard poses defined a new style of urban chic.
But with MAMOUNA, Ferry has fashioned an ambiguous, seductive, unsettling soundscape in which the old lounge lizard is now seen as a rootless romantic searching for anything to hang on to, or the nearest exit--but as the menacing "Wildcat Days" suggests, there's "no way out".
Ferry's songs personify longing, denial and spiritual ambivalence, but what makes MAMOUNA so special is its atmospheric mix of guitars and keyboards, its taut, spatial selection of laid back dance grooves. Adding to the power of his funk are a who's who of top rock and R&B musicians, including guitarist Nile Rodgers, James Brown/P-Funk alumni Maceo Parker and ex-Roxy Music collaborators Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay and Brian Eno. The return of Eno has aprofound effect on Ferry's music, as his moody sound processing lends an Oriental ambience to each arrangement, to particular effect on the title tune, with its mystic pan-Arabic airs, and the suave, mysterious "N.Y.C". Ferry makes the most of these hypnotic grooves on the seductive, bluesy "GeminiMoon", the R&B foreplay of "Chain Reaction", and the decadent "Your Painted Smile".

Customer Reviews

Best Record By Bryan Ferry Since Avalon
Outstanding record. The best record by Bryan Ferry since Avalon. This is a very slow record, ideal for listening to in the evenings. The musicianship and production on this record are outstanding. Highly recommended.

2nd best Cd Ferry has ever done
I agree with the other reviewer; "Avalon" is one of the best CD ever recorded, let alone one of Ferry's best; but "Mamouna" is not far behind, even though it seems to be one his most forgotten works. I think it is far superior to "Bete Noir" "Slave to Love" and "Frantic." Check it out - you won't be disappointed.

Mamouna [Original recording remastered]
I love Ferry's solo work. The recent "Frantic" was superb and "Boys and Girls", "Bete Noire" and "The Bride
Stripped Bare" were excellent too. "These Foolish Things"
is one of my all time favourite albums but this is so disappointing. Yes,
the musicianship is good (tho' it's hard to tell just what is being
played. It sounds like synthesisers, fretless basses,lots of sharp and
stinging riffs from Robin Trower and drum machines to me..) but the
songwriting is very samey, the tempo throughout is without variation, all
the songs blend together into a smooth and stylish mash and nothing - not
one single song! - is remotely hummable or memorable. There are no strong
tunes at all, no obvious hit singles, no edge whatsoever. This is fine as
background music at a dinner aprty where the guests sit around and make
small talk about nothing at all but to judge a Ferry album as good only
for background "muzak" is to be as harsh as one can be. This is
like eating bowl after bowl of Miso soup: it's fashionable, it's meant to
be good for you but it's JUST SO DULL.