Best Bryan Ferry solo album?

This video for "This Is Tomorrow" is sick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmqrTUNrWSM&feature=related

If this thread started today I'd probably vote for Dylanesque.

The "Positively 4th Street" on that record is outstanding.

I really like the whole thing! I haven't heard every Ferry solo album but those I have feel a lot more grab-bag and/or just buried in "atmosphere."

<i>Dylanesque</i> >>>>>>>> <i>I'm Not There</i> soundtrack, too.

The "let's get my live band and run through a bunch of Dylan songs" concept works in large part because Ferry's such an idiosyncratic artist himself, and one who normally stultifies everything with studio perfectionism. The relative (and I mean relative) tossed-off quality is really charming.

Alfred, I've been (slowly) listening to Scott & your discussion re. the Roxy/Ferry albums, and today listened to the Stranded piece. I thought what you said about "Psalm" being 70s-Elvis-style gospel missed the mark, because "Psalm" is more unrestrained than any 70s Elvis I know. But then I listened to Another Time, Another Place for the first time, and thought that the Elvis connections here were more clear, in particular with the 1971 album Elvis Country. That album is mostly a covers album, full of introspective country-folk songs that frequently venture into ennui. While ATAP isn't a country-folk album, it's not so far from one (and of course Roxy at the time played with country, cf. the opening of "If There Is Someone" and "Prairie Rose"). I'd say that ATAP is akin to that Elvis album, in the sensibility it explores. Heck, it even shares a song ("Funny How Time Slips Away"). I was surprised at how much I loved ATAP today---def. will be returning to it again soon.

I thought what you said about "Psalm" being 70s-Elvis-style gospel missed the mark, because "Psalm" is more unrestrained than any 70s Elvis I know

You could be right. I've listened to maybe two albums' worth of Elvis in this period, and what made the comparison plausible was the way Ferry flitted between camp and sincerity using the restrained voice he essayed on For Your Pleasure's "Beauty Queen." A couple of my judgments were improvised. I'm pretty sure if I heard "Psalm" now I'd change my mind.

thanks for listening, by the way!

i grew up with Bete Noir and Boys and Girls being staples in my house as a little kid, and then got really into Roxy later in life. now I'm really pissed that I never heard Foolish Things until just now. was missing out.

xp yeah, it's been interesting---I was looking for a way to structure/motivate my listening through Ferry's oeuvre in particular, and this is doing the trick.

Trying to form thoughts on the B+G-Bete Noir period was my favorite part, actually.

"Don't Stop the Dance" from Boys and Girls sounds like the most amazing thing to me right now. I want to start a band and make music based on the way this song feels.

Incredible song.

have you heard the 12" single?

Truly. Good fucking music.

that Nile Rodgers slink-guitar stretched out gorgeously

Putting in a plug for my friend/sometime ILM poster sw00ds (couple of posts on this thread), who'll be writing about Ferry's cover albums this week at One Week//One Band.

http://oneweekoneband.tumblr.com/

Aweesome. The Go-Betweens week made for good reading.

Ned, sw00ds, and I on The Jazz Age and Olympia:

http://rockcritics.com/2013/02/21/roxymania-re-turnedre-tuned/

Only three people listened to the last two Bryan Ferry albums, but they all recorded a conversation about it.

saw Bryan Ferry last night. holy shit, what a show. i sort of expected some kind of low-key midtempo lush affair but this was a pure rock show, like something from the late '80s. complete with some sick guitar solos and great backup singers wailing away and this incredible sax player who looked like she stepped out of a robert palmer video. we talked to her after the show, she had been in some other band playing saxophone, and she said Ferry had heard her music and sent her a message on myspace(!) and that's how she ended up in his band.

How's his voice? Last thing I've seen from him live were some videos from a couple years ago, I think some TV performance of Loop De Li, and seemed somewhat deteriorated. I'd love to catch one of those shows if he's singing at 50/60% of his top form.

A friend of mine said that he saw him in NYC and that his voice was much stronger than its been. I don't know how that could be – these things tend not to reverse themselves after 15+ years. But he said he sounded great.

his voice was showing its age a bit but i thought he acquitted himself well throughout. he seemed a little buried in the mix for much of the show (which i didn't mind; you could hear him well and the band was so on point), but during the quieter songs he sounded good. his aging quaver works nicely for his style.

Good to hear. I will say: as much as I appreciate some of the nuance of his voice in old age, I would much prefer to hear "Avonmore" sung by the Bryan Ferry featured on the cover of that album rather than the nearly-70 one who actually sang it.

I dunno, Roger Daltrey was sounding pretty ragged with the Who, then he had surgery on his nodes (or whatever) and after I saw him solo and with the Who and he sounded pretty good. And god knows Ferry isn't singing as hard as Roger.

Anyway, I saw Ferry last year or so and he sounded great.

He sounded ragged but OK when I saw him in 2011.

Can he sing this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrrG2WTzFXw

Stupid black monolith for me.

Depends on your browser. I had problems at work yesterday morning b/c I was on Chrome.

It's "The Name of the Game."

I have no problem on Chrome on my phone, will check computer and safari in a bit. That's where I've had problems.

I know this isn't "solo Ferry", but "Same Old Scene" is so unique, amazing, revolutionary--with the chilling synths, everything is perfectly layered and the groove is unbeatable. "Same Old Scene" sounds like it laid the basis for all of the new wave music of the first half of the 80s, I believe Duran Duran said it was a very influential song for them (Ministry even recorded a demo of it as well that's on Spotify), so I am surprised it is not more widely known. Despite Flesh And Blood having these soaring, catchy singles, the album has an oneiric quality that I really enjoy for all of this period's transitional awkwardness.

an amazing song

All those burbling synths in the verse are the best

I love Flesh & Blood.

Flesh & Blood is the only Roxy album I don't really rate but Same Old Scene is an incredible song.

I should clarify that I don't really think of F&B as Roxy in the way I do pretty much every other album of theirs (including Avalon). It's far too broad stroke pop, too new wave textured and too session-y in a way that none of their other records are. But on its own, I really enjoy it.

I thought his voice sounded pretty good in DC a few weeks back

Didn't Eno chose "Same Old Scene" and "Mother of Pearl" as his favorite post-himself Roxy songs?

I checked again those tv performances, which were on Jools Holland... He sounds pretty good on Loop De Li, but on Virginia Plain all you can hear are the backing vocals. Anyway, glad to know he's OK. I'm all for it if his singing is on Frantic level.

I post this occasionally, because it's fun, but this Icehouse song (replete with Eno backing vocals) is such a wonderful "SOS"-era Roxy rip-off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekufPK0pGvE

If that's "Hey little girl", yeah we noticed back then.

No, it's a song called Spanish Gold.

Have spent the last week or so with Mamouna. A record I never rated much sounds like Kane stalking Xanadu nearly a quarter century on. The tunes are runway model skeletal, the performances so comped I’m not sure most of the performers could spot their parts if asked (indeed, Manzanera couldn’t on “Don’t Want to Know”), the lyrics often a collection of empty cliches. And for all of his celebrated return, Eno is all but inaudible in the dense,murky fog that is Bob Clearmountain’s mix.

And yet...yet...I find this record almost hypnotically beautiful. There is a handful of great songs. “Which Way to Turn” is gorgeous and dripping with dewy sadness, and “Chain Reaction” is one of his best post Avalon pieces. There are some fabulous individual moments as well, including the bridge to “Gemini Moon,” and Ferry’s melancholy piano coda to the title track.

But the record works best as a piece – impressionistic pieces of taut, aimless funk and drifting sambas to nowhere adorned by Ferry’s admirable croon. In retrospect, this is the last time his voice would sound this way – by Frantic, the legendarily fulsome baritone would charitably be characterized by Chris Roberts as “lived in, not merely dined in,” but in truth had clearly entered its decline phase.

Here, though, it’s merely a lead instrument, adorned by his thickest, most mucous-y production yet, chock full of guitar atmospherics and Prophet pads that threaten to drown out the Eno treatments – which in any case do not remake or remodel the production here so much as sink into it like a luxury sofa.

His greatest collection of songs? No. His most memorable album? Nope. But his best, most consistent record? Quite possibly.

Well said. Mamouna's got some gorgeous bits to offer. I think I especially love the run from track 4 to 6: title track - The Only Face - The 39 Steps.

I would have voted for Bête Noire in this poll, which is a longtime favourite of mine. Boys & Girls is a close second.
I'm a massive Ferry fan but the winner of this poll - These Foolish Things - would never have crossed my mind to vote for. I don't dislike it, it's fun... but it may be my least favourite Ferry solo album!

I was always proud of my Mamouna salvage job.

Indeed, was recalling it when I composed the above.

lol, a few days ago, apropos of nothing, I was playing "These Foolish Things." My wife walked in and asked if I was listening to the "Rocky Horror Picture Show," which ... otm?

"Mamouna" has always been my sentimental favorite, most likely because it was the first solo Ferry album I ever owned, and got right when it came out. I know I was already a Roxy fan - I bought all their albums as cutout cassettes - and I somehow knew of songs like "Kiss and Tell." I remember when "TaxI' was released, but didn't pick it up (was it the mere three-star RS review?). But "Mamouna" I got as a promo, and for some reason I was super-stoked. Probably because it came out at peak '90s Eno. Anyway, I listened to it a lot and saw him on that tour. I recall him starting with his "I Put a Spell on You" cover. He sprinkled glitter on the stage, iirc. And Steve Ferrone was playing drums .

and he played keytar!

Your experiences are startlingly close to mine except I bought Taxi at the time of release, thanks to hearing "I Put a Spell on You" on my college station.

(I think we are very close to the same age.)

Woah, mine as well. Down to the glitter.

How about those covers?

diappointed mamouna didn't get any votes, I think that's the one I listen to the most these days.

Yes, and Taxi is really good. I remember this just getting slammed when it was released; baffling to me.

Agree about yr #1

As Alfred already knows, I would rank "These Foolish Things" a lot higher than it's placed but am satisfied with the rest of the rankings; also, that first song is no longer a Dylan song but a Ferry one, such is the cover's greatness (which seems to be the case with most Dylan covers).

Also, Boys + Girls and Bete Noire are equally awesome albums. <3

Mamouna is by a long shot my favourite but I wasn't around here to vote for it. Which Way To Turn is my favourite solo Ferry song mostly for the way he sings "I can't control my feelings if I tried" in the manner of a man who, at his wildest, loosens his tie, undoes three buttons and lets a forelock dangle onto his brow.

I'm not sure which is more visibly uncomfortable for Bryan Ferry: playing guitar or growing a beard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOnYGdGgqs4

I keep expecting warring factions of an Italian crime drama to bust into this video and destroy the place.

Tad
12 years ago
it's great how he sometimes just gets it all wrong!

Wasn’t this a bad time for Ferry because of a particularly difficult romantic breakup? I always associate the beard with that - it brings to mind Luke Wilson and how he believed growing a beard was a good fit for his lovelorn character in The Royal Tenenbaums.

Yeah - sez Wikipedia:

It was recorded after his girlfriend Jerry Hall left him for Mick Jagger in 1977, and appears to contain references to their break-up.

The answers to the original question:

These Foolish Things
The Bride Stripped Bare
Bête Noire

Wasn’t this a bad time for Ferry because of a particularly difficult romantic breakup?

There was also a madness in his soul, and he'd go to L.A. laundromats to watch clothes tumble over and over.

Best: The Bride Stripped Bare, then Frantic
Worst: Dylanesque or Avonmore
Overrated: These Foolish Things
Underrated: In Your Mind or Olympia

Ecstatic over this Mamouna reissue. I can believe it includes songs from Horoscope, which is the original iteration of the project

http://www.vivaroxymusic.com/albums_129.php

What's weird is that Avonmore had several of those Horoscope songs, and you can tell: his voice is richer, thicker.

The cover model seems dejected seeing the pillage of Ferry's tape vaults.

i wish the vinyl reissue had the Horoscope tracks; if not it should retain the original cover, I think. I'm sure they'll slip those out on vinyl for RSD or something

NVM me I misread that whole thing, looks like the vinyl does have those tracks, just not the other outtakes

What's weird is that _Avonmore_ had several of those _Horoscope_ songs, and you can tell: his voice is richer, thicker.

i've been doing a roxy music + ferry runthrough, i'm very familiar with every roxy album but ferry beyond boys & girls is totally unknown to me, both before and after. really loved the cover records, really enjoy bride stripped bare transitioning into the reunited roxy music material, but last night i had insomnia and i ended up listening to mamouna over and over again and am totally under its spell and adore its hungover-at-nighttime atmosphere

Great wisdom indeed.

yeah it's one of his best albums, I'm continually surprised that not everyone agrees with that.

Hi!

These are long basks. "Which Way to Turn," "Chain Reaction," the title track, "The 39 Steps" -- classic Ferry. When I saw him in '95, he and the band extended the latter to a 12-minute jam.

Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XPLB3lGFOo

yeah well I expect to agree with you on everything other than Press to Play.

Finally official release date for Mamouna/Horoscope: November 17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1FsWsme3pU

Deets, per Amazon:

Description
Bryan Ferry’s ninth solo studio album ‘Mamouna’ is being reissued for the first time since 1994 and is being released on two deluxe formats. It was Bryan Ferry’s first studio album in seven years to feature original recordings, having worked on the album for six years under the working title of ‘Horoscope’. The previously unreleased alternate recordings to the final ‘Mamouna’ versions are collected for the first time on these deluxe reissues as the ‘Horoscope’ album. The 2LP audiophile heavyweight vinyl was half-speed cut at Abbey Road Studios, London, by master engineer Miles Showell. The 3CD version also includes the ‘Horoscope’ album, with an additional disc of previously unreleased demos or “Sketches” from both the ‘Mamouna’ and ‘Horoscope’ albums. The artwork direction for the updated reissue was overseen by Bryan Ferry himself. The album features a stellar cast of supporting musicians including Nile Rodgers, Guy Pratt and Steve Ferrone, as well as contributions from his Roxy Music bandmates Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay and Brian Eno. The album peaked at Number 11 on the UK Official Album Chart and includes the singles ‘Don’t Want To Know’, ‘Your Painted Smile’ and title track ‘Mamouna’.
Track Listings
Disc: 1
1 Don't Want To Know (1999 Digital Remaster)
2 N.Y.C. (1999 Digital Remaster)
3 Your Painted Smile (1999 Digital Remaster)
4 Mamouna (1999 Digital Remaster)
5 The Only Face (1999 Digital Remaster)
6 The 39 Steps (1999 Digital Remaster)
7 Which Way To Turn (1999 Digital Remaster)
8 Wildcat Days (1999 Digital Remaster)
9 Gemini Moon (1999 Digital Remaster)
10 Chain Reaction (1999 Digital Remaster)
Disc: 2
1 Where Do We Go From Here (The 39 Steps)
2 The Only Face (Horoscope Version)
3 Desdemona (N.Y.C.)
4 S&M (Midnight Train)
5 Loop De Li (Horoscope Version)
6 Gemini Moon (Horoscope Version)
7 Raga
8 Mother of Pearl (Horoscope Version)
Disc: 3
1 Mamouna (Instrumental Edit '89 / '94)
2 Your Painted Smile (Instrumental First Draft '89)
3 Your Painted Smile (Later version with guide vocals '89)
4 Your Painted Smile (Piano and Vocal '93)
5 N.Y.C. / Desdemona (Instrumental '91)
6 Robot (Instrumental First Draft '89)
7 The Only Face (Instrumental First Draft '89)
8 The Only Face (Piano and Vocal '93)
9 Loop De Li (Instrumental First Draft '89)
10 Horoscope (Instrumental '90)

Oh darn

So was Horoscope actually a finished eight-song album, ready to be released in this form, or just the name of a project that became Mamouna?

depends on how you look at it. it wasn't really done and ready to be released, it turned into Mamouna, but it's fairly close to 'done'. You can find high quality versions of it online.

Many of the songs he cannibalized for future things. I prefer the "Loop de Li" on Avonmore.

agreed

I've argued for years that he kept the '94 vocals on several Avonmore tracks. You can hear the difference.

Here you go:

Eric Alterman – We Are Not One: A History of America’s Fight Over Israel

lol

I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_28Ja-xXn7c

He's singing the melody line from "Mamouna."

this is a 94 recording with 89 guide vocals though, not an avonmore recording with 94 vocals.

Oh, I wasn't making that point again. I was posting the first track he released from the set.

oh, ha

My friend Andy Zax on FB:

Horoscope circulated internally at WBR at the time. (I still have my official in-house copy.) Everyone hated it, and for good reason. The version of “Mother Of Pearl” is an unspeakable horror.

Needless to say I'm interested in Ferry invoking Cthulhu here.

He's singing the melody line from "Mamouna."

Yes, it's the verse of "Mamouna" and the bridge of "Your Painted Smile". I imagine that, starting with these sessions, Ferry would do a lot of reconfiguration of parts of songs in the attempt to create finished masters.

i disagree that it's an unspeakable horror. It's interesting. Is it vital and necessary? no, but it's not a total embarrassment. On the whole horoscope feels unfinished, which it is; and Mamouna is an infinitely better finished product (my personal second favorite Ferry solo release)

I remember, when Mamouna first came out, my friend suggesting that the then-unknown Horoscope must have contained eleven other Zodiac songs in the vein of "Gemini Moon".

The version of “Mother Of Pearl” is an unspeakable horror.

I had no idea such a thing existed so it was the first thing I checked out. Of course it pales next to the original, almost everything does, so remake/remodeling it was rather pointless, but it's a sultry groove and fun to sing along with. I didn't hate it.

There are also very few examples of Ferry remaking/remodeling pre-1976 Roxy in the post-1979 style. I’ve written before how incongruous certain aspects of the transition seem – in that sense, the Horoscope “Mother of Pearl” is a bit of a missing puzzle piece.

So they have released the ‘89 instrumental and final versions of “Your Painted Smile” from this edition as well. The former, which appears to be all Ferry on keyboards, is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1FsWsme3pU

It seems the message is “Here is Bryan’s process for arriving at this record.” And it is indeed a very interesting process.

it's cool because they haven't done this before with his solo albums; and this wasn't the obvious one to do (that would have been boys and girls; but maybe there isn't as much outtake material for that)

I've long wanted a Ferry + synths/Ferry + keyboard Rick Rubin project.

Andy Zax has been involved in solid reissues, but I truly don’t care about his personal opinions regarding music

His opinion about the re-made re-modeled "Mother of Pearl" isn't any better or worse than other assertions in this thread.

I've long wanted a Ferry + synths/Ferry + keyboard Rick Rubin project.

it's cool because they haven't done this before with his solo albums; and this wasn't the obvious one to do (that would have been boys and girls; but maybe there isn't as much outtake material for that)

that would be great because Frantic is likely my third favorite ferry solo album.

I wonder what else exists of the Roxy sessions that then morphed into the rest of Olympia

Soooo great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75cRAMGGAIc

Edit of Mamouna title track instrumental demo from 1989 and fading into the 1994 track now also available. I again enjoy listening to Bryan putz around on his ROMpler.

Raga and Mother of Pearl redux are both amazing.

Yep. “Raga” was one of the first things I checked out. It was called “Blinded By the Life I’m Living” on the boot I had – but the Nth generation sound on that one completely obscured what an absolute corker it actually is.

I do not think "Mother of Pearl" is amazing.

The attempts to get "Your Painted Smile" and "The Only Face" right suggest he could've written first-rate instrumental music.

The deluxe is a fun listen. Oddly, most of Ferry’s ROM-pler demos are richly atmospheric and more in keeping with the final versions on Mamouna than Horoscope, which while detailed and layered feel like they are missing a final layer of lacquer typically associated with most of Ferry’s work.

Some initial thoughts and observations:

“Gemini Moon,” likely a central tune to the Horoscope concept, is more a straight funk number there, absent the swampy Duane Eddy-ish guitar on the record proper.

The same is true of “The Only Face” which, according to Jonathan Rigby’s (excellent) Both Ends Burning book, had been kicking around since 1976 – its descending circular chord progression bears more than a passing resemblance to Roxy’s “My Only Love,” which Ferry also beat into the ground over the years. The sweeping demo and piano and vocal drafts included here are great.

Interestingly, the version of “Loop De Li” on Avonmore actually begins with an overdubbed version of the demo included on this – none of the mostly completed Horoscope version is used, including the vocal which may not be from 2014 but is certainly post-Frantic.

By contrast, “Midnight Train” here hews pretty closely to the completed version – again, the vocal may have been re-recorded for Avonmore but generally this sounds far more similar, albeit with a slightly less prominent disco rhythm guitar.

“N.Y.C./Desdemona” as noted upthread was clearly conceived as part of an urban suite here. The original sketch is pretty similar to the final version on Mamouna, albeit a bit more programmed and leaden, with most of the little touches—the whistling in the intro, the Maceo sax, the live drums—added as it progressed. It’s possible Nile Rodgers’ part was added later as well, tho he may be just mixed lower on the Horoscope version.

“Raga,” as mentioned, is terrific, particularly once it transitions from its languid opening section about 3:05 in. Why wasn’t it included or finished is a bit of a mystery. It may have been that the phrasing if it’s refrain was too similar to the “Tick tick time/It don’t mean nothing” of “Gemini Moon.”

Will try to add some more thoughts over the course of the holiday week.

We got Alfred review

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/bryan-ferry-mamouna-deluxe/

Hurrah!

Great review!

Thanks! Labor of love

I’ve never heard a note of this, & that review made me very intrigued. Very much enjoying so far. Nice slow burn on ‘The 39 steps,’ loving it.

Try this. Beautifully sung.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDHOLIvgD2E

lovely review Mr. Soto

That's a lovely review of Mamouna, Alfred. Always thought that the middle section of the album - 'Your Painted Smile' to 'Which Way to Turn' - could be Ferry's strongest solo work.

This run of goodness abruptly ends with 'Wildcat Days' - it didn't help that I originally misheard the title of the song as being 'W**ker days (and lonely nights)'. I know you're cultivating the image of the romantically frustrated lothario, Bryan, but have some decency, man.

"Gemini Moon" is a nothing too. "Chain Reaction" tho is one of his strongest closers.

Ah but “Gemini Moon” has this one sublime moment during the slightly atonal bridge just before the two minute mark where he sings about the “hangman card.”

Also, since we’re talking about them, I have just noticed that for some reason he’s swapped the sequencing of “Wildcat Days” and “Gemini Moon” on the deluxe.

Man I adore "Your Painted Smile". The live versions I've heard are fine but lose that studio crafted melancholy.

oh and thanks all!

"Gemini Moon" is a nothing too. "Chain Reaction" tho is one of his strongest closers.

I'll save "The 39 Steps" for those reasons and for Ferry's double-tracked vocal; I'm a sucker for singers who overdub themselves singing in a higher register.

We fans needed all the strange mid-90s Ferry could muster.

Also, bereft of the double tracked vocal, but a more illuminating window into Bryan and Brian’s then-resurgent partnership than the song they wrote together:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPh7EKKwDI4

Eno does his best to enliven "The 39 Steps" in that remix, but it's for naught. Ferry hasn't written a good one-chord song since "The Bogus Man", except maybe "The Main Thing". He claims to write all his songs on piano, how the hell do you write something like "N.Y.C." that way? Play a minor triad in 4/4 at mid-tempo and say, "OK, that's my song"?

His two-chord songs of this era can be good ("Which Way to Turn") or bad ("Wildcat Days").

The 39 Steps >> The Main Thing

"The Bogus Man" may be the first song where he does the octave doubling on the vocal.

I've heard this now. Horoscope would definitely be the worst Ferry album if not for Dylanesque. None of the songs are better than their better-known versions, though "The Only Face" is an interesting alternate up-tempo take, and "Mother of Pearl" is such a strong lyric set that it can even survive being Milli Vanillified. "Raga" is so dull as a track that I'm surprised he bothered writing lyrics for it. There are some really poor sequencing decisions - "Desdemona" coming after "The Only Face", in the same key and tempo, makes me think I'm hearing the same song twice in a row every time I listen. Going for the thick layering of Mamouna was a much better decision than Horoscope's attempt to imitate Bête Noire's dancier/poppier sound.
I see that "Loop De Li" was originally titled "Your Love Has Died" on the earlier versions of the record, maybe he felt that was inappropriate in light of his then-wife's subsequent fate.
Sketches is a nice, evocative mix, with the two versions of "The Only Face" again the highlights.
Thanks Alfred for your review, but this had to make me laugh:

Some fragments suggest that Ferry could’ve eked out a sideline as a film composer.

Point taken about the atmospheric nature of the instrumentals, except they have to do usually in a couple of weeks what he takes years to complete. Any 1989 porn film composer could have cranked out "Robot" in an afternoon.

"Robot" gets tedious quick but it's still pretty cool coming from Ferry.

Posting Timothy White's original review of Bête Noire, an extraordinarily hyperbolic one.

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Musician/1980/1988/Musician-1988-01.pdf

I'm surprised that afaict no thread has mentioned that new (to us) song "Star," which he created at least partly in collaboration with the Nine Inch Nails guys. Sounded ok, though Ferry felt a bit relegated to a supporting role.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71VQD8ohaUo

Happy birthday, Love God!

("Star" is okay)

The album he’s done with Amelia Barratt is quite an unexpected and rather delightful curio. Though part of me wonders how the backing tracks would’ve evolved if he’d turned them into ‘regular’ songs.

Barratt has zero charisma and writes duller lyrics (this ain't Dry Cleaning), though some of Ferry's keyboard parts compensate.

Heard on the radio the title track of Another Time, Another Place for the first time ever today... what a great hidden gem! (Roxy have long been one of my favorite bands but I barely know BF's solo records).

(Fantastic live version here.)

The sleeve of ATAP is my all-time favorite album cover by anyone... but I've never heard the record itself, which got mentioned just once upthread.

Mamouna 0

Hang on a fuckin second here!

Bete Noire could do with a little more love too

For the title tracks alone....

That’s a killer live version.

The record suffers a bit from sequel-itis in that it is the same conceit as These Foolish Things. But it relies less on comedy and song-for-song, it’s close to its predecessor’s equal, if a bit straighter and generally an easier listen front to back. “The ‘In’-Crowd” is a legit Ferry classic. “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” is gorgeous. “You Are My Sunshine” starts off like we’re reprising “Psalm” (and doesn’t end a mile from it either). The Cooke cover features lots of delightful Eddie Jobson organ and Paul Thompson bounce.

“It Ain’t Me, Babe” is probably the track that distinguishes this record from Foolish Things: instead of another Great Reimagining of the Master, this one gets by on a fabulous vocal, dynamic interplay and a layered, stately arrangement. And on any given day, I’d probably rather listen to it over his (admittedly classic) “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”

Not sure there’s a duff track here. Very underrated record.