ROXY MUSIC - FLESH + BLOOD POLL

I'm shy because it would entail listening to their worst studio album (containing some of their best singles). "My Only Love" is terrible: boring hook, repeated ad nauseam; strained singing that struggles and fails to achieve any intimacy. "Rain, Rain, Rain" and "Eight Miles High" are nullities.

I pick "Same Old Scene" a hair over "Over You."

Worse than Manifesto? That album bores the hell out of me. This one is only half-good, but the heights are really high. I picked Oh Yeah, easily one of my top five Roxy songs.

Great songs on Manifesto: the title track, "Angel Eyes," "Still Falls The Rain," "Ain't That So," "Dance Away," "Spin Me 'Round." Hell, the live versions of SFTR and ATS collected on the new DVD smoke.

You left out "Trash", Alfred, which is easily the best song on "Manifesto". Here I'm going with "In The Midnight Hour". Sorry, but "Oh Yeah" always seemed to kitschy.

Far from their worst IMO. Several great tracks, but none other of them quite up there with "Same Old Scene".

Over You

Oh Alfred... :cry:

"My Only Love" has one of Manzanera's tastiest little solos! And it's awesome! And I'll be voting for it! Unless I vote for "Oh Yeah!"... or "Flesh & Blood"... or "Over You"...

I'll be honest, I listen to this one a lot more than Country Life...

Over You, of course

hmm... Andy MacKay's part on "Running Wild" may have something to say about this...

I don't mind that one so much, but the chorus is limp.

^^ totally agreed re: the chorus... but ooh the sax...

Only own this on ancient cassette, need an upgrade. Tend to lump it with Duran's Rio, Cars' Shake It Up and Simple Minds' New Gold Dream, and on those terms I still think it's quite good.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I've been teaching myself the sax and guitar solos off "Running Wild"... the more I play it, the more awesome it gets.

"Over You" is an incredible song, and gets my vote.

Love how the synth on "Over You" tries to soar past the sax into the sax/synthosphere.

I actually love the nervy title track here. In Both Ends Burning, the author says that there's a live version as performed on TV of it with an energized Manzanera and Mackay that's supposedly outstanding. Haven't been able to track it down on YouTube, tho...

It's on the live DVD, and is indeed a good version: the intro is stretched out for a couple of minutes, with McKay's sax honking like a foghorn and the bassist and Ferry teasing out minor chords from their respective instruments.

Otherwise, it's a creepy track, and not in a good way. "You'd nail her if you could/But she say, `Love me for my mind'" strikes me as cruel, and I sense no distance from the character in the song and Ferry. It's all in the arrangement: the zealous, burping bass and the icy synth fill (which ABC would borrow wholesale for Beauty Stab). The whole thing sounds anemic.

But those are often my favorite Ferry moments -- where the Lothario gets mean. "Tokyo Joe" is another example.

I need to get that DVD...

but "Tokyo Joe" is funny-mean!

Or, some might suggest, racist-mean.

Regardless, I like it when that side of Ferry comes out. It's like McCartney singing "For No One," which Ian MacDonald correctly identified as the coldest song the man ever wrote. And, I'd argue, one of the best.

It plays with Japanese tropes, but it's not racist. Ferry's vocal does a lot to mitigate this; he sounds bemused by the woman and scenario.

Oh yeah? Try throwing it on the next time you're hanging out with an Asian friend. It's a fine line...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Whoops. Never sat the results.

yeah, def the weakest album but same old scene is fucking righteous, really digging it lately

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRh0y-I6pSg

right on. when i saw them play a big arena gig last year the atmosphere was kinda flat until they played that.

The Glimmers remix of that track is p ace too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YdfyD8U_Fw

Eight Miles High has to be one of the worst cover versions of all time, right?

I'm not so sure: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/roxy-music-flesh-and-blood.html

That's a great piece, Marcello. Lots of places where you cut hard against conventional wisdom.

yeah. loved reading that.
(made me dig the album out and give it a spin .. .)
great to see the blog is still in action ..

I appreciated your defense of Manifesto.

the sw00ds-Soto colloquy on F&B and others: http://rockcriticsarchives.com/audiovisual/index-roxy.html

... the best album Duran Duran never made.

Totally agree.

Would have voted for 'Same Old Scene'.

Sorry folks, but I like this album. In fact, I like all of the post-Siren Roxy LPs.

You're not alone, dude!