The sibilance [sp] of the track does the rest.
― Ian Grey (Ian_G), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 20:56 (twenty years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 21:06 (twenty years ago) link
It is the best album OMD ever made.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 21 January 2004 21:08 (twenty years ago) link
I'm sick of ILM, if anyone cares.
― Sean (Sean), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 21:36 (twenty years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 21:40 (twenty years ago) link
Have fun.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 21 January 2004 21:42 (twenty years ago) link
It's a very well put together record, for sure — and pleasing in many respects: hooks, melodies, synths. And I kind of enjoy it.
But to me, Avalon is the sound of Ferry falling hopelessly in love with a character he had been parodying up until then. As a result, it's utterly impossible to hear this record as anything other than the consequence of that transformation. Does it reflect 80s soullessness? Absolutely — but not in a conscious way at all. And so other than it being made by a legend, nothing about it makes the record all that much different than any other pleasant radio fare from the era.
Does that make sense?
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 21:59 (twenty years ago) link
Bryan's son protesting at Tony Blair's constituency home in support of foxhunting almost exactly 20 years later - ie the Ferry lineage now *more* old-establishment than the PM - was the logical conclusion. That's not a diss of "Avalon", far from it.
― robin carmody (robin carmody), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 22:19 (twenty years ago) link
― LondonLee (LondonLee), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 22:23 (twenty years ago) link
I HEART "Avalon", btw. "True To Life" is my high watermark - where Bry goes all Liz Fraser on us (at least in terms of being vowelly and impenetrable) and sounds gloriously faded glam-y.
― darren (darren), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 22:26 (twenty years ago) link
I remember him coming to NYC in 1988 and my then-GF saying "We gotta see him' and I had a deep reaction of 'Why???"
― Ian Grey (Ian_G), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 22:55 (twenty years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 23:00 (twenty years ago) link
― robin carmody (robin carmody), Thursday, 22 January 2004 05:11 (twenty years ago) link
― robin carmody (robin carmody), Thursday, 22 January 2004 05:12 (twenty years ago) link
As for the music, I may have mentioned this before, but the feeling of hanging out in some polynesian themed hotel lounge I get is totally unique.
― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 22 January 2004 05:39 (twenty years ago) link
― Sean (Sean), Thursday, 22 January 2004 06:15 (twenty years ago) link
Though the model was in fact a woman -- certainly it was cryptically conveyed, though.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 22 January 2004 06:53 (twenty years ago) link
― dave q, Thursday, 22 January 2004 13:10 (twenty years ago) link
Robin, I'm well aware of Lucy Helmore's background and Ferry's social climbing (his London home was one of the first features in World Of Interiors magazine, it was all very trad and landed gentry, not an inch of modernism anywhere). Though I would disagree that no one cared about Ferry after "Avalon", I know plenty of people who adored "Boys & Girls" and to whom Ferry means an awful lot, just as much as Bowie.
― LondonLee (LondonLee), Thursday, 22 January 2004 13:45 (twenty years ago) link
The big difference is that Eno's pieces are aiming for the illusion of stillness, like a water feature while Ferry is trying for stillness. Or put another way Eno's still curious, Avalon's the work of a man who's found his place, both socially and romantically, and is contented. It's no suprise that he packed Roxy in after that as it was an artistic dead end, though he did try refining it with diminishing returns over the following 15 years. It's also no surprise giving his recent background that Frantic is probably his best and most invigorating work since then.
― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 22 January 2004 22:24 (twenty years ago) link
my mom inexplicably had "boys and girls" in her collection but has no memory of hearing it or buying it. i liked it but was typically afraid to admit to that.
― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 23 January 2004 10:21 (twenty years ago) link
jesus christ, grad school has robbed me of the luxury of spending more than 30 minutes thinking about anything except work. i really miss being able to make extended observations like the one that opens this thread. i think i'll slit my wrists.
― amateurist, Saturday, 23 February 2008 08:25 (sixteen years ago) link
No, stay true to life. That's the main thing.
― gershy, Saturday, 23 February 2008 08:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh my guffing fod. I can't believe this thread came up just now! I was driving home tonight and I saw this street called "Avalon" and I vowed to try to remember to look up the Roxy Music album called that, but I was trying to memorize these other three musical things I'd come across tonight at the same time and then by the time I got home I totally forgot what the 4th thing was and it was Roxy. Thanks ILM! *whew*
― Bimble, Saturday, 23 February 2008 10:34 (sixteen years ago) link
ah so that's why amateurist has been so quiet lately
― baaderonixx, Saturday, 23 February 2008 11:30 (sixteen years ago) link
jesus christ, grad school has robbed me of the luxury of spending more than 30 minutes thinking about anything except work.
There's a reason I left it.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 23 February 2008 14:44 (sixteen years ago) link
amateurist is wrong about "To Turn You On." Predictable chord sequence, icky sentiment, blah blah blah -- he sings it beautifully, especially the way he enunciates "God help me."
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 23 February 2008 14:52 (sixteen years ago) link
I heard avalon on one of the episodes of heroes last night.
― CaptainLorax, Saturday, 23 February 2008 22:26 (sixteen years ago) link
I can't picture that song being party music really.
― CaptainLorax, Saturday, 23 February 2008 22:29 (sixteen years ago) link
Alfred OTM.
I could walk you through the park if you're feeling blue or whatever...
― rogermexico., Sunday, 24 February 2008 09:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Weird, I was watching 'Matchstick Men' on A&E tonight and "More Than This" was playing in a totally blue collar bowling alley where Nick Cage and Alison Lohman were having a father/daughter game. I thought then "I'm gonna dig out 'Avalon' and give it a refresher spin" but forgot. As Bimble said, Thanks ILM!
― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 24 February 2008 09:27 (sixteen years ago) link
In a way, this is an album which screams to be listened to on a Bang Olufsen stereo in a room filled with expensive design furniture, in a huge Westend flat.
Have I tried? No. Can't afford that. :)
Yet, this is New Romantics in a nutshell, but it's kind of nice really because nobody had done anything like that before.
― Geir Hongro, Sunday, 24 February 2008 09:57 (sixteen years ago) link
finding the guitar line from more than this being used as the standard segue on a radio talk show here in addis was a lil surprising
love love love the album avalon, and c'mon the smoothness is the entire point of the album and title track would rank as my fave track from the album, Yannick Etienne's cries at the end are just gorgeous
― H in Addis, Monday, 25 February 2008 03:35 (sixteen years ago) link
Truly, this album is a gift to humans. There ought to be universal acknowledgement of that, at least. Try and imagine a world without it - you just can't.
― everything, Monday, 25 February 2008 04:31 (sixteen years ago) link
love Ferry's keyboard work too -- the best Prophet 5 song on earth.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 25 February 2008 04:39 (sixteen years ago) link
the best Prophet 5 song on earth
"Biko" to thread stat.
― rogermexico., Monday, 25 February 2008 06:41 (sixteen years ago) link
uh...4CD set?
My $0.02, despite amateurist's admonition upthread not to simply say 'it rocks' - toss off the instrumentals, and albums don't get more perfect than thi
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Saturday, 5 April 2008 21:47 (sixteen years ago) link
I think they're referring to the _Thrill Of It All_ 4CD box, which is just about perfect - except it doesn't contain the entirety of _Avalon_, you'll still need it.
Robyn Hitchcock's cover of "More Than This" is stunning, apropos of nothing.
― Mr. Odd, Sunday, 6 April 2008 00:11 (sixteen years ago) link
whoa, where is that from?
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Sunday, 6 April 2008 00:28 (sixteen years ago) link
That box set looks good but ultimately doesn't interest me much. I like early Roxy (especially Country Life), but I LOVE the Manifesto - Avalon run (including the unjustly hated-on Flesh + Blood) SO damn much, and I have those records on multiple formats.
When I read '4CD box' upthread, I was envisioning a Funhouse-esque, super bloated, meticulously sequenced monster box of Avalon outtakes, alternate tracks, demos, etc. Now THAT would be something...
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Sunday, 6 April 2008 00:37 (sixteen years ago) link
What, the Hitchcock cover? Originally from a single but available on one of his Greatest Hits collections from the 90s.
― Mr. Odd, Sunday, 6 April 2008 01:01 (sixteen years ago) link
Crazy! Thanks man...
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Sunday, 6 April 2008 01:19 (sixteen years ago) link
I used to have the 7" of Roxy Music's "More Than This". I remember exactly what it looked like. My best friend once played that song on his stereo out of the blue, too, I wasn't expecting it, wouldn't have even thought he'd know it.
Yes, Robyn H.'s cover of "More Than This" is great.
― Bimble, Sunday, 6 April 2008 04:48 (sixteen years ago) link
If I ever spot a copy of the CD with the "Always Unknowing" b-side, that will make the 4th copy of this thing I'll have bought, and it'll be worth it. Great song.
― Hideous Lump, Monday, 7 April 2008 02:00 (sixteen years ago) link
i'm hooked on the vocal delivery throughout this album. but particularly on the singles
― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 9 April 2008 12:30 (sixteen years ago) link
If I ever spot a copy of the CD with the "Always Unknowing" b-side
That's on the rarities disc in the _Thrill Of It All_ box.
― Mr. Odd, Wednesday, 9 April 2008 14:21 (sixteen years ago) link
'take a chance with me' is pretty fantastic
― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 10 April 2008 10:22 (sixteen years ago) link
hard to argue with the super smooth lushness of the title track. i'm really warming to this textured 80s sound. even though i may have found it irksome not six months ago.
― Charlie Howard, Monday, 28 April 2008 16:24 (sixteen years ago) link
Oddly enough I've played this more than once in the last week. Pretty much everything about it is perfect smoove.
Plus I have the More Than This 7"!
― sonderangerbot, Monday, 28 April 2008 18:05 (sixteen years ago) link
I certainly see it as Ferry passing into the New Establishment (at the exact, specific moment when that entity started to form itself, ie mid-1982 when Thatcher stopped being a mere prime minister and became an ideological reformer), cf trying his hand at falconry in the video for the title song, and his society wedding the week "Avalon" the song reached its chart peak. It marked his final moment of contemporary revelance, but it was a brilliant way to go; the kind of perfection from which there is, literally, no way back or out. Nobody could care about Ferry after that; nobody *was meant* to care. Bryan's son protesting at Tony Blair's constituency home in support of foxhunting almost exactly 20 years later - ie the Ferry lineage now *more* old-establishment than the PM - was the logical conclusion. That's not a diss of "Avalon", far from it.
-- robin carmody (robin carmody), Wednesday, 21 January 2004
is that the final perfect moment of Carmodyism, from which there was nowhere to go?
― the pinefox, Monday, 28 April 2008 18:34 (sixteen years ago) link
He's not bad live, but of course there's not a lot of (any) improvisation and it's all about replicating the albums. He's a pretty weird and compelling performer, though, has good moves and makes funny faces.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 14 January 2019 17:15 (five years ago) link
Thanks, that sounds about all one can expect (he's 73!). Roxy are somewhat heroes of mine and I've never seen him live, but this new tour swings by close to me. I'll probably just go do it. Good moves are underrated.
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 14 January 2019 17:17 (five years ago) link
and his hair -- well.
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 January 2019 17:18 (five years ago) link
Sign me up for that ravenous coiffure at 73!
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 14 January 2019 17:23 (five years ago) link
This was his latest full setlist:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/bryan-ferry/2018/theatro-dasous-thessaloniki-greece-3be988f8.html
The Main Thing(Roxy Music song)
Slave to Love
Don't Stop the Dance
Ladytron(Roxy Music song)
Out of the Blue(Roxy Music song)
Oh Yeah(Roxy Music song)
Casanova(Roxy Music song)
Tokyo Joe
Bitter-Sweet(Roxy Music song)
Windswept
Bête Noire
Zamba
Stronger Through the Years(Roxy Music song)
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right(Bob Dylan cover)
My Only Love(Roxy Music song)
In Every Dream Home a Heartache(Roxy Music song)
If There Is Something(Roxy Music song)
Re-Make/Re-Model(Roxy Music song)
More Than This(Roxy Music song)
Avalon(Roxy Music song)
Love Is the Drug(Roxy Music song)
Virginia Plain(Roxy Music song)
Encore:Let's Stick Together(Wilbert Harrison cover)
Jealous Guy(John Lennon cover)
Editions of You(Roxy Music song)
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, 14 January 2019 17:24 (five years ago) link
I've seen him three times with increasing delight. He played "Zamba" and "Bete Noire" last time!
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 January 2019 17:25 (five years ago) link
That seals it!
Great setlist too
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 14 January 2019 17:26 (five years ago) link
Saw him last year, fabulous show. If he ever meant anything to you, absolutely, go!
― composed of atoms just as all posters have been (Dan Peterson), Monday, 14 January 2019 17:41 (five years ago) link
I tried but could not find a way!
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 January 2019 17:44 (five years ago) link
I've seen him three times and Roxy once. They've all been equally good, and while there's nothing revelatory about him live (unlike, say, David Byrne's most recent tour), yeah, if he means something to you, check it out. Which is honestly not something I'd say for just any legacy act.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 14 January 2019 17:49 (five years ago) link
I so wish I could have seen Byrne's recent tour. This isn't that, but it's really good. I never saw Bowie until his final tour in 2014, and now my memories are maybe better than the actual show, which was excellent. And you never know when it'll be your last chance.
xp lol Alfred.
― composed of atoms just as all posters have been (Dan Peterson), Monday, 14 January 2019 18:13 (five years ago) link
Tix ordered, thx guys!
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 14 January 2019 18:17 (five years ago) link
I never saw Bowie until his final tour in 2014
I sure wish he had such a tour. You mean 2004?
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 14 January 2019 18:23 (five years ago) link
I was in the lobby of the venue when the roadie fell from the rafter in July 2004.
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 January 2019 18:24 (five years ago) link
Bowie final tour 2004, you mean. I saw him that year at MSG, was great. Hard to believe I saw him not long before that opening for Moby on that ill-begotten Area 2 tour.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 14 January 2019 18:25 (five years ago) link
xpost!
Yes, 2004, stupid fingers...
― composed of atoms just as all posters have been (Dan Peterson), Monday, 14 January 2019 18:43 (five years ago) link
that's no way to talk about a dead man
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 January 2019 19:15 (five years ago) link
Stupid Fingers would be a great band name.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 14 January 2019 19:24 (five years ago) link
have consistently missed Ferry and Roxy on all of their tours through the bay area ....I won't miss this one. would be nice if manzanera were on this tour as well.
― akm, Tuesday, 15 January 2019 00:01 (five years ago) link
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, January 14, 2019 7:17 PM (four months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
So I saw Ferry's first show of his new European tour on Monday and quite simply: it was a ton of fun! How could it not be when Ferry himself was enjoying it so much? He was so enthused, throwing the audience kisses and just moving about with such swagger all night. His voice isn't what it used to be, that was pretty clear (the first couple of songs he sounded more like Stuart Staples), but that was entirely ok. His backing bank was phenomenal, specifically the drummer and sax player. They were on stage with ten musicians, which I thought was very generous. They ripped through the songs pretty quickly, the bigger hits sometimes only one verse + chorus, but it all made perfect sense and it was just a very tight, lively show, with great sound. We had a blast.
OT: This was by far the concert with the highest average age I've ever went to. I saw people in their 70s taking photos with their ipads :)
― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 22 May 2019 22:34 (five years ago) link
Ha, excellent. Looking forward to August.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 22 May 2019 23:25 (five years ago) link
The surround mix of this is glorious.
― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 6 June 2019 02:02 (five years ago) link
The back-to-back sequencing of "To Turn You On" and "True to Life" slays me.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 28 April 2022 02:24 (two years ago) link
It's pretty genius. "To Turn You On" is my secret favorite on the album.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 28 April 2022 02:30 (two years ago) link
He never sung again with such unshaded passion; I can see him falling on one knee while singing "God help me!"
The keyboard sound on that track = fireplace simmering.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 28 April 2022 02:32 (two years ago) link
How to make "Or whatever" sound apocalyptic.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 28 April 2022 02:37 (two years ago) link
The chord changes and melody on "To Turn You On" make me think he was trying to write a Siren-era song with a 1982 arrangement, it feels a bit out of place on this record.
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 28 April 2022 03:26 (two years ago) link