04-12-2014, 13:33
enters the Billboard chart this week at #72
Spotify online listen
4.0 of 5.0 by allmusic
14th studio album
no mistaking who this is
good album
artist website - http://www.bryanferry.com/
Bio - from allmusic
![[Image: MI0003275990.jpg?partner=allrovi.com]](http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/275/MI0003275990.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
While his tenure as the frontman for the legendary Roxy Music remained his towering achievement, singer Bryan Ferry also carved out a successful
solo career that continued in the lush, sophisticated manner perfected on the group's final records. Born September 26, 1945, in Washington,
England, Ferry, the son of a coal miner, began his musical career as a singer with the rock outfit the Banshees while studying art at the
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne under pop conceptualist Richard Hamilton. He later joined the Gas Board, a soul group featuring bassist Graham
Simpson; in 1970, Ferry and Simpson formed Roxy Music.
Within a few years, Roxy Music had become phenomenally successful, affording Ferry the opportunity to cut his first solo LP in 1973. Far removed
from the group's arty glam rock, These Foolish Things established the path that all of Ferry's solo work -- as well as the final Roxy Music
records -- would take, focusing on elegant synth pop interpretations of '60s hits like Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," the Rolling
Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," and the Beatles' "You Won't See Me," all rendered in the singer's distinct, coolly dramatic manner.
Roxy Music remained Ferry's primary focus, but in 1974 he returned with a second solo effort, Another Time, Another Place, another collection of
covers ranging from "You Are My Sunshine" to "It Ain't Me, Babe" to "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." His third venture, 1976's Let's Stick Together,
featured remixed, remade, and remodeled versions of Roxy Music hits as well as the usual assortment of covers. Released in 1977, In Your Mind
was Ferry's first collection of completely original material; the following year's The Bride Stripped Bare, a work inspired by his broken
romance with model Jerry Hall, split evenly between new songs and covers.
Ferry did not record another solo album until 1985's Boys and Girls, a sleek, seamless effort that was his first "official" solo release
following the Roxy breakup. For 1987's Bete Noire, he was joined by former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr on the shimmering "The Right Stuff," and
notched his only U.S. Top 40 hit with "Kiss and Tell." Another covers collection, Taxi, followed in 1993; Mamouna, an LP of originals, appeared
a year later, and in 1999 Ferry returned with a collection of standards, As Time Goes By. After a brief tour in support of As Time Goes By,
there were rumors of a Roxy Music reunion. The next summer, the practically unimaginable came true when Ferry joined Andy Mackay and Phil
Manzanera for a tour of Europe and the U.S. It was a celebration of hits, and the band's first jaunt out in more than a decade.
In summer 2002, Ferry returned to his solo career for the electrifying Frantic. Dylanesque, a set of Bob Dylan covers, followed in 2007,
featuring assistance from several longtime associates (including Brian Eno, Chris Spedding, Paul Carrack, and Robin Trower). Ferry signed with
the Astralwerks imprint for the release of 2010's Olympia. In 2012, he assembled the Bryan Ferry Orchestra and recorded The Jazz Age. This
completely instrumental album featured his band re-recording some of his biggest hits in a 1920s jazz style. Ferry returned to the studio in
2014 to record his 14th studio album with longtime collaborator Rhett Davies. The resulting Avonmore -- which included guest spots from Johnny
Marr, Nile Rodgers, and Marcus Miller and revived Ferry's mid-'80s sound -- appeared in November.
Album Review - from allmusic
![[Image: MI0003804270.jpg?partner=allrovi.com]](http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/804/MI0003804270.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
On the album art of Avonmore, the record he released when he was a year shy of 70, Bryan Ferry showcases himself as a dashing young man -- a
portrait of an artist not as a glam trailblazer or distinguished elder statesman, but rather caught in an indeterminate time between the
gorgeous heartbreak of Roxy Music's Avalon and the meticulous solo work that came immediately in its wake. This is Ferry's prime, a moment when
his legacy was intact but yet to be preserved in amber. Avonmore consciously evokes this distinct period, sometimes sighing into the exquisite
ennui of Avalon but usually favoring the fine tailoring of Boys & Girls, a record where every sequenced rhythm, keyboard, and guitar line
blended into an alluring urbane pulse. Ferry isn't so much racing to revive a younger edition of himself as much as laying claim to this
particular strand of sophisticated pop, one that happens to feel a shade richer now when it's delivered by an artist whose world-weariness has
settled into his marrow but is yet to sadden him. This much is apparent on Avonmore's closing covers, an oddly appropriate pairing of Stephen
Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns" and Robert Palmer's "Johnny & Mary" that are both given gently meditative electronic makeovers, but much of the
record explores the other end of the Ferry spectrum, where he's making music to dance away the heartache. He's no longer on the floor himself,
preferring to watch with a bit of a bemusement, but this reserved romanticism suits him perfectly, particularly because Ferry and his co-
producer Rhett Davies -- a steady collaborator since 1999's standards record As Time Goes By -- place an emphasis on mood but not at the expense
of the songs. Naturally, what is first alluring about Avonmore is its feel -- it's meant to be seductive -- but the songs are what makes this
record something more than a fling.
lead track:
[video=youtube;6a0_ko3Vr68]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a0_ko3Vr68[/video]
Track Listing
1. Loop de Li
2. Midnight Train
3. Soldier of Fortune
4. Driving Me Wild
5. A Special Kind of Guy
6. Avonmore
7. Lost
8. One Night Stand
9. Send in the Clowns
10. Johnny and Mary
Spotify online listen
4.0 of 5.0 by allmusic
14th studio album
no mistaking who this is
good album
artist website - http://www.bryanferry.com/
Bio - from allmusic
While his tenure as the frontman for the legendary Roxy Music remained his towering achievement, singer Bryan Ferry also carved out a successful
solo career that continued in the lush, sophisticated manner perfected on the group's final records. Born September 26, 1945, in Washington,
England, Ferry, the son of a coal miner, began his musical career as a singer with the rock outfit the Banshees while studying art at the
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne under pop conceptualist Richard Hamilton. He later joined the Gas Board, a soul group featuring bassist Graham
Simpson; in 1970, Ferry and Simpson formed Roxy Music.
Within a few years, Roxy Music had become phenomenally successful, affording Ferry the opportunity to cut his first solo LP in 1973. Far removed
from the group's arty glam rock, These Foolish Things established the path that all of Ferry's solo work -- as well as the final Roxy Music
records -- would take, focusing on elegant synth pop interpretations of '60s hits like Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," the Rolling
Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," and the Beatles' "You Won't See Me," all rendered in the singer's distinct, coolly dramatic manner.
Roxy Music remained Ferry's primary focus, but in 1974 he returned with a second solo effort, Another Time, Another Place, another collection of
covers ranging from "You Are My Sunshine" to "It Ain't Me, Babe" to "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." His third venture, 1976's Let's Stick Together,
featured remixed, remade, and remodeled versions of Roxy Music hits as well as the usual assortment of covers. Released in 1977, In Your Mind
was Ferry's first collection of completely original material; the following year's The Bride Stripped Bare, a work inspired by his broken
romance with model Jerry Hall, split evenly between new songs and covers.
Ferry did not record another solo album until 1985's Boys and Girls, a sleek, seamless effort that was his first "official" solo release
following the Roxy breakup. For 1987's Bete Noire, he was joined by former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr on the shimmering "The Right Stuff," and
notched his only U.S. Top 40 hit with "Kiss and Tell." Another covers collection, Taxi, followed in 1993; Mamouna, an LP of originals, appeared
a year later, and in 1999 Ferry returned with a collection of standards, As Time Goes By. After a brief tour in support of As Time Goes By,
there were rumors of a Roxy Music reunion. The next summer, the practically unimaginable came true when Ferry joined Andy Mackay and Phil
Manzanera for a tour of Europe and the U.S. It was a celebration of hits, and the band's first jaunt out in more than a decade.
In summer 2002, Ferry returned to his solo career for the electrifying Frantic. Dylanesque, a set of Bob Dylan covers, followed in 2007,
featuring assistance from several longtime associates (including Brian Eno, Chris Spedding, Paul Carrack, and Robin Trower). Ferry signed with
the Astralwerks imprint for the release of 2010's Olympia. In 2012, he assembled the Bryan Ferry Orchestra and recorded The Jazz Age. This
completely instrumental album featured his band re-recording some of his biggest hits in a 1920s jazz style. Ferry returned to the studio in
2014 to record his 14th studio album with longtime collaborator Rhett Davies. The resulting Avonmore -- which included guest spots from Johnny
Marr, Nile Rodgers, and Marcus Miller and revived Ferry's mid-'80s sound -- appeared in November.
Album Review - from allmusic
On the album art of Avonmore, the record he released when he was a year shy of 70, Bryan Ferry showcases himself as a dashing young man -- a
portrait of an artist not as a glam trailblazer or distinguished elder statesman, but rather caught in an indeterminate time between the
gorgeous heartbreak of Roxy Music's Avalon and the meticulous solo work that came immediately in its wake. This is Ferry's prime, a moment when
his legacy was intact but yet to be preserved in amber. Avonmore consciously evokes this distinct period, sometimes sighing into the exquisite
ennui of Avalon but usually favoring the fine tailoring of Boys & Girls, a record where every sequenced rhythm, keyboard, and guitar line
blended into an alluring urbane pulse. Ferry isn't so much racing to revive a younger edition of himself as much as laying claim to this
particular strand of sophisticated pop, one that happens to feel a shade richer now when it's delivered by an artist whose world-weariness has
settled into his marrow but is yet to sadden him. This much is apparent on Avonmore's closing covers, an oddly appropriate pairing of Stephen
Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns" and Robert Palmer's "Johnny & Mary" that are both given gently meditative electronic makeovers, but much of the
record explores the other end of the Ferry spectrum, where he's making music to dance away the heartache. He's no longer on the floor himself,
preferring to watch with a bit of a bemusement, but this reserved romanticism suits him perfectly, particularly because Ferry and his co-
producer Rhett Davies -- a steady collaborator since 1999's standards record As Time Goes By -- place an emphasis on mood but not at the expense
of the songs. Naturally, what is first alluring about Avonmore is its feel -- it's meant to be seductive -- but the songs are what makes this
record something more than a fling.
lead track:
[video=youtube;6a0_ko3Vr68]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a0_ko3Vr68[/video]
Track Listing
1. Loop de Li
2. Midnight Train
3. Soldier of Fortune
4. Driving Me Wild
5. A Special Kind of Guy
6. Avonmore
7. Lost
8. One Night Stand
9. Send in the Clowns
10. Johnny and Mary
