Roxy Music 'Avalon'

The DVD comp released in 2008 has excellent live footage from this period (especially "Still Falls the Rain" and "Ain't That So"), so I wonder if it was recorded in Boston.

np

i wish my life was like this album

expensive tailoring, cabriolets and romance as a means of anticipating regret?

plus cocaine, obv

this is a pretty cool interview with one of the guys who mixed Avalon

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug03/articles/roxymusic.htm

interesting stuff about Bryan Ferry's writing process, putting down ideas over a Linn Drum beat and then the band kinda embellishing the groove

(xx-post. misread "life" for "wife". don't know, maybe applicable too ;-)

Show me other records like Avalon.

OK....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aawe7ydbF0I

Thanks!

I quite like Thomas Dolby's "Flat Earth" too, it's sort of like Avalon.

Kaputt.

Marcello has a go.

I think you might want to correct that link.

What a dream: Ferry yelling OKLAHOMA WAS NEVER LIKE THIS

The more I listen to this record, the more I'm convinced that it's one of the greatest production jobs of all time. Everything on this record sounds so beautifully recorded. I understand that there are those that prefer the more unhinged early Roxy, but man am I so glad they stuck around long enough to make this one.

This one was my gateway. Didn't everyone have a cop of the cassette in their glove box?

DANCING, DANCING

The video for the title track is a little masterpiece in its own right and has aged nearly as well as the song. Something that struck me last time I watched it was the director's use of a "glowing retina" lighting trick on Ferry and his inamorata, similar to what Ridley Scott employed that same year in Blade Runner to signify that a character is a replicant. It reminded me of the scene in the film where Pris asks J.F. Sebastian how he has guessed that she and Roy are not human. "'Cos you're so perfect", he wistfully replies.

'Is it raining in New York, on fifth avenue?' - goosebumps every time

this is the best album

It is rather unworldly, or out of time or something intangible. Cinematic, even.

yes! it feels like it is shimmering...

“And the background's fading
Out of focus
Yes the picture's changing
Every moment
And your destination
You don't know it”

pretty much describes the sensation

I still feel that Ferry may wear dentures despite someone who met met confirming he did not

the way I see it
this relationship ain't right

Take a chance with me is a stunner

this is the best album

― Scam jam, thank you ma’am (Sparkle Motion), Tuesday, August 14, 2018 12:23 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

The Prophet-5 work on this album is some of the most gossamer and on-point ever.

This is not only my favourite Roxy Music album, but one of my favourite productions of all time. It's such a beautiful sounding, superbly well recorded album.

Agreed. "Gossamer", that's the word I was searching for!

I've only heard the first 2 and this. I can't imagine anything in-between sounding quite so special.

stranded, country life, and siren are totally and completely different from avalon, but they are each fantastic in their own way. check em out.

Stranded is still my favorite, but, really, if their weakest is Flesh + Blood, then my god

stranded also my favourite, brian eno otm about that one

I'd rank it below Country Life, myself... but only just!

In fact, I'd take Stranded and Country Life over the first two.

same here

tbh i find for your pleasure to be my least favourite, despite having some of their best tracks (like grey lagoons)

country life is a damn good record

er for your pleasure not below flesh and blood obvs tho, but least favourite possibly on par with siren

flesh and blood is their only half-assed record (two covers!) but the highs on it are amazing.

'Same Old Scene' is one of my Top 10 Roxy Music tracks. I listen to Flesh + Blood more than Manifesto.

top five even

I always thought these guys had listened to some Japan before making this album. The sonic similarities to late period Sylvian and Co. are there - especially on tracks like "The Space Between".

It's funny you should mention Japan, because 'Same Old Scene' sounds like it could have fit snugly on Gentlemen Take Polaroids, even though it was released almost half a year before that album.

I always thought Ferry stopped listening to music in 1968.

It seems strange to say this, but as interesting as Roxy Music were musically, I've never really been fascinated by Ferry as a person. There seems to be something quite dull about him - which is weird, cuz you look at footage of the early Roxy Music performing and they look so exciting and not of this Earth.

Ferry is not a person, never has been.

I've written elsewhere that he's the biggest nullity of major rock 'n' roll figures.

in recent interviews he has mentioned that he only listens to ambient-architectural experimental music

It was the pro-fox hunting shit that irked me. Thankfully, it's very easy to separate Ferry from his music.

You can't! Ferry is the music. There is no person named Bryan Ferry.

yup alfred otm

Lester Bangs certainly agrees w you