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/

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