POLLed to Kill: The Roxy Music "Manifesto" Poll

Spin Me Round is my pick as well--The bridge is one of my favorite Roxy moments. Also, I love all their albums but this one has a special place...good poll idea!

First Roxy album I ever bought (since 1979 was when I got into "new wave") and last one I still own. Tempted to go with "Trash," but to be honest I have to stick with "Dance Away," which was the AOR hit despite sounding suspiciously disco. (It's also their second-biggest American chart hit ever, fwiw, after "Love Is The Drug.")

this always rolled off me after the opening track (which i'm voting for) but I really should give it another try.

"angel eyes" is great, but i have a big soft spot for "dance away" because i remember seeing it on 'top of the pops' when i was 9 or 10 and thinking it seemed very mysterious. my dad had this album and i was sort of fixated/freaked out by the mannequins.

"Dance Away" is kinda perfect, isn't it?

"You're dressed to kill, but guess who's DY-I-I-I-I-N-N-NGGGG."

Hey Alfred, are ya intendin' to fix the poll or what?

OH SHIT. I see what you mean. Unintentional. Sorry, iago!

The only horror here is "Cry Cry Cry," but "My Little Girl" and "Stronger Through the Years" leave me pretty cold too.

OH SHIT. I see what you mean. Unintentional. Sorry, iago!

The only horror here is "Cry Cry Cry," but "My Little Girl" and "Stronger Through the Years" leave me pretty cold too.

― Hell is other people. In an ILE film forum. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 7, 2010 2:33 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

No problem. I don't think I can really vote Spin Me Round over Dance or Angel anyway as best song. Agreed on the 3 that leave you cold.

You can't 'fix' a poll, you'll have to restart it.

Dance Away for me, although I prefer the disco-fied version on the single to the more sedate album version.

I hope and pray, but not too much.

My second and third choices would be the title title and "Spin Me Round".

It's hard for me to hear this album in itself, rather than as a prelude to Avalon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OfRZ63gLgI

"Dance Away" rules.

"Angel Eyes" it is, then.

It's hard for me to hear this album in itself, rather than as a prelude to Avalon.

― Euler, Thursday, January 7, 2010 10:04 AM

How is this a prelude to Avalon? Flesh and Blood comes between them, and neither seem to have anything to do with Avalon

F+B and Avalon have a similar sonic identity; Manifesto doesn't.

Yes, I meant that I hear the band working out the sound that they'd achieve in full on Avalon on Manifesto; obviously on Flesh and Blood they get closer to that sound, but on Manifesto you can hear them exploring toward it, especially in the bass work on the second side.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Whoa.

Good result, one and all.

I'm a little disappointed to see Angel Eyes over Dance Away but both are great songs. Spin me Round would've been a nice choice though.

"Ain't That So" is so relaxed, the ultimate disco-inflected/New Wave-drenched A/C mid tempo single.

“still falls the rain” would’ve been my pick

Ferry was playing "Stronger Through the Years" in 2017.

Listening to all the alternate versions of the songs on singles and b-sides, you can hear how uncertain Ferry was when it came to apportioning the amount of glam, disco, art rock and New Wave (and maybe a little AOR) in the songs. I suppose you could also say that it was prophetic of how different mixes and recordings of the same piece would be created for different audiences. The version of "Dance Away" with the disco beat over the final choruses is the most hopeless act of pandering he's ever done (I think it was the original LP mix).
That said, I like every song on the current "standard" version! I might have chosen between "Still Falls the Rain" and "Ain't That So" (which is probably a better seductive/dance song than anything on Avalon or later).

Considering how much I lived/breathed Siren when it came out I really didn't like this record at the time. By 1979 I was all about the twitchy new wave of Talking Heads, Devo and B-52s, and only "Trash" and maybe "Angel Eyes" satisfied that urge. "Dance Away" sounded to me not too far removed from something like "Baby Come Back" by Player (I now adore both.)

This thread inspired me to listen to the album for the first time in a long time, and it all sounded pretty ace (save maybe "Cry Cry Cry," which is kind of a limp Stax pastiche that might have worked better on a Ferry solo album.) Love the droning opening and closing numbers of side one, great bass playing throughout. And "Spin Me Round" is a lovely way to end the record, if kind of a rewrite of "In Your Mind."

I'd probably give "Cry Cry Cry" a modest nod as Ferry's best "roots" original (unless "End of the Line" counts). "My Little Girl" doesn't have much to distinguish it beyond Manzanera's riff.

oh boy we don't agree about Roxy, I see

"Dance Away" yearns to be "Baby Come Back" but the dissonances work against it: the bass rumblings, Manzanera's guitar peals after each line.