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/

Aweesome. The Go-Betweens week made for good reading.

Ned, sw00ds, and I on The Jazz Age and Olympia:

http://rockcritics.com/2013/02/21/roxymania-re-turnedre-tuned/

Only three people listened to the last two Bryan Ferry albums, but they all recorded a conversation about it.

saw Bryan Ferry last night. holy shit, what a show. i sort of expected some kind of low-key midtempo lush affair but this was a pure rock show, like something from the late '80s. complete with some sick guitar solos and great backup singers wailing away and this incredible sax player who looked like she stepped out of a robert palmer video. we talked to her after the show, she had been in some other band playing saxophone, and she said Ferry had heard her music and sent her a message on myspace(!) and that's how she ended up in his band.

How's his voice? Last thing I've seen from him live were some videos from a couple years ago, I think some TV performance of Loop De Li, and seemed somewhat deteriorated. I'd love to catch one of those shows if he's singing at 50/60% of his top form.

A friend of mine said that he saw him in NYC and that his voice was much stronger than its been. I don't know how that could be – these things tend not to reverse themselves after 15+ years. But he said he sounded great.

his voice was showing its age a bit but i thought he acquitted himself well throughout. he seemed a little buried in the mix for much of the show (which i didn't mind; you could hear him well and the band was so on point), but during the quieter songs he sounded good. his aging quaver works nicely for his style.

Good to hear. I will say: as much as I appreciate some of the nuance of his voice in old age, I would much prefer to hear "Avonmore" sung by the Bryan Ferry featured on the cover of that album rather than the nearly-70 one who actually sang it.

I dunno, Roger Daltrey was sounding pretty ragged with the Who, then he had surgery on his nodes (or whatever) and after I saw him solo and with the Who and he sounded pretty good. And god knows Ferry isn't singing as hard as Roger.

Anyway, I saw Ferry last year or so and he sounded great.

He sounded ragged but OK when I saw him in 2011.

Can he sing this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrrG2WTzFXw

Stupid black monolith for me.

Depends on your browser. I had problems at work yesterday morning b/c I was on Chrome.

It's "The Name of the Game."

I have no problem on Chrome on my phone, will check computer and safari in a bit. That's where I've had problems.

I know this isn't "solo Ferry", but "Same Old Scene" is so unique, amazing, revolutionary--with the chilling synths, everything is perfectly layered and the groove is unbeatable. "Same Old Scene" sounds like it laid the basis for all of the new wave music of the first half of the 80s, I believe Duran Duran said it was a very influential song for them (Ministry even recorded a demo of it as well that's on Spotify), so I am surprised it is not more widely known. Despite Flesh And Blood having these soaring, catchy singles, the album has an oneiric quality that I really enjoy for all of this period's transitional awkwardness.

an amazing song

All those burbling synths in the verse are the best

I love Flesh & Blood.

Flesh & Blood is the only Roxy album I don't really rate but Same Old Scene is an incredible song.

I should clarify that I don't really think of F&B as Roxy in the way I do pretty much every other album of theirs (including Avalon). It's far too broad stroke pop, too new wave textured and too session-y in a way that none of their other records are. But on its own, I really enjoy it.

I thought his voice sounded pretty good in DC a few weeks back

Didn't Eno chose "Same Old Scene" and "Mother of Pearl" as his favorite post-himself Roxy songs?

I checked again those tv performances, which were on Jools Holland... He sounds pretty good on Loop De Li, but on Virginia Plain all you can hear are the backing vocals. Anyway, glad to know he's OK. I'm all for it if his singing is on Frantic level.

I post this occasionally, because it's fun, but this Icehouse song (replete with Eno backing vocals) is such a wonderful "SOS"-era Roxy rip-off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekufPK0pGvE

If that's "Hey little girl", yeah we noticed back then.

No, it's a song called Spanish Gold.

Have spent the last week or so with Mamouna. A record I never rated much sounds like Kane stalking Xanadu nearly a quarter century on. The tunes are runway model skeletal, the performances so comped I’m not sure most of the performers could spot their parts if asked (indeed, Manzanera couldn’t on “Don’t Want to Know”), the lyrics often a collection of empty cliches. And for all of his celebrated return, Eno is all but inaudible in the dense,murky fog that is Bob Clearmountain’s mix.

And yet...yet...I find this record almost hypnotically beautiful. There is a handful of great songs. “Which Way to Turn” is gorgeous and dripping with dewy sadness, and “Chain Reaction” is one of his best post Avalon pieces. There are some fabulous individual moments as well, including the bridge to “Gemini Moon,” and Ferry’s melancholy piano coda to the title track.

But the record works best as a piece – impressionistic pieces of taut, aimless funk and drifting sambas to nowhere adorned by Ferry’s admirable croon. In retrospect, this is the last time his voice would sound this way – by Frantic, the legendarily fulsome baritone would charitably be characterized by Chris Roberts as “lived in, not merely dined in,” but in truth had clearly entered its decline phase.

Here, though, it’s merely a lead instrument, adorned by his thickest, most mucous-y production yet, chock full of guitar atmospherics and Prophet pads that threaten to drown out the Eno treatments – which in any case do not remake or remodel the production here so much as sink into it like a luxury sofa.

His greatest collection of songs? No. His most memorable album? Nope. But his best, most consistent record? Quite possibly.

Well said. Mamouna's got some gorgeous bits to offer. I think I especially love the run from track 4 to 6: title track - The Only Face - The 39 Steps.

I would have voted for Bête Noire in this poll, which is a longtime favourite of mine. Boys & Girls is a close second.
I'm a massive Ferry fan but the winner of this poll - These Foolish Things - would never have crossed my mind to vote for. I don't dislike it, it's fun... but it may be my least favourite Ferry solo album!

I was always proud of my Mamouna salvage job.

Indeed, was recalling it when I composed the above.

lol, a few days ago, apropos of nothing, I was playing "These Foolish Things." My wife walked in and asked if I was listening to the "Rocky Horror Picture Show," which ... otm?

"Mamouna" has always been my sentimental favorite, most likely because it was the first solo Ferry album I ever owned, and got right when it came out. I know I was already a Roxy fan - I bought all their albums as cutout cassettes - and I somehow knew of songs like "Kiss and Tell." I remember when "TaxI' was released, but didn't pick it up (was it the mere three-star RS review?). But "Mamouna" I got as a promo, and for some reason I was super-stoked. Probably because it came out at peak '90s Eno. Anyway, I listened to it a lot and saw him on that tour. I recall him starting with his "I Put a Spell on You" cover. He sprinkled glitter on the stage, iirc. And Steve Ferrone was playing drums .

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

That's a lovely review of Mamouna, Alfred. Always thought that the middle section of the album - 'Your Painted Smile' to 'Which Way to Turn' - could be Ferry's strongest solo work.

This run of goodness abruptly ends with 'Wildcat Days' - it didn't help that I originally misheard the title of the song as being 'W**ker days (and lonely nights)'. I know you're cultivating the image of the romantically frustrated lothario, Bryan, but have some decency, man.

"Gemini Moon" is a nothing too. "Chain Reaction" tho is one of his strongest closers.

Ah but “Gemini Moon” has this one sublime moment during the slightly atonal bridge just before the two minute mark where he sings about the “hangman card.”

Also, since we’re talking about them, I have just noticed that for some reason he’s swapped the sequencing of “Wildcat Days” and “Gemini Moon” on the deluxe.

Man I adore "Your Painted Smile". The live versions I've heard are fine but lose that studio crafted melancholy.

oh and thanks all!

"Gemini Moon" is a nothing too. "Chain Reaction" tho is one of his strongest closers.

I'll save "The 39 Steps" for those reasons and for Ferry's double-tracked vocal; I'm a sucker for singers who overdub themselves singing in a higher register.

We fans needed all the strange mid-90s Ferry could muster.

Also, bereft of the double tracked vocal, but a more illuminating window into Bryan and Brian’s then-resurgent partnership than the song they wrote together:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPh7EKKwDI4

Eno does his best to enliven "The 39 Steps" in that remix, but it's for naught. Ferry hasn't written a good one-chord song since "The Bogus Man", except maybe "The Main Thing". He claims to write all his songs on piano, how the hell do you write something like "N.Y.C." that way? Play a minor triad in 4/4 at mid-tempo and say, "OK, that's my song"?

His two-chord songs of this era can be good ("Which Way to Turn") or bad ("Wildcat Days").

The 39 Steps >> The Main Thing

"The Bogus Man" may be the first song where he does the octave doubling on the vocal.

I've heard this now. Horoscope would definitely be the worst Ferry album if not for Dylanesque. None of the songs are better than their better-known versions, though "The Only Face" is an interesting alternate up-tempo take, and "Mother of Pearl" is such a strong lyric set that it can even survive being Milli Vanillified. "Raga" is so dull as a track that I'm surprised he bothered writing lyrics for it. There are some really poor sequencing decisions - "Desdemona" coming after "The Only Face", in the same key and tempo, makes me think I'm hearing the same song twice in a row every time I listen. Going for the thick layering of Mamouna was a much better decision than Horoscope's attempt to imitate Bête Noire's dancier/poppier sound.
I see that "Loop De Li" was originally titled "Your Love Has Died" on the earlier versions of the record, maybe he felt that was inappropriate in light of his then-wife's subsequent fate.
Sketches is a nice, evocative mix, with the two versions of "The Only Face" again the highlights.
Thanks Alfred for your review, but this had to make me laugh:

Some fragments suggest that Ferry could’ve eked out a sideline as a film composer.

Point taken about the atmospheric nature of the instrumentals, except they have to do usually in a couple of weeks what he takes years to complete. Any 1989 porn film composer could have cranked out "Robot" in an afternoon.

"Robot" gets tedious quick but it's still pretty cool coming from Ferry.