Best Bryan Ferry solo album?

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

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.