No. 394: For Your Pleasure

Band: Roxy Music
Album: For Your Pleasure
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Roxy Music's second album is among the band's smartest. Brian Eno's contributions make for a more interesting and enjoyable record, as compared to the post-Eno work.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: I'm not the world's biggest Roxy Music fan, so I can't speak to this album being brilliant.
Best song: "Editions of You" has some excellent solos. "For Your Pleasure" is one of Eno's best contributions.
Worst song: I don't love "Grey Lagoons."
Is it awesome?: Eh. Sorta.

Brian Eno's contributions to Roxy Music are felt on this record and they make for an excellent record. Eno cut his teeth in Roxy Music and set himself up for his career working with Robert Fripp, the Talking Heads and his own solo career.

Eno's presence is known particularly on the title track, as the slow beat and piano plunking are Eno signatures. The keyboard-driven song is pretty amazing. As is Eno's way, the notes not played are as important as the notes played.

I can't say it's my favorite album ever. It's not. Bryan Ferry's melodramatic voice doesn't do it for me. The dance beats are fun, but get repetitive.

Still, with Eno at his side, this is Ferry's best album.

No. 387: Country Life

Band: Roxy Music
Album: Country Life
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Yada yada Roxy Music influenced a lot of '80s music. Yada yada Bryan Ferry had a vision. Yada yada yada.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: I keep trying to find something in this album and cannot. It's overly dramatic at times, oddly constructed at others and overall, kind of a mess.
Best song: "Bitter-Sweet" is fun, with the German lyrics and all.
Worst song: "If It Takes All Night" is a wannabe blues song.
Is it awesome?: Bah!

You won't see Roxy Music compared to Nick Drake often, but the method that made me appreciate "Pink Moon" didn't translater to "Country Life." I've listened to "Country Life" more than 10 times in the last week. I could probably sing half the melodies. I could identify most of the songs.

But, for whatever reason, the record doesn't speak to me.

Famed critic Lester Bangs called the band "the triumph of artifice" and I don't think he's too far off. Bryan Ferry's meticulous production is something to be admired, though his sporadic genius shouldn't be celebrated.

Again, I can't really get into the album, save for "Bitter-Sweet," a song featuring German-language lyrics.

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Also, the album cover. Ferry famously said in 1995 "pictures of pretty girls had been used to sell everything else…why not rock music?" I can't say I disagree with him, as I always enjoy a good picture of a pretty girl. Were it socially acceptable, I'd surround myself with pictures of pretty girls. As it is, the closest I can get is a photo of Abe Lincoln on my desk at work.

The cover of "Country Life," of course, features two pretty girls (well, one. The one on the right isn't all that pretty.), scantily clad. The models were fans of the band and the album's title is a joke on the British magazine of the same name.

What's fun is that a few countries wouldn't sell the album with the cover as constituted. Spain censored it, as did the Netherlands. Many U.S. retailers sold it in a black shrink wrap.

If nothing, that's kind of cool.

No. 371: Siren

Band: Roxy Music
Album: Siren
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Containing the band's biggest single, "Siren" is probably Roxy Music's only album with real pop tendencies. Instead of the soundscapes and experiments, Bryan Ferry and Co. used hooks and disco-type beats to build their songs, with pretty intriguing results.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Save for a few tracks, the songs aren't hugely distinctive.
Best song: Both "Both Ends Burning" and "Love is the Drug" are great songs.
Worst song: The vocals on "Sentimental Fool" are annoying.
Is it awesome?: Not really, but it's not bad.

Bryan Ferry is nothing if not innovative. He's the type of dude that is willing to take risks and mess around with style often. I respect that. A lot of artists are more likely to work with a particular formula until we're all too tired of it to complain (I'm thinking AC/DC here). No one would ever accuse Ferry of doing that.

That's not to say that Ferry switched and changes styles so much that you don't recognize his stuff. Roxy Music records remains Roxy Music records and Ferry's style is pretty distinctive. Save for the Devo-funk of "Love is the Drug," the songs are "Siren" are easily identifiable as those of Roxy Music.

With all that said, I don't think Ferry pulls off the pop accents well. "Whirlwind's" guitar is a little off and "Could it Happen to Me" is a little too Meat Loaf-ish for me to enjoy it. I never connected well with "Nightingale," probably due to the overdone guitar and woodwind pieces within the song.

Still, the album has its moments. "She Sells" has the odd piano of showtunes, though Ferry seems to walk that line pretty well. The off-filter dance of "Love is the Drug" is hypnotic and Ferry's lyrics are just prescient enough for the me-first, cocaine-fueld 1970s. "Both Ends Burning" is also funked up and danceable, with background dancers playing off Ferry's bizarre croon.

"Siren" is Roxy Music's most pop-oriented record and there's a lot to like about that. It's not great, but it's definitely listenable.

No. 307: Avalon

Band: Roxy Music
Album: Avalon
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Roxy Music's final album brought more synths, more brooding and more subtlety than previous records. Bryan Ferry's voice soars over a very background-y rest of the record.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Maybe I just don't get Roxy Music, but the post-Eno work is too slow for my taste.
Best song: The title track is pretty good.
Worst song: I don't care for "To Turn You On."
Is it awesome?: Not really.

Apropos of nothing, but the people at our college radio station who liked Roxy Music also were the people who really liked My Bloody Valentine. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out the connection between the two bands, if there is any.

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I'm not a Roxy Music aficionado. I like some of the band's earlier songs ("Love is the Drug" being the big one), but I owned all of zero of their records before this project. I've never been a big fan of dance music, so I'm not qualified to give a long dissertation on Roxy Music.

With that said, I do prefer the band's earlier work. Bryan Ferry's studio work is almost overwhelming in its grandeur; he appears to fall in love with needle-tweaking as the band progressed. I suspect this is why Eno left, as Eno is notoriously meticulous, as well.

Still, with "Avalon," Gone are the danceable disco strains of the band's previous albums and in its place are the somber, melancholy tones of Ferry's mumbling, dated synth work and slower beats. It's not impressive to my ears.