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Roxy Music: Avalon

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s

Artist: Roxy Music
Title: Avalon
Released: 1982
Label: Virgin Records
Time: 73:33
Producer(s): Roxy Music, Rhett Davies
Appears with: Bryan Ferry
Category: Pop/Rock
Rating: ********** (10/10)
Media type: CD
Purchase date:  2006.02.14
Price in €: 4,99
Web address: www.roxyrama.com

 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] More Than This (B.Ferry) - 4:30
[2] The Space Between (B.Ferry) - 4:30
[3] Avalon (B.Ferry) - 4:16
[4] India (B.Ferry) - 1:44
[5] While My Heart Is Still Beating (B.Ferry/T.Mackay) - 3:26
[6] The Main Thing (B.Ferry) - 3:54
[7] Take a Chance With Me (B.Ferry/Ph.Manzanera) - 4:42
[8] To Turn You On (B.Ferry) - 4:16
[9] True to Life (B.Ferry) - 4:25
10] Tara (B.Ferry/T.Mackay) - 1:43

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Bryan Ferry - Vocals, Keyboards, Synthesizer, Synthesizer Guitar, Synthesizer Guitars, Guitar , Artwork, Cover Design, Cover Art
Rick Marotta - Drums
Andy Newmark - Drums
Paul Thompson - Drums
Jimmy Maelen - Percussion
Neil Jason - Bass
Alan Spenner - Bass
Kermit Moore - Cello
Neil Hubbard - Guitar
Phil Manzanera - Guitar
Paul Carrack - Keyboards, Piano
Andy Mackay - Oboe, Saxophone
Yanick Etienne - Background Vocals, Vocals
Fonzi Thornton - Background Vocals, Vocals

Rhett Davies - Engineer, Producer
Bob Clearmountain - Engineer
Robert C. Ludwig - Mastering, Remastering
Neil Kirk - Artwork, Cover Design, Cover Art
Antony Price - Artwork, Cover Design
Peter Saville - Artwork, Cover Design, Cover Art
Anthony Price - Cover Art

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2003 CD EMI 47438
2000 CD Virgin 47460
1990 CD Warner Bros. 23686
1989 CD Reprise 23686
1989 CS Reprise 4-23686
1983 CD Warner Bros. 23686

From 1975's SIREN through the rest of Roxy Music's albums and his concurrent solo work, Bryan Ferry was leading up to AVALON. The last Roxy Music studio album (it was followed by numerous collections, both live and otherwise), it is the perfect culmination of Ferry's constant striving for the ultimate sophistication. On AVALON, the styles that the band had explored in the past--funk, jazz, and rock--come together tocreate a texture of remarkable subtlety. The title track isFerry's finest moment. His suave voice turns the romance all the way up, while the band plays in a smooth, light jazz-funk groove and guitar notes shimmer like the sun on water.
"While My Heart is Still Beating" features Andy Mackay's saxophone drifting in around Phil Manzanera's languid guitar lines. "True to Life", a ballad shot through with reverberation, is the kind of song aching to be played late at night with the lights off. From the almost jaw-dropping elegance ofthe opening track, "More Than This", to the closing "Tara",a sparse, evocative instrumental, AVALON is Roxy Music's masterpiece.



By 1982, it must have been clear to Brian Ferry, Phil Manzanera, and Andy McKay -- the remaining charter members of Roxy Music -- that their time was up, for there are clues throughout this recording that they would soon disband and move on to solo projects. Avalon concludes a second run for Roxy that was as commercially successful as their first run (1972 to 1976) was artistically fruitful. With Manifesto, in 1979, Roxy had scored legions of fans without sacrificing any of their trademark innovation. Avalon, which features the hit "More Than This" (remade into a hit again in 1997 by a post-Natalie Merchant 10,000 Maniacs), was a profoundly influential work. Its light, shimmering tone was imitated frequently throughout the '80s, most notably by Human League and Duran Duran, but the lyrical quality has rarely been matched. Ferry sings from an after-hours perspective where the focus is no longer the moment at hand, but tomorrow -- a fitting conclusion for a forward-looking band.

Martin Johnson - Barnes & Noble



Flesh + Blood suggested that Roxy Music were at the end of the line, but they regrouped and recorded the lovely Avalon, one of their finest albums. Certainly, the lush, elegant soundscapes of Avalon are far removed from the edgy avant-pop of their early records, yet it represents another landmark in their career. With its stylish, romantic washes of synthesizers and Bryan Ferry's elegant, seductive croon, Avalon simultaneously functioned as sophisticated make-out music for yuppies and as the maturation of synth pop. Ferry was never this romantic or seductive, either with Roxy or as a solo artist, and Avalon shimmers with elegance in both its music and its lyrics. "More Than This," "Take a Chance With Me," "While My Heart Is Still Beating," and the title track are immaculately crafted and subtle songs, where the shifting synthesizers and murmured vocals gradually reveal the melodies. It's a rich, textured album and a graceful way to end the band's career.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music Guide



Hipper students of 1980s pop might pretend that Joy Division and the Smiths had a monopoly on melancholia, but for the older, more suave brooders, nothing could match the stylized desolation of Roxy Music's last album. Avalon was recorded in the wake of the band's hit version of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy." Although that song isn't on Avalon, its tortured shadow looms large over "While My Heart Is Still Beating," the title track, and the unlikely Balearic anthem "More Than This." If time has been kind to Bryan Ferry's crumpled Armani chic, it hasn't exactly been vicious to his back catalogue: Avalon sounds even more sumptuous now that the CD age has caught up with Rhett Davis' pristine production.

Peter Paphides - Amazon.com



Auf dieser Scheibe von 1982, so samtweich wie 1000-Dollar-Cognac, hat sich die Progressive-Rock-Band Roxy Music als Inkarnation von Kaviarträumen und Champagnerwünschen selbst neu erfunden. Sie waren an einem Punkt in ihrer bewegten Diskographie angekommen, an dem Roxy Music wenig mehr war als die Backup-Band von Leadsänger Bryan Ferry, dessen hoheitsvoller Ton sich irgendwo zwischen Ultravox' Synthie-Fetischismus und dem etwas verspielteren Scott Walker eingependelt hatte. Die flatterhaften Zeiten, als in der Band demokratische Verhältnisse herrschten, waren scheinbar vorbei -- der zuckersüße New-Romantic-Klang von Avalon hat nichts mehr mit der Zeit gemeinsam, zu der Brian Enos unberechenbares Keyboardgenudel oder Phil Manzaneras raketengetriebene Gitarre das Geschehen bestimmten. Das vorzügliche "More Than This" und der düstere Titelsong verleihen der Dekadenz von Robert Leachs 80er Jahren eine Würde, die diese Zeit wahrscheinlich nicht verdient hat.

Don Harrison - Amazon.de



Offiziell als letztes Roxy Music-Album angekündigt, erschien Avalon 1982 in der Grundbesetzung Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay und Phil Manzanera, die von einem Aufgebot an hochkarätigen Studiomusikern unterstützt wurden. Es war das dritte Album der englischen Band, das Platz eins der britischen LP-Charts eroberte, und wurde von der jubelnden Presse gar mit Marvin Gayes I Want You verglichen. Aus der sanften Songkollektion verführerischer Soul-Balladen, zurückhaltenden Popsongs und Dance-Tracks stiegen gleich mehrere in die Charts ein, neben dem Titelsong der melodiöse Ohrwurm "Take A Chance With Me" und die britische Nummer eins "More Than This". Mal abgesehen von dem knallharten Funk "The Space Between" war es die endgültige Abkehr von schrillem Manierismus und ironischen Showgesten hin zur kultivierten, intelligenten Erwachsenenunterhaltung, die musikalisch durchaus prickelte. Aufgrund des überwältigenden Erfolges folgten dem geplanten Abschiedsalbum der Band weitere LP-Veröffentlichungen.

Ingeborg Schober - Amazon.de



Wem Romantik zu seicht ist, der versüßt sich die Schmusestunde mit Avalon, dem wieder aufgelegten achten Album von Roxy Music, mit dem die Briten vollends zum souligen Designer-Pop wechselten. Und auf dem Brian Ferry alle Register stimmlicher Anmache zog.

© Audio


Ranked # 31 in Rolling Stone's "100 Best Albums Of The Eighties" survey. Uncut (9/03, p.126) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...The sounds on this, the biggest-selling album of their career, are as avant-garde as anything they'd ever done, just more subtle..."

Rolling Stone (11/89)



Down to the nucleus of its three original members - Bryan Ferry (voice, keyboards), Phil Manzan era (guitar) and Andy Mackay (sax & oboe) - Roxy Music is now essentially a studio outfit using outside musicians where needed to augment the basic trio. Avalon, the group's third album since its resurrection in 1979 with the superb Manifesto LP - and the ninth Roxy Music album in all - features just such a lineup. Ironically, Avalon appears on the Warners label 10 years after that same label dropped the band claiming lack of U.S. interest (after big U.K. successes) in its first two albums. But the Roxy Music of 1982 is, of course, a far cry from the band that set the pace for so many others back in `72. Avalon is Roxy Music at its most sophisticated. For the uninitiated, the subtle mastery of Ferry's world-weary crooning may not be immediately apparent. But for Roxy devotees, two or three listenings should bring full appreciation of that fact. Kicked off by its recent U.K. hit, "More Than This," Avalon offers an even more refined group than the Roxy of Manifesto or Flesh And Blood. The aforementioned tune has the power to draw the listener in with its quietly unassuming musical devices (such as Manzanera's wistful guitar) and the echoed late-night ambience that Ferry captures better than anyone else. The familiar Mackay saxophone softly punctuates "The Space Between," as the band works its way into a soft, spacey dance groove so ethereal its inherent strength might go right on by at first. The title track works in similar territory, but without the dance beat. Ferry plays the lost and wearied party-goer once more while an unearthly female voice calls to him in the distance. "Avalon" (the song) like much of Avalon (the album) sets the basic tone for the group today. The quiet manners of present-day Roxy Music are shown in the strength of music that never once forces one's attention. Late-night songs like "To Turn You On" and "While My Heart Is Still Beating" will steal into one's subconscious before it's even realized. As its name has always implied, Roxy Music (10 years on) still means a class act and a quality band.

CMJ.com - Eric Chappe



Roxy Music's Avalon takes a long time to kick in, but it finally does, and it's a good one. Bryan Ferry stars as a remarkably expressive keyboard player and singer whose familiar mannerisms are subsumed in a rich, benevolent self-assurance. And reed man Andy Mackay shines in a series of cameos (his oboe meditation on Ferry's "Tara" is particularly lovely). Ten years after its debut, Roxy Music has mellowed: the occasional stark piano chords in "While My Heart Is Still Beating," for example, recall the stately mood of "A Song for Europe," but the sound is softer, dreamier and less determinedly dramatic now. Ferry's songwriting, however, has seldom seemed stronger. Among the possible hits: the title track, with its charming, prereggae lilt; "Take a Chance with Me," with its extended pointillistic intro that opens into an airy, yearning romance; and "More Than This," a memorable melody graced with one of Ferry's most affecting vocal performances. Guitarist Phil Manzanera is poorly utilized on Avalon–at times he sounds like he's walking through his parts. Perhaps he saved his inspiration for his own album. Primitive Guitars bears no relation to his first solo LP, Diamond Head (one of the great British rock albums of the mid-Seventies), but it's considerably more engaging than his last outing, K-Scope. Here, Manzanera mans all the instruments (with the exception of one semiaudible contribution by bassist John Wetton) for a journey through his musical past. Some of the nine tracks, such as "Caracas" and "Bogota," recall his South American childhood, and dense percussion predominates; the album's most striking aspect, however, is Manzanera's ability to wrench weird and utterly unguitarlike sounds from his main instrument – one track, called "Impossible Guitar," lives up to its title in every way. There's no singing to speak of on Primitive Guitars, and those who aren't aficionados may find the album's cumulative effect somewhat samey. For Manzanera admirers, however, it's a must.

KURT LODER - Rolling Stone (RS 371)
 

 L y r i c s


More Than This

I could feel at the time
There was no way of knowing
Fallen leaves in the night
Who can say where they're blowing
As free as the wind
Hopefully learning
Why the sea on the tide
Has no way of turning

More than this you know there's nothing
More than this tell me one thing
More than this ooh there is nothing

It was fun for a while
There was no way of knowing
Like a dream in the night
Who can say where we're going
No care in the world
Maybe I'm learning
Why the sea on the tide
Has no way of turning

More than this you know there's nothing
More than this tell me one thing
More than this no, there's nothing

More than this nothing
More than this
More than this nothing


The Space Between

The way I see it
This relationship ain't right
The space between us
Better close it up tonight
The space between us
Close it up tonight
The way I see it
This relationship ain't right
The space between us
Listen here listen, listen here listen
We better
Close it up tonight


Avalon

Now the party's over
I'm so tired
Then I see you coming
Out of nowhere
Much communication in a motion
Without conversation or a notion
Avalon

When the samba takes you
Out of nowhere
And the background's fading
Out of focus
Yes the picture's changing
Every moment
And your destination
You don't know it
Avalon

When you bossanova
There's no holding
Would you have me dancing
Out of nowhere
Avalon ...


India

Instrumental


While My Heart Is Still Beating

All of those people
Everywhere
Ever so needing
Where's it all leading
Tell me where
Nothing insincere
I'd better have pity
I'd better go easy
I never will lay down
While my heart is still beating
Where's it all leading
Walk on air
Am I still dreaming
Words to spare
Lost in their meaning
I'd better be strong now
I'd better stop dreaming
My heart has flown away now
Will it never stop bleeding?


The Main Thing

Look at my hand
There's a soul on fire
You can lead me even higher
The main thing
Everybody knows
When a good thing's gone
You can really turn me on
The main thing
You run through here
With your words of sand
I can nearly understand
The main thing


Take A Chance With Me

As they say, two can play
But keep that song away from me
In my time, too much love
Has made me sad for so long
I was lost, can't you see?
Through the long lonely night
Heaven knows, I believe
Won't you take a chance with me?
Sometimes, I get so blue
People say I'm just a fool
All the world, even you
Should learn to love the way I do
I was blind, can't you see?
Through the long lonely night
Heaven knows, I believe
Won't you take a chance with me?


To Turn You On

I could show you in a word
If I wanted to
A window on a world
With a lovely view
From close up inside a single room
With an open book aside
Like you read in school
It's so easy, believe me
When you need fun
I do anything to turn you on
Anything to turn you on
It's raining in New York
On Fifth Avenue
And off Broadway after dark
Love the lights don't you
I could walk you through the park
If you're feeling blue
Or whatever
Spring Summer whenever
Winter through Fall
I'd do anything to turn you on
Anything to turn you on
I could leave you as you were
If I wanted to
Then I wonder is it fair
Now you're on your own
Who cares about you
Except me, God help me
When things go wrong
I do anything to turn you
Must phone me, you know me
When things go wrong
I do anything to turn you on


True To Life

So it gets to seven
And I think of nothing
But living in darkness
And the diamond lady
Well she's not telling
I don't even know her name
It's amazing
Times have changed
In days of old
Imagination'd leave you standing
Out in the could
Dancing city
Now you're talking
But where's your soul
-You've a thousand faces
I'll never know
There are complications
And compensations
If you know the game
Agitated in Xenon nightly
I'll take you home again
Travel way downtown
In search of nothing
But the sky at night
And the diamond lady
Well she's not talking
But that's alright
So I turn the pages
And tell the story
From town to town
People tell me
Be determined
Poor country boy
Too much luck
Means too much trouble
Much time alone
But arm in arm
With my seaside diamond
I'll soon be home


Tara Lyrics

Instrumental

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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