Avonmore

A really good album, but perhaps not surprisingly so when you begin to analyze it. Everything about "Avonmore" is shrewdly designed to be an archetypal Ferry album. The song "Midnight Train" comes from the unreleased (officially) 1990 "Horoscope" sessions. There are the obligatorily bad covers ("Send in the Clowns" & "Johnny and Mary"). There's the classy/sleazy "One Night Stand". There's sappy forlorn songs: "A Special Kind of Guy" and "Lost". Fortunately there to balance, are the genuinely exciting "Loop De Li" and "Avonmore". The entire affair never feels new or dangerous, though, as Ferry's 'trademark' sound is what he's been using and tweaking very little since "Boys and Girls". That album, in fact, could be argued as an extension of Roxy Music's "Avalon", whose title is doubtlessly conjured up in fans' minds. On top of everything, a youthful picture adorns the most recent album of whom the artist was actually 68 at the time! It seems as though the musical ideal of Bryan Ferry is to remain in some hazy mid-eighties melancholy. All this analysis aside, there's nothing inherently wrong with the album. Crafting various pieces together into a cohesive form is a talent, and to his credit, "Avonmore" flows very well. In my opinion, there are no complete, front-to-back, perfect albums from either Roxy Music or Ferry solo. There are many great and even perfect songs speckled between egotistical choices I don't enjoy. While I would appreciate something more adventurous, I've come to accept that's not his modus operandi. With that understanding, this is just another album that fits into that mold and probably isn't really any worse for it.

After 2010’s phenomenally boring “Olympia” I was hesitant to put out for another Bryan Ferry album. But as fans often do, we give it one more shot. And this is a shot I am glad I took.Easily the best Ferry album since 1987’s Bete Noire (maybe even better) this is a fantastic Bryan Ferry Album. I actually have to put it up there with Roxy Music’s iconic “Avalon”. Up-tempo, by Bryan Ferry standards, it is a guitar driven album. Soulful, rhythmic, rhythm guitars and clean sharp leads are featured in most songs. It oozes with sensuality, hipness, and a strong techno beat. Songs like “Midnight Train”, “Driving Me” Wild and “Avonmore” have strong mid-tempo dance beats that make it difficult to keep still. “Avonmore” is as strong as any song Bryan has ever done. Ballads such as “Soldier of Fortune”, “Lost”, and his cover of “Send in the Clowns” are all well done and feature impressive instrumentals throughout, and are by no means sleepers. They all have a rich sound with subtle but steady rhythm to drive them.Some have said that Bryan’s voice is buried in the mix of this album, but not to my ears. His style has always been to have somewhat muted vocals, but to me his vocals stand out more on this album than Olympia. Granted, even listening to interviews with him you can tell his voice is showing its age, but to me that only adds to the atmosphere he puts in his music. I have always had to describe Bryan Ferry’s style for lack of a better terms; “cool”, hip, and sophisticated. Avonmore is all of this.So put on your smoking jacket, grab a cognac and get “cool” with “Avonmore”. I have no choice but to give this 5 stars as a great album by an iconic performer, perhaps one of his best.

It is difficult for me to write an objective review when an album is newly released especially from artists I consider iconic. Bryan Ferry is definitely in that category. If you aren't familiar with him or his music, you should be, but maybe your taste in music, art, film, etc. is different. I have a very wide and diverse taste in many forms of art and pop music in particular. Pop music encompasses all form of music that is not orchestral in nature and not usually written by composers of past centuries mostly prior to the 20th century. So "pop" music can be anything from raw hillbilly stompin' music to the most over produced and slick orchestrated balladry and everything in between. So it is that in the early 70's a rock band with the moniker Roxy Music appeared on the scene. In Midwestern US towns they went unnoticed because they were not on the pop radio stations which were still mostly AM and at that time the British influence on US radio pop music had waned after the break up of the Beatles. I was fortunate to be living in a college town that has a couple of record stores that would play new music they had received as promotional items or they had opened for that purpose. I happened to hear a portion of the first Roxy Music album while browsing in such a store and it immediately caught my attention. I had always been an Anglophile since childhood, growing with the advance of rock and roll into psychedelic rock, folk rock, blues rock, art rock, heavy metal, progressive rock, and at the time "glam rock" which was an odd term that had little relevance to the "hip" scene in a smaller Midwestern college town where the advent of the singer/songwriter was in full bloom and softer FM stylings were beginning to take hold with the growth of no static at all FM stereo radio. Poco and the Eagles were the up and comers to the average hipster who typically wore plaid shirts, flared blue jeans, and cowboy or trucker boots. Pink Floyd, Todd Rundgren, Yes, and Steely Dan were making headway so not all was lost. So I asked to see that first Roxy Music album from the clerk who basically was a jazz snob and sneered at anything else. I liked jazz too but not as much, still being in my teens. So I was able to talk the store manager to sell me that promo album when he saw fit to let it go. I fell in love with it. It was what was missing from pop music at the time that had been what made the mid-60's so exciting. Most of the songs were not excessively long and in fact the "single" cut "Virginia Plain" was a second under the 3 minute mark. Here was a band that made pop songs sung by this suave looking thin dude with jet black hair. The band were all wearing space age glitzy looking outfits and had hair cuts in all manner of rock and roll glory. Yes there was still a lot of long hair but it was styled. So it was I fell in love with these oddballs from the future and stayed with them, all of them mind you, for years to come. So fast forward to 2014 when Bryan Ferry releases yet another solo album instead of the rumored Roxy Music album I had been yearning for. Not that I didn't like his solo efforts. He began putting out solo material shortly after Roxy's 2nd album so it wasn't really that I didn't like his solo work, I did, and loved a lot of it. But as we age we generally become nostalgic and albums like "For Your Pleasure," "Stranded","Country Life", and finally "Avalon" that were so near perfect it seemed a crime that it was over forever. So there were reunion tours and live films to be enjoyed but no new Roxy Music music. His previous solo album "Olympia" took a long time for me to warm up to as it was a furtherance of Ferry's obsession with dance music as art. That's not a bad thing, and I sensed that this album was more than that and would improve with repeated listenings. It did I'm glad to say, but the music had no obvious similarity to the Roxy Music era. Ferry had created albums that were more in the Roxy vein, like "Mamouna" and "Taxi" in the 90's. So I was surprised that "Olympia" was a return or rather an extension of his 80's dance stylings. But it is a great album, let me be clear about that, just not for everyone. So finally came "Avonmore." The cover was a photo of a younger looking Ferry, that was a clue. Planning of the album handled by his children? Huh? That really got my attention, being a father with children who were young adults or getting there. Being a busy dad I had little time to spend with the new album but gave it a couple of cursory hearings. The lead off track "Loop-De-Li" sounded like this album would be another "Olympia" to my untrained ears and the next 3 or so songs had a similare sheen . It was dance time again. That's OK, but if you aren't in the mood, the dance stylings can be a bit off putting. So I really didn't listen to the album very well until I had the time to focus on it. I'm glad I came back to it. It is simply one of his best efforts ever, up there with the best of Roxy Music and his best solo material, maybe the best of that so far. That's saying a lot because I loved his solo albums that covered the "standards" of popular music beginning way back with "These Foolish Things" and his "As Time Goes By" from 2000 was an artistic peak for him. His more recent venture into the swing band stylings of the roaring 20's via his involvement with the soundtrack to "Gatsby" were also admirable, though less accessible to contemporary listeners. But with "Avonmore" we have the great rocker/crooner at his very best. Age has not slowed or decreased his power whether the song's a rocker or a soft sad ballad. As "Avonmore" moves from song to song it does seem to begin with the hyper rhythms of "Loop-De-Li" into a less dance oriented and more rock oriented direction. I have no idea if this was intentional or not. Regardless it works very well. Each song is well crafted and contain some amazing moments in arrangement and execution. The guitar work is spectacular. The low end and percussion could easily dominate but don't. The mix seems very well balanced to me. Ferry's vocals are of course up front, but not pushed so hard that the music isn't an equal. Having producer, Rhett Davies, who had been with Ferry and Roxy on many of their very best albums, on board must have been a plus given the result,s as well as some of the musicians who lended him their hands and minds on previous albums. Like many Roxy Music albums of their later period, the songs do jump stylistically, which I enjoy. As a vinyl album I'm guessing what we have here is a classic device of having a faster side or the A side and the slower tempos on the B side or as on CD's the later songs. So it is that near the end we have the one non-Ferry penned song, the Stephen Sondheim classic "Send in the Clowns." When I first saw this listed I was a bit jaded and wondered why he would pick such an over covered song? But fear not, his version trumps just about any other version of this classic that I've ever heard. His dark and moody approach to it is near perfect. His collaboration with Norwegian artist/producer DJ Todd Terje titled "Johnny and Mary" ends the album with a sad world weary recitation on the nature of human love and relationships that is for the ages. In between are many great songs and I want to end this long sermon with a nod to one of my favorite rock guitarists, Johnny Marr, who co-wrote and performs with Ferry on "Soldier of Fortune" an uptempo dance rocker. I won't go into every song on the album here but I have to ask, why did Bryan not pick "Midnight Train" as a single cut? It's a standout with great hooks and while it may be the title is confusing because of the old "Midnight Train to Georgia" hit that was covered most famously by Gladys Knight and the Pips, the song has no similarity. It does however rock and swing, which is what Bryan Ferry does best. But he does so many things so well it's really hard to limit him like that. Just get this wonderful album and let it sink in. Like most great rock albums, repeated listening is required to fully absorb this latter day rock classic.

My soundtrack during the coronavirus lockdown has been Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music. Yes, that’s right, nothing else for three months. Inspired by his albums Bitter Sweet and The Jazz Age which featured songs that were unfamiliar to me, I’ve investigated his ‘later’ albums that contain some of the songs that featured on those two albums. Mamouna, Taxi, and Olympia I’d heard of but hadn’t listened to but now find that they have some great stuff on them. This album Avonmore had completely passed me by and I left it till last but what a find. Songs like Midnight Train, Soldier of Fortune, and Special Kind of Guy are as good as anything Mr Ferry has ever done and a special mention must go to his re interpretation of Johnny and Mary which allows the melody to breath in a way the original’s frantic pace didn’t allow. A great discovery for me and a new favourite.

This album continues in the same vein as "Mamouna" and "Olympia" - high class, sophisticated art/pop, delivered with the class of a 1930s Parisian nightclub singer yet with a sumptuous contemporary, laid-back, polished backing. "Here it comes - that old ennui..." is a line from Roxy Music's "If It Takes All Night" from 1974's "Country Life". It is so apt here. Ferry is a master of his craft, the relayer of reserved romanticism and the purveyor of polished perfection. As with those previous albums, the pace never gets above walking, gliding over the floor. It doesn't need to. It is all exquisitely seductive. Strangely, though, for such a mature, accomplished album, the cover shows Ferry as a callow youth.TRACK LISTING1. Loop Di Li2. Midnight Train3. Soldier Of Fortune4. Driving Me Wild5. A Special Kind Of Day6. Avonmore7. Lost8. One Night Stand9. Send In The Clowns10. Johnny And Mary"Loop Di Li" is an insistently shuffling, syncopated typical Ferry groove. Effortless and delectable. "Midnight Train" continues in the same appetising fashion, with some understated but melodic guitar lines floating around and Ferry's voice, as always, sounding classily detached. That voice is gorgeously croakily romantic on "Soldier Of Fortune". "Driving Me Wild" has a couple of hints of contemporary music in its "hey hey hey" vocal backing, but the overall ambience hasn't changed. It doesn't for "A Special Kind Of Day" either. I would say that "Olympia" actually had far more changes of style and atmosphere than on this album, where the vibe is the same, like on "Mamouna", from track one to track ten.The title track does see the pace up just a little, however, with a more frantic, rolling drum beat and a luscious, enigmatic vocal from Ferry. It is an ebullient, buoyant number. "Lost" has a beguiling guitar line floating around all over it and Ferry's voice is engagingly "grey" (which is the only way I can describe its slightly high, throaty tone). "One Night Stand" harks back to the intoxicating Grace Jones-esque nightclub rhythms of "Olympia". It has some nice saxophone swirling about in there too. Despite a few slight changes in pace, the whole album plays pretty much as one continuous whole.The final two tracks are cover versions - a haunting version of Judy Collins' "Send In The Clowns" and a bassy version of Robert Palmer's "Johnny And Mary". The track would seem to be ideal for Ferry. He does it full of laid-back, sleepy soul. As indeed he does the whole album.

If you like Bryan Ferry, loved Roxy Musics album Avalon, then think of this album as Avalon on steroids. Fantastic songs and arrangements, plus Bryan as smooth and cool as ever. The big bonus is the LP sounds way better than the CD and it's on 180 gems heavyweight vinyl. What more could you as for except more of the same in future. Highly recommended, so 5 stars.

Good songs , good musicians but Ferry's voice has gone and faded but he gets away with it .

Not his best, but still better than most.