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Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Album Review: Bryan Ferry - Olympia (2010)

Roxy Music is well known for projecting a distinct artistic aura that separates it from other mainstream bands - it makes music with artistic motives in mind, not to appeal to common perceptions and expectations of rock and roll as it was and still is, but to bring the visual to the aural senses, and to incite or invoke a sensation of sensory appreciation that transgresses typical musical norms.  Most notable was their final 1982 album Avalon, an album that redressed romantic emotionalism in an auditory experience beyond what most musicians seemingly sought not to achieve for the most part.

Bryan Ferry's 2010 work, Olympia, is in spirit a continuation of Avalon.  A Ferry album by name, but a Roxy Music record in character, it's brilliance is justified on a number of fronts - firstly, its correlation to 80s Ferry and Roxy, notably Avalon and Ferry's solo Boys and Girls; secondly, its proficiency in reproducing everything that the aforementioned records stood for.  Analyzing the tracks, "You Can Dance" starts off reminiscent of "True to Life", "Shameless" is self-explanatory, and my personal favorite, "Song to the Siren", a cover song that Ferry, despite his advancing years, shows that he still has the magic when it comes to formulating those powerful and melodic ballads that made his 80s material so ethereal.  Loving it.  A


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