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Friday, December 16, 2016

Album Review: Bryan Ferry - Avonmore (2014)

Bryan Ferry almost seems to get better with age.  Boys and Girls from 1985, for instance, is overall an average album, but it does contain in my opinion the greatest love song ever written, "Slave to Love."  1993's Taxi was a surprise - it's common for long established artists to wane musically as time moves on.  But Bryan Ferry never stagnates - he matures.  Olympia again reinforced this, and once more, having listened to Avonmore, the album which I am writing about here, I am more convinced of this than ever.  And whilst Olympia was perhaps a spiritual successor to Roxy Music's Avalon in many ways, this new album is not a spiritual successor to any other album as such, but a contemporary rendition of Ferry at his best.  Much better than Boys and Girls, but it is nonetheless rich in that musical finesse that makes "Slave to Love" the ultimate love song that it was, and of course, still is.  Starting off great with "Loop de Li" and "Midnight Train", it slips a bit on "Soldier of Fortune", but picks up again from then on.  "Lost", "One Night Stand" and "Johnny & Mary" are my favorites for the second half of the album.  I can only hope Bryan maintains the momentum and keeps knocking out brilliant albums like this for many more years to come.  A


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