— Mrs Esmé Sprigg of Hounslow
What I previously said:
The Rox handed in their weakest album at this point but their creative nadir didn't have any effect on the public and, indeed, on critics. As one (possibly pseudonymous) Mrs Esmé Sprigg of Hounslow raved, "Stand aside. Here comes a perfectly executed pop record, reeking of class and presenting Roxy Music at their dazzling roxiest." If by that she means "by numbers and nowhere near "Virginia Plain" or any of their old stuff but probably the best they could do at the time though worryingly evident of a dullness they would never be able to shake" then, yes, I wholeheartedly agree.
This is the two hundredth entry on this blog! Yes, a milestone I am proud to have reached since I had the nagging suspicion that I had no hope of ever getting this far. I feared that I would abandon the project within a year or so; it's now three years and I'm still at it! It's nice to see that the subject of such a significant act and one that was once of importance to me. My Bowie years began to wane at the end of the nineties and Roxy Music seemed like the next logical step. My only regret was that I couldn't first have experienced them as a teenager just so I could have my mind blown by Brian Eno's audacious, ear-piercing VCS3 synth solo, the kind of moment that makes the young and impressionable.
Yet, I decided to try to approach this entry as fresh as possible. I have refrained from listening to any of Roxy Music's classic stuff of late so as to avoid any undue comparisons. This wasn't as tricky a task as it would have been a few years ago. While I still profess a great deal of admiration for the Rox, I've largely moved on from them and can judge their work in a much more critical light. Where I used to view their first four albums as an unbeatable quartet, I now consider all but third release Stranded to be a bit flawed. Each of their self-titled debut, Four Your Pleasure and Country Life start out brilliantly but they falter when flipped over. Siren is the one that fans of both early and latter Roxy tend to agree on but it's only with simpler items like "She Sells" and "Could It Happen to Me?" where it feels like they're up to something worthwhile; "Both Ends Burning" is a favourite of many but to these ears it's unlistenable. The more progessive they tried to be, the less it worked out for them. A curate's egg of an album, Siren would be the last time they even attempted to be challenging.
Roxy Music closed up shop in 1975 and they returned to a music scene that was very different from where they left it. Punk had come and gone, disco had peaked and there was a new generation of artists pushing the creative boundaries. Pop may not necessarily have needed them but fans were more willing than ever to embrace them. They had more hit singles after their hiatus than prior to it and two of their three number one albums came after their comeback.
Their return, however, was slow to get going with the public. "Trash" was the first single released from the Manifesto album and it peaked all the way down at the bottom of the top 40. Subsequent singles "Dance Away" and "Angel Eyes" turned the tide, giving them a pair of top 5 hits on the bounce. They swiftly returned a year later and the novelty of having them back still hadn't warn off. Yet, new album Flesh and Blood contained two cover versions, an early indication that Bryan Ferry was starting to blur the lines between the group he had as a day job and his sideline solo career. (The band had previously been all about originals while Ferry on his own relied heavily on the efforts of others) "In the Midnight Hour" and "Eight Miles High" are outstanding singles by Wilson Pickett and The Byrds respectively but Roxy Music's interpretations of them are both vile, in spite of doing their best to do something new with them. The rest of the album is all right but there's a sense that they came back too quickly with Ferry's well of new material rapidly drying up.
That said, he singles from Flesh and Blood are all very good, if not hitting the heights of "Virginia Plain" and "Mother of Pearl" then at least they moved gracefully into middle age with their dignity. I've previously written about how Ferry had become formulaic following Roxy's demise and it's around this point that he begins coming up with this formula. "Dance Away" had already set a precedent as a composition but he'd yet to get his bandmates on board. A year on and everything has been refined. There's a build up throughout the song as everything comes together; only Andy Mackay's oboe solo, which hints at some of Brian Eno's "treatments" from the group's early days, is daring enough to step outside of Ferry's vision. As 'Mrs. Esme Sprigg of Houslow' says, it then melds into one of Phil Manzanera's patented guitar licks which shifts them more towards the mid-seventies. Ferry's vocal resumes and we're right back in 1980: every Roxy Music period is accounted for without suggesting that they'd rather be in an earlier time. It then concludes over an extended instrumental passage which anticipates the very lengthy fade out on "More Than This" from two years later.
I have long been down on Roxy's final stage and it still isn't my favourite period but they could've done a lot worse than "Over You" (and, to be sure, they did). Sure, their best days were behind them but they still had a contribution to make. If only more bands finished up as strong as a depleted Roxy Music on fumes.
~~~~~
Also of some cop
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: "Messages"
Mrs. Sprigg calls Wirral's finest 'OMITD' which isn't as catchy as 'OMD' but at least she's acknowledging prepositions and articles. Their earlier singles "Electricity" and "Red Flame/White Light" suggested there was promise and "Messages" is where they begin to show it. The Kraftwerk influence is in evidence, as is their debt to post-punk but their individual sound is emerging just as Roxy Music's was fading away. An excellent first hit single though it has since been overshadowed by more introspective numbers like "Enola Gay", "Souvenir" and all those bloody songs of their's about Joan of Arc. It does have something of the early Vince Clark-era Depeche Mode to it but the pop sound of 'OMITD' has its virtues just as "Just Can't Get Enough" has. The first of many classics to make up one of the stronger greatest hits collections of the decade.
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