The Times Live - Olympia - Mon 20th Dec

Judge this album by its cover -- Kate Moss pouting moodily on satin sheets -- and you'd assume it harks back to Bryan Ferry's Roxy Music pomp, when supermodels queued up to grace the band's album covers and Ferry dispatched endless art-rock classics without even breaking a sweat.

Indeed, this is as close as we may get to a Roxy reunion on record: Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay and Brian Eno are all featured, alongside everyone from Pink Floyd's David Gilmour to the Scissor Sisters.

Some of it works like a dream.

The dramatic swagger of "You Can Dance" finds Ferry murmuring "Do you come here often?" like the old smoothie he is, while the throbbing, bass-heavy Groove Armada collaboration "Shameless" is more all-night rave than gentleman's club, and all the better for it.

Ferry also brings his own style to covers of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" and Traffic's "No Face, No Name, No Number." But too many songs fail to equal the quality of the guest list, meaning the substance of "Olympia" never quite matches its undoubted style

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