https://thequietus.com/articles/28317-r ... -eno-split

For those minded, The Quietus also needs funding

PS. I am not linked to them .

A very interesting article, other than the anti-Eno bias.

Let's face it in the early days Roxy could have gone in so many directions. Phil, Eno and Andy were and are musicians of such a range of diverse talents and interests/influences, with all of this being held together by TGPT (and of course Paul now showing another side to him while playing with Lindesfarne).

After Eno left IMHO Stranded, Country Life and Siren were good albums, but Manifesto flattered to deceive and then came the decline when Paul left the band.

Phil, Eno, Andy and Eddie Jobson have all gone onto great things outside of Roxy. Enough said.

Roger

An interesting enough read, although the early part of the article is littered with factual inaccuracies; maybe that's sloppy journalistic research or maybe us diehards are just too pedantic...

Mes Amis,
Hipsters may age but the debate will still rage.
That said, W2 wishes he could decline into one of the greatest albums ever made .... ‘Avalon’ !
Salutations a tous et bon ‘Lockdown ‘ release. I can’t wait to see our hero in a face mask.
Quel Bordel,
Windswept.

As W2 says, the debate around the two or three phases of Roxy will always continue amongst fans. When it comes to the final three albums, which seem to divide even more than the pre-/post- Eno era, what puzzles me is precisely what those who knock them would have expected instead? The music and lyrics were mellowing and maturing long before they came back with Manifesto so, aside from the odd faux pas (Cry, Cry, Cry), the album sits reasonably comfortably alongside Siren. Similarly the two albums that followed - OK, we weren't accustomed to Roxy albums containing covers, but F&B contained some outstanding songs and Avalon is flawless.
No one can possibly know how things might have been different had there not been a break, the personnel / dynamic had been different etc. The band made eight exemplary albums. Who knows, had they turned left instead of turning right at some point we might not even have got that.

I've always thought of In Your Mind as "the Roxy album that never was", whereas Avalon could easily have been issued under BF's name, as it has more in common with Boys And Girls than with the Roxy back catalogue.

Perpetual Procrastinators,

UKRichard makes the salient point.

The debate will rage forever. Principally because there are those that don’t accept that ‘Roxy’ was Ferry and Ferry remains ‘Roxy’.

They tend to think that it was some sort of team game with all the players being equal when W2 perceives it as 1000 miles from that.
It was Bryan’s gang. He was the leader and the creative visionary.

That is why Windswept was never shocked by their musical direction.
Stunned by the quality, surprised by the maturity of its evolution yes but shocked ? Never. The whole thing had BF’s signature on it from the get go and when the other members of the gang wanted to do something off strategy, they simply left until there was no more gang and their body of work was absorbed into his parallel solo career.

Indeed the longevity of our hero’s career can be attributed to the fact that his music found its audience and we moved in lockstep with him.
C’est porquoi sauf IYLSE, W2 finds rien a critiquer

Salutations a tous et W2 hopes his barber opens soon. He needs a Re-Make/Re-Model.

Windswept

-Hmm, did really his music find it`s audience? I`d say that after Boys & Girls, the songs were there, but the audience wasn`t. Stunningly silent, despite great songs like Kiss & Tell and The Right Stuff. I felt like an enthusiast, meself.

I have always looked upon Roxy less as a democracy and more as a benevolent dictatorship. As the late great Nottingham Forest football manager Brian Clough said, and I paraphrase him here, we all sit around and have a discussion and then everyone agrees that I was right. Perhaps Roxy was the same?