These are reactions from a forum to the first two songs on the Love Letters EP.

"I had no idea that his voice had deteriorated so much. These two songs are horrible. What happened?"
klaatuhf , April 29, 2022

"This EP was released today... I'm not sure why he only made four tracks... although I don't know how many more of these rather unremarkable cover versions one would need or want.
Squealy , May 19, 2022

The question was asked why Ferry placed the song Star on this Retroperspective album. I think the record company will have allowed him to release one or maybe even pieces of these works on the album. That won't be enough for an independent album of this new creative style....

The placement of the last albums (Germany) has not exactly improved his situation:

The Jazz Age Age: 91st place, 1 week in the charts

Avonmore: 23rd place, 3 weeks in the charts

Bitter-Sweet: 46th place, 5 weeks in the charts

I think this rather poor result could also be the reason why he almost went on a tour every year. The costs had to be recouped.

But now enough of the criticism. It is much more important that he is in good health.

Thank you Bryan for allowing me to enjoy your great music over all these decades!!!

Hedonistic Hipsters,
What a brilliant post from le Jardinier. W2 est tout a fait d’accord avec lui.
Windswept thinks ‘Star’ heralds a nouvelle vague of creativity and freedom that indeed reflects a postmodernist approach.
In the brilliant interview with Rhett Davis the importance that Bryan attaches to rhythm and the bass was pointed out and is self evident in ‘Star’ and as always he explores any avenue he wants.
With his own beloved studio and with years of recording experience behind him he can noodle away until the cows come home and with phenomenal talent like Rhett on tap W2 is sure he’ll come up with great music.
The more W2 plays it, the more he loves ‘Star’ and just hopes it is a precursor for a new album. A new sensation .A fabulous creation. A danceable solution peut-etre ?
Furthermore, with a new series of the fabulous ‘Babylon Berlin’ on the horizon it will be interesting to see if our hero is involved ?
Meanwhile W2 has put together his own ‘Tecno-Noir’ playlist so ‘Star’ has friends.
Salutation a tous meme le fou sentimental.
Windswept

[quote="Uwe"]These are reactions from a forum to the first two songs on the Love Letters EP.

"I had no idea that his voice had deteriorated so much. These two songs are horrible. What happened?"
klaatuhf , April 29, 2022

"This EP was released today... I'm not sure why he only made four tracks... although I don't know how many more of these rather unremarkable cover versions one would need or want.
Squealy , May 19, 2022

The question was asked why Ferry placed the song Star on this Retroperspective album. I think the record company will have allowed him to release one or maybe even pieces of these works on the album. That won't be enough for an independent album of this new creative style....

The placement of the last albums (Germany) has not exactly improved his situation:

The Jazz Age Age: 91st place, 1 week in the charts

Avonmore: 23rd place, 3 weeks in the charts

Bitter-Sweet: 46th place, 5 weeks in the charts

I think this rather poor result ……[quote]

Cher Uwe,
To which forum do you refer? Surely not this one. As W2 recalls the reception to ‘Love Letters’ was more than favourable?
In any event, chart positionings mean absolutely nothing these days and W2 is quite sure our hero couldn’t give a flying frittata about record deals.
As for touring - peut etre he does it because he likes it. Strange thought n’est-ce-pas ?
Salutations,
W2

Thoroughly enjoyed W2 and Gardner's thoughts on this, not least the parallels drawn with the first two Roxy albums. Précisément!

To the naysayers, it seems likely the only response is 'get used to it'. It seems there is "lots more to come" and someone with BF's experience of the record industry wouldn't make an announcement like that if he didn't have the means to get the music out there.

Never ceases to amaze me how often 'social media-age' opinion is portrayed as fact. Two critical opinions does not a negative reception make, and it's rather disengenuous to select them whilst not providing the context of the rather more favourable responses. Nor, by the way, is two anything like statistically representative. To add a little of that pesky context, it's one more than one! Still, as I often find myself saying of the aforementioned social media age, "don't let the facts get in the way of a good story".

Hello UKRichard,

here is the link :
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/ ... f.1144300/

this is another interesting forum :
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/ ... ad.169633/

Thanks for the quote - glad we're on the same page - fingers crossed that our avant garde dreams come true .....

Dear Uwe,

mostly when I have the possibility to watch old artists on TV, on YouTube or in a show I am somehow touched because of their lifetime achievement. And by this I mean serious artists who can look back on careers that have stretched over several decades with all the highs and lows.

Leonard Cohen is one of them, Sir Ray Davies of the Kinks and, of course, Bob Dylan, too. Italian songwriter Paolo Conte is another example. And, last but not least, our hero Bryan Ferry.

What do they have in common? Their voices diminished in the last phases of their careers. But their late work is inseparable from their early recordings where their voices, their ideas, their creativity arose from young brains and bodies.

I think it is legitimate when old artists (f/m) show their age and their fragility. So I say with respect: 'Star' is a song that will never become a favourite of mine but I am very impressed about the creativity of my hero Bryan at the age of 78.

And, as several posters said before: VP, DTS, Re-M/Re-M and EOY sound(ed) absolutely strange to many, many people. So nothing new with 'Star', Uwe?

Have fun with Roxy/Ferry records you really like !

- Peter -

Hello Peter,

thanks for your answer.

The difference to before is this: Roxy were very brave, they wrote music history with their own unmistakable style. Musically as well as vocally. It was Roxy/Ferry, both visually and audibly perceptible.

If I heard the song Star on the radio now, I would never associate Bryan with this song. I can guess it in nuances, but only because I know that his name is connected to the song Star.

I am sure that he also contributed little musically (sound) to this song, similar to the sessions with Todd Terje. But there I could at least recognize his voice, even if it was a little rougher than usual.

By the way, I would never associate this song with Elton John, Mick Jagger or anyone else.

This song as such stands for itself. Independent. It takes a lot of imagination for me to connect this song with the early phase of his artistic work. I can't get over my own shadow to think the same thing.

I think it's more likely that he wanted to give Amelia Barratt a platform to share her music and thoughts and so, out of loyalty, he made his name, or rather his brand, available.

By the way, I also really appreciate all of the artists/musicians you quoted. Exactly my taste.

Uwe

This doesn't seem to be the sort of 'one off' some posts seem to allude to. Courtesy of a link from Jocelyn:
"Bryan Ferry comments…

‘Star’ is a collaboration with the painter and writer Amelia Barratt. A couple of years ago I helped her record an audiobook here in my studio. I was very impressed by her writing, and this is the first song we did together. I’m very excited about this new work – there’s a lot more to come."