Avalon eyes !!

Thanks for the concern.. Yup I am a he ! But don't worry bout' little old me ... It does feel a little weird to know that there is a "new" Ferry album there for the listening, but alas, I don't feel any urge to drop the needle in the groove . Some of it , at a push, seemed OK (ish) but the rest just made me turn my head away in embarrassment and exasperation - especially songs like 'One night stand' and that 'Special guy tune' . As i said before, the title track ( i can't bear typing the name it's so dull ) is probably the best, but even then I keep thinking the words are so run of the mill and that he better calm down cause he sounds a wee bit puffed out.

It's easy to heap praise upon praise on everything The Great Man does, but what does that achieve ? I have to say that his lyrics and album covers have lost their edge. It didn't seem that a lot of thought or effort went into the covers for Mamouna, Frantic, Dylanesque or even Avonmore. Lyrically, I often wonder how much input Simon Puxley had , as they don't seem the same since his death. Avonmore consisted of 10 songs. 2 were covers and 3 were old songs. Nothing wrong with releasing old recordings or covers, but what does that say about any new recordings. Having said all that,i still feel that his output is 10 times better than a lot of bigger selling artists, which is frustrating. Why doesn't he sell any more ?

In my opinion BF became a victim of modern technology - overproduction, too many tracks per song etc etc. Crazy that he has some great people playing, but they are not up in the mix and often can't be heard

Contrast that to his masterstroke of bring in Chris Spedding for LST/IYM, whose guitar playing really was the cornerstone of those two albums. He needs to do the same again with another musician at their peak to revive things and bring some much needed energy to the party.

Well I like the Avonmore album and hope that the 2015 shows include a significant amount of the material from it. It would be an indication that Bryan has faith in the newly-released songs rather than just falling back all the time on the tried-and-tested songs from the back catalogue.

Ultimately whether a song has 1 guitarist or 9 on it doesn't really matter to me - if the song's any good then I'll play it again and again, not just to see if that sounds like Gilmour or that might be Knopfler or "isn't that Nile Rodgers on that one"?

Bryan has brought guitarists in like Oliver Thompson to freshen things up in recent years, but until I get to hear the current crew live I'll reserve judgement. I didn't have any interest in buying The Jazz Age album but thoroughly enjoyed the RAH show from the tour, more than I expected to but still not enough to make me want to buy the album though.

[quote="Ian S"] Lyrically, I often wonder how much input Simon Puxley had , as they don't seem the same since his death.

Maturing Modernists,
Interesting perspectives are appearing in this thread. Ian S poses a good question. Is our hero at his strongest when he is in a musical partnership. What role did the good doctor actually play? Maybe he was more involved than we actually know? This is the sort of thing that a good biography could focus on.
Certainly, W2 does not underestimate the importance of Simon Puxley and Colin Good in Bryan's success.
Also, Roger makes a good point about the impact that a strident musician can make. Windswept agrees completely with this point. Some of the musicians that have made such a great contribution in the past (TGPT, AN, CP etc..) are of a certain age and may or may not be as dextrous as they once were but certainly, Ollie's guitar and Colin's keyboard have helped bring a depth and texture to BF's music that was very welcome.
Salutations,
Windswept

At Wembley in 2001, he dedicated Mother of Pearl to Simon Puxley and said he helped him write it,which is the first time I had ever heard that. Made me wonder if he was The 6th Beatle !

Certainly, W2 does not underestimate the importance of... Colin Good in Bryan's success.

I think we took that much as read! You must be saving him a fortune in agent's fees!

For what it's worth, my take on the album is:

Loop de Li - Excellent - for me a huge 'grower'.
Midnight Train - Good - very radio friendly so candidate for a follow up 'single'?
Soldier of Fortune. Excellent - This album's standout and resonating lyrics.
Driving Me Wild - Good - excellent groove.
A Special Kind of Guy - OK.
Avonmore - Very good - Urgent and intense.
Lost - Yawn
One Night Stand - Good
Send in the Clowns - Very good. The more I listen to this the more comfortable it feels but, like others, I just can't get away from the notion it belongs elsewhere.
Johnny and Mary - Excellent. Like the preceding track, it doesn't quite 'fit' (though this time for more obvious reasons) but despite this, for me, it competes with SoF for track of the album. At the risk of harming its ethereal quality, I'd love to hear this given a different Todd Terje treatment as well. Remixes can be interesting but generally leave me cold. Here however I think something even more special could emerge.

Overall I like Avonmore a lot and see it as a welcome, accomplished addition to BF's catalogue.

I like Avonmore too but I also get Gardner's point about lack of development, and his own personal disappointment with the album. As we know Ferry has been touring a lot, and globally at that. Not much time in the studio this year , or last. If it had been the other way round, he might have got bogged down a la Horoscope/Mamouna.

This is not Ferry's The Next Day , and it's also not about "returning to form" , which is just a lazy critic's term . ( Bowie's Heathen and Reality stand on their own).

I thought the cover may have indicated a throw-back to the energy of 1974/75 - The In Crowd, The Thrill of it All ( though the title track does try here), Another Time, Another Place , Whirlwind etc..

But no. That hasn't happened.

It's still a rewarding listen, and I think it moves along nicely with the times. ( well, I'm not a professional critic).

Ps, yep, Avonmore, the title is awful. Even " Kensington " would have worked better.

Loop De Li - Catchy refrain (why only 2 times?), good groove and a wailing saxophone. Very radio friendly.
Midnight Train - Also an 'Ohrwurm' (ear worm). Together with SOF a candidate for the second single.
Soldier Of Fortune - Best lyrics of the album. Performed by Roxy Music in the 80s presumably a top ten hit single.
Driving Me Wild - A danceable solution like LDL and MT. Funky guitars. Nice melody in the verse.
A Special Kind Of Guy - Very relaxed. ASKOG and 'Lost' remind me of Roxy's 'True To Life'.
Avonmore - Good to have an uptempo song there. Nice to hear Bryan's electric piano quints and again a saxophone. Very interesting the soundscape between C major and minor.
Lost - Love Mark Knopfler's guitar playing. Maybe a filler but not bad.
One Night Stand - Not my kind of thing. Don't like the choir, don't like the lyrics. Didn't like 'BF Bass', too.
Send In The Clowns - A real grower. So many versions of that song but I like it. Though I am not a fan of wah wah guitars and the 'Taxi' period.
Johnny And Mary - Maybe it doesn't fit here and polarizes. But I like it when Bryan does some electronics. Like the 'Me Oh My' remix. His voice sounds very fragile.

Thank you for this album, Bryan. When I first listened to 'Virginia Plain' I wouldn't have believed that this man is still doing album recordings 42 years later. We couldn't expect a kind of FYP II. But 'Avonmore' is solid quality because you can listen to it as an entirety.

I was somehow surprised about the negative emotions this record created. On the other hand I can understand Gardner and le freak. It depends on what you expected. I was a die-hard 'Police' fan and I always tried to find some 'Police' elements in Sting's solo records but was (mostly) disappointed. I still buy his records but they don't touch me any more ...

Regards from Germany, -p-

PS: Ok - the choice of the 'Avonmore' cover photograph ... probably the only thing I really don't understand ...