And yes I know it's ME oh My !!!
Just play it in the early hours with a Lake District full moon and a smokey malt on the rocks.

"Just play it in the early hours with a Lake District full moon and a smokey malt on the rocks."

I think that might generate more sales of scotch and Cumbrian hotel rooms than CDs! Still at least the ice would be free!

I must say that having been very underwhelmed by the initial pre-release snippets, and having even questioned whether to purchase it at all, I am pleasantly surprised by Olympia. There are a fair variety of tempo tracks, offering far more interest than, say, Mamouna. A bit over-produced and even dated in parts, but those weaknesses are far outweighed by the good tunes, excellent musicianship and even decent vocals.

I even find myself quite liking "Shameless"!

But certainly not good enough for a Roxy album. And far from as interesting as Phil's last few albums.

Well it's certainly grown on me ! I wasn't that keen on Bryan's last 3 CDs and the snippets I heard of Olympia were nothing special.. As Time Goes By, Frantic and Dylanesque were OK but nothing more. No great songs either. But I've played Olympia a few times now and I love it. Me Oh My, Song to the Siren, Reason or Rhyme and Tender is the Night are great songs.The rest are OKish ! But, I don't particularly like You Can Dance which is the one he's using to promote the CD. Just goes to show. One man's meat .......

I share the sentiments of Ian S and CPL 593H - Olympia has some good songs with the slower/more reflective tunes like Me Oh My, Song to the Siren, Reason or Rhyme and Tender is the Night being the ones that I find most enjoyable.

Overall the album seems waaaay over-produced and I find Tender/Night to be my fave probably because it is the least cluttered of all the tracks - it has space and its possible to hear what's going on. And while I like Song/Siren I think I'd like it lots more if it featured less instruments - for example, Andy M's oboe is nice but not all that noticeable given the density of the mix.

As an upbeat track Shameless is good but I must admit that I wince at the phrase "rock and roll desire" - it just seems to me a very pedestrian lyric that BF could have improved on with a bit of thought/effort.

And I've reached the point with You Can Dance that I simply skip it and start the cd with track 2 (Alphaville). A little bit of You Can Dance is OK but it is just too monotonous for repeated listenings.

So, I did my part for BF and I went out into the American Wilderness and (after not finding it in four stores) purchased Olympia at close to list price. And I have listened to it and enjoyed it.

I now I am ready for BF to make the big move and finally get the new Roxy album released. That's what I'm waiting for...

Ha ! I do that as well. I skip You can dance and Alphaville and start with Heartache by numbers. And I don't bother listening to Whateer gets you through the Night and One Night. Bryans interpretations of other peoples songs are normally quite good, but these two are not so good in my opinion. I never thought I'd ever say this, but at this moment in time, I would prefer an Olympia tour more than the forthcoming Roxy tour.