Hmmm........well, I've listened to the preview on Youtube. I'm really sorry to say that it just sounds like a half baked re-hash of much of Frantic and other solo albums, but minus any decent tunes, lyrics or singing. The melodies are so boring, the lyrics a teenager's tragedy of cliches.....babes in the wood, for goodness' sake! And the whispery vocals.........heavens above. As a long term and very invested Roxy and Ferry fan I'm just dreading the reviews. I predict one or two stars in the quality papers, for the simple fact that the songs display not a single interesting or arresting idea.

AF:
My reaction to the preview clip of Olympia was similar to yours. Nothing particularly memorable but nothing particularly objectionable either. Maybe hearing all the tracks in their entirety will make a difference, but it seems to be a rather bland assemblage...

Regarding press reviews, I think BF might get a rather positive (but not overwhelming) response simply because it has a relatively modern sound, at least compared with the unabashedy retro-sound that Phil Collins has exhumed for his latest Tribute to Soul/Motown (or whatever it's called). I doubt that Olympia will get a drubbing in the press but that doesn't mean it will garner 4 stars. More like 2.5 simply because it offers something other than pure nostalgia pandering to Baby-Boomers...

Completely agree with AF. Only one track sounds good to me.
8 years for that ...

The odd thing is that big music magazines like Mojo and Uncut don`t care to give him an article in addition to the CD review...

I too am a 35 year big fan of the whole body of work. I'm looking forward to hearing the actual album. It may need a lot of playing. Shameless sounds pretty good. Alphaville seems good too (but so much worse than the superb bootleg "original"). Overall, if I could only judge this by the preview I'd have to slate it as boring though. For me, the voice is no longer something I like - what a shame, but inevitable that one day it would be shot. All in all, I think, in contrast, a preview of the Alphaville sessions would be great imho - reflecting the fact that that unreleased album was the last great piece of work from BF. There seems to be a spark of brilliance left somewhere buried in the mix tho' - unfortunately it's too buried in a highly overproduced, over fiddled, under lyric'd, undersung miss.

I think we're expecting too much from The Great Man. You can't expect him to consistently release great stuff. And the well may well be drying up. The great stuff may be long gone. There's not many from his era still about and those that are still around are releasing pretty dire stuff. As for the newspapers and mags, they've always knocked him ! So , I wouldn't pay too much attention to them. Olympia won't stay in the charts too long but that's not a refelction of Olympia. Nothing Bryan releases today would stay in the charts too long. It's mainly because the majority of punters are in the 14 - 20 year old age group who finance JLS ,Alexandra Burke, Leona Lewis, Girls Aloud, etc.

I think you can say that with someone who makes an album every 2 or 3 years, not with someone who makes a personnal album every 8 years.

May I offer a glimmer of hope...?

I think expectations have been understandably raised because of the 'long wait' endured since the last release of original material.

As mentioned in a previous post, the snippets I've heard have a definite Mamouna feel to them - to which there are positives and negatives.

BUT, if Ferry's new offering sounds to me - very mechanical, over-produced, studio-ised and very Ferry - the Roxy canon rumoured to be floating about must be largely untouched.

Here's hoping...

I prefer waiting to the album being released before listening and make up my judgement. I know that hearing a few flashes doesn't work for me, I need to hear it at my ease, and the whole songs, and I know I need to play it more than once to make up my mind. And concerning the judgements in the press... they were rather negative on Mamouna too and I love that album, so that doesn't mean much to me.

Mamouna was a great album. Same goes for Bete Noir. Some great songs on each. Both had one or two duff songs but I expect that from any artist.