Here's a link to a review in the Washington Post. It's hardly a complete slam of the album, but it has more of a negative than positive spin. For example:

"it's vintage, if not necessarily classic, Ferry -- funky, slippery, preternaturally mellow. A low-energy mix of lounge pop, Euro-disco, overly constructed funk and oddly soothing techno..."

" [There is a] heavy coating of studio gloss that threatens to choke most every song here. No track suffers more than "Song to the Siren," a shiny, swirling, incomprehensibly busy cover of the 1970 Tim Buckley number that lacks nothing but character."

"The Scissor Sisters' "Heartache by Numbers" is a nicely done, if standard-issue, club track."

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktra ... olymp.html

Rather than start a new topic, I figured I'd post another US review of Olympia here. Below is a full transcript of the brief and rather sanguine review that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. The reviewer seems to pick up on the fact that the notion of Olympia being a Roxy Reunion is largely an illusion...


"Let's get straight to the good stuff: "Olympia" features the first set of studio recordings by Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay and Brian Eno since the group's 1973 LP, "For Your Pleasure." Trying to pick out the songs where the quartet comes together, however, is nearly impossible without the help of the lengthy credits sheet. That seems to be the case with most of the 65-year-old British singer's star-studded new solo release, which also features collaborations with Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, among many others. "Olympia" sounds just like any other Ferry release from the past two decades - slick, seductive and reliably sedate. There is an odd techno streak that surfaces in songs such as "You Can Dance" and "Shameless," the latter incongruously produced by London dance music duo Groove Armada. But tunes such as "Heartache by Numbers," "Me Oh My" and a languid cover of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" are classic Ferry - sometimes to a fault."

Here's a link to the original:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 1FR2G2.DTL

Well, then I realize it`s less to look forward to. Dammit!