I think any album by any artist should be judged on what you hear and not what you already know or read on the sleeve.

Many bands don't complete recordings for years. One of Rolling Stones best albums Tattoo You was exactly that. I loved that album when I bought it when it was released. I re-bought about 3 years ago and read on the sleeve notes the origin of most of the tracks and they were left overs from previouis sessions. Do I suddenly have to dislike that album??

Grace Jones last album Hurricane is her best by a mile and half of that came from unfinished/unreleased projects.

Now there is a fairly good little beat group from the 70's called Rock's Emu Sick or something like that. A lot of their 'golden era' 1972-1975 was simnilar. Grey Lagoons was demoed in 1971 but not used for the first album. There was a track on Stranded with a working title that didn't make it to the album but ended uo on a later album, etc etc etc. So if that tracks turns out to be your favourite track on Siren then does it become a bad song because it began during the Stranded sessions?

I think a song should be judged on wheather it is any good to release when it does get released rather than 'it began years ago'. It's not BF's fault that we have had 'a peek under tha magician's cape'.

How differently would we view Alphaville, A Fool for Love etc if we had never heard or knew of the Alphaville sessions. On the same token if we found out that Ferry wrote Sentimental Fool in 1965 at uni and demoed it for every album until it was right for Siren would we then all of a sudden hear it as a sub-standard release?

I have said this so often but i think some fans create for themselves pre meditated prejudices about music and have it judged before it was heard. (not just ferry fans I may add)

For Ferry the usual prejudices are:
Does Paul Thompson play on it? (I love Paul's playing and wish he did play on more, but does it make it a bad track because another talented drummer is on there. Would we judge the track differently if we didn't read the drumming credits first.

Is the song a cover or original. (If we heard a recording and liked it but didn't know it was a cover then when we see the writing credits is it all of a sudden a bad track. I prefer Ferry's originals by a mile but some of his self penned songs are not the best and some of his covers have been amazing) Take your pick, Cry Cry Cry or A Hard Rain's A-Gonna fall?

When was the song first written/demoed? I have covered that above.

It's not as good as the old stuff. As classic as those first 4 roxy albums are, can any band keep making the same records for 40 years, can any band be the 'new sensation' all their career?

I would say stick this new album on when it comes out, don't read the writing credits, don't read the musician credits and forget what you know has been demoed before and just listen to it openly and honestly instead of premeditated prejudice, that's only fair. You may styill not like it but you gave it a chance. I do that with just about every non Roxy related CD I buy. The problem with being a fan is we know to much and we let that information spoil things for us.

I remember on a now defunct Roxy forum years ago someone asked 'what tracks on In Your Mind did Spedding play on so I know which ones to like best'. I also remember breaking the news on this site that Ferry was working on an all Dylan cover album and read witin days how bad it was going to be. The album wasn't even finished yet and no one outside that project had heard it but a fan had made up his mind anyway.

A case in point; I am not a fan of Dylanesque but I remember playing it on a long journey in the car with a younger coleague from work with me. After 2-3 songs he said 'who is this?' I said Bryan Ferry, he replied I have heard of him, this sounds pretty good. When it got to Knocking On Heaven's Door he said ' aww that's a Guns n Roses song, he spoiled it with a cover." I said Guns Roses version is a cover of a Bob Dylan Song just like this whole album of Ferry's is." I showed him the CD case and he didn't want to hear anymore because it was 'covers'. He was enjoying the album up until he realised it was cover

J.O'B.

I wonder if the change of name (sort of) heralds a change of direction for Ollie and a break from Bryan Ferry? It seems likely he is not part of the tour band for 2014 and a recent photograph of BF performing at the Prince's Trust Gala featured two new male guitarists in the band who I imagine were not just hired for one night!

I follow Cherrise on twitter and the clues in some of the tweets seem to indicate the two guitarists photographed could be Jacob Quistgaard and Steve Jones. Guy Pratt is also back in the fold. It looks like the new touring band will be quite different from the past few outings and sounds pretty interesting.

I was particularly furious with the whole Olympia release - it was sold as a Roxy reunion of sorts - when it wasn't, - it was sold as an album of new tunes - when it wasn't.