[.ca] Avalon

From Amazon.co.uk:
Hipper students of 1980s pop might like to pretend that Joy Division and The Smiths had a monopoly on melancholia, but for the older, more suave miserabilist, nothing could match the stylised desolation of Roxy Music's last album. Avalon was recorded in the wake of the band's first number one hit--a version of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy"--and although that song isn't on here, its tortured shadow looms large over "While My Heart Is Still Beating", the title track, and the unlikely Balearic anthem "More Than This". If time has been kind to Bryan Ferry's crumpled Armani chic, it hasn't exactly been vicious to his back catalogue: Avalon sounds even more sumptuous now that the CD age has caught up with Rhett Davis' pristine production. --Peter Paphides

Amazon.com essential recording:
Hipper students of 1980s pop might pretend that Joy Division and the Smiths had a monopoly on melancholia, but for the older, more suave brooders, nothing could match the stylized desolation of Roxy Music's last album. Avalon was recorded in the wake of the band's hit version of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy." Although that song isn't on Avalon, its tortured shadow looms large over "While My Heart Is Still Beating," the title track, and the unlikely Balearic anthem "More Than This." If time has been kind to Bryan Ferry's crumpled Armani chic, it hasn't exactly been vicious to his back catalog: Avalon sounds even more sumptuous now that the CD age has caught up with Rhett Davis's pristine production. --Peter Paphides

pure art:
everything about this album is pure art in simplicity. i have owned this album in various forms since it's original release & never tire of these tracks. it is an excellent collection of tunes, & sounds particularly good either in-car or for chilling out to. all the music is sterling, & the style such that it does not sound out of date today, as has been adopted as "ambient". the cover artwork is stunning also. fave tracks include: Tara/India/The Main Thing & True to Life, but all the tracks are excellent drift-away tunes.

Is it raining in New York on Fifth Avenue?:
Using the legend of King Arthur's final, dying voyage to Avalon for its name and cover art, Roxy Music bid its fans farewell with this hopelessly romantic, completely beautiful album. There's no point on trying to embellish on what most of the other reviewers have already mentioned about AVALON but I'm compelled to say that while I have been a Roxy Music fan for a long, long time, I have not been much of a fan of the heavily produced, synthesizer ladened songs that proliferated in the early 80s (read Flock of Sea Gulls, Human League, etc.). But AVALON was much different. Some of the songs here are textured and layered, but not bogged down. There's an airiness to other tunes but they don't become insubstantial or gossamer. Overall, it's the intelligence of the lyrics that really separated AVALON from just about everything else back then. The twin themes of mortality and desire pervade most of the tunes on the first half of the album. But Bryan Ferry doesn't wallow in self-pity for long. Just when the songs start to appear to be downers, along comes "To Turn You On", an incredibly upbeat, love ballad. While its theme of salvation through passion is not new, its sincerity and romance is. I'm glad that Ferry made room for some of the positive aspects of life. And I'm glad that the music world of the early 1980s made room for AVALON.

Roxy Music's grand farewell:
In the spring of 1982, English rockers Roxy Music's farewell album Avalon was released. The album was the band's only studio album they would record for Warner Bros. here in the States and the first since original drummer Paul Thompson left. He was replaced by studio ace Andy Newmark. The three remaining original members(vocalist Bryan Ferry, guitarist Phil Manzanera and woodwind expert Andy Mackay) crafted together a masterpiece. The album was produced by the band and Rhett Davies and engineered by Bob Clearmountain(Bryan Adams, The Rolling Stones, etc.). The single More Than This is an absolutely gorgeous start to Roxy Music's version of Abbey Road. This was the song that sent me looking for this album after watching VH1 Classic a few weeks ago. I have had the new SACD version since late April and I listen to this album constantly. The Space Between follows and is not that awful Dave Matthews song but is the ultimate break up song. The title cut is one of the best ballads I ever heard and the female backing vocalist is superb at the end and Bryan's crooning is superb. India is a great instrumental and was used as the entrance music during the Avalon tour. While My Heart is Still Beating is a great song as well. To Turn You On is excellent and features Paul Carrack on keyboards. The closing Tara is a beautiful coda to end this album which was the band's biggest seller in the US as it is their only Gold and Platinum album in the States. The CD sounds superb thanks to Bob Ludwig's painstaking remaster of this classic. Highly recommended!

Grand farewell to Roxy Music:
In the spring of 1982, English rockers Roxy Music's farewell album Avalon was released. The album was the band's only studio album they would record for Warner Bros. here in the States and the first since original drummer Paul Thompson left. He was replaced by studio ace Andy Newmark. The three remaining original members(vocalist Bryan Ferry, guitarist Phil Manzanera and woodwind expert Andy Mackay) crafted together a masterpiece. The album was produced by the band and Rhett Davies and engineered by Bob Clearmountain(Bryan Adams, The Rolling Stones, etc.). The single More Than This is an absolutely gorgeous start to Roxy Music's version of Abbey Road. This was the song that sent me looking for this album after watching VH1 Classic a few weeks ago. I have had the new SACD version since late April and I listen to this album constantly. The Space Between follows and is not that awful Dave Matthews song but is the ultimate break up song. The title cut is one of the best ballads I ever heard and the female backing vocalist is superb at the end and Bryan's crooning is superb. India is a great instrumental and was used as the entrance music during the Avalon tour. While My Heart is Still Beating is a great song as well. To Turn You On is excellent and features Paul Carrack on keyboards. The closing Tara is a beautiful coda to end this album which was the band's biggest seller in the US as it is their only Gold and Platinum album in the States. The CD sounds superb thanks to Bob Ludwig's painstaking remaster of this classic. Highly recommended!

Avalon was a great song...:
when Nat King Cole did it in the 1950's. This remastered 'plop-plop-fizz-fizz' is not good at all...thankfully it was their swan song. So take an alka seltzer or five and quell the stomach knot that is this 'rocky music' cd. No stars.

• More Than This
• Space Between
• Avalon
• India \oInstrumental\c
• While My Heart Is Still Beating
• Main Thing
• Take a Chance with Me
• To Turn You On
• True to Life
• Tara