Roxy Music-Stranded (1973)

Track List:
1. Street Life
2. Just Like You
3. Amazona
4. Psalm
5. Serenade
6. A Song For Europe
7. Mother of Pearl
8. Sunset

Best Track: A Song For Europe

Pure unadulterated style and class.

The departure of keyboardist and all round synth maestro Brian Eno from Roxy Music after their second album didn't affect the quality of the group too much. Bryan Ferry was always the leader and songwriter of the band and so Roxy Music only really lost some of Eno's chilly electronics from their future work however. This departure allowed Bryan to stretch his legs a bit more, and so the more stylish and cleaner album Stranded emerged.

The opener Street Life is the song that is the most similar to Roxy's previous two albums. It re-creates the spirit of Do The Strand and Re-make/Re-model with it's storm of harsh synth and strong guitar riffing from Phil Manzenera. The second track Just Like You changes the atmosphere completely and immediately. The lush piano ballad nature and Ferry's sweet vocal falsetto blend together seamlessly with it's slightly regretful themed lyrics. This is the best example of the quieter more pop-rock oriented side of Roxy.

Amazona decides to throw that out the door; Ferry swaps sweet for steamy in a another inspired example of his delicious vocal croon. The squelchy synths complete that Brazilian rainforest altmosphere, before Manzanera chucks in a searing squealing solo. Psalm keeps the eclectic nature of the record going with the song being of a religious nature. It is more or less a psalm, funnily enough. Now who could've guessed that? The song's mostly a vocal workout for Ferry but Eddie Jobson relays Eno's work as he creates a nice synth fuzz after one of Ferry's wails. A decent rocker comes after as the song Serenade, with Andy Mackay backing the heavier guitars and drums with his saxophone blurts.

The magnum opus of the album is the mournful A Song For Europe. The tone is downbeat and melancholic, echoing the work of Lou Reed's Berlin released a few months prior. But Ferry is a much better singer than Reed and it shows here; Ferry manages to croon in both English and French I believe in this song, keeping true to the song's European flavour. The piano work here is astounding and Mackay delivers another of his signature sax solo's to superb effect. Ferry's outro whistling seals the deal, a trick he would use again in a few years with the song Jealous Guy.

Mother of Pearl is a dangerous multi segmented song, beginning with a minute and a half of hard edged insane art rock, with Ferry literally going wild with him imitating a person's conscience at a party. Manzanera's answers with a quick and blistering solo before the song quickly takes a left turn, becoming a "post party" style piano ballad. Assumedly the "Mother of Pearl" is a prostitute, which makes Ferry's fading outro of "oh mother of pearl/I wouldn't trade you for another girl" all the more ironic considering his taste in women. (Just look at the album cover!) The final song Sunset is an effective song for letting off all the tension built up by the emotional extremes of the album. It's a touch mellow and a bit bland but it more or less fills it's brief of ending the album on a more subtle note.

With so much consistency throughout this record and of course it's stylish art rock leanings it would be hard to not give this a 15. In fact it probably would get one if Sunset and Psalm were perhaps two minutes shorter each, so that these two songs remained completely interesting throughout. But the fact is there are no bad songs here, and so Ferry, Manzenera, Mackay and co. will get themselves a high 14. And this isn't even Roxy's best album!

14/15