 |  | A perfect record, but get the remastered version! |  |
Like the cover to this CD, there is a misty, brooding quality to "Avalon." Like a walk along a dewy beach at the prelight of dawn, everything is serene and melancholy at the same time. So much so, that this is Roxy's perfect moment. There is more pent up sensuality here than in dozens of over belting soul singers, and without upping the vocal gale quotient. In that sense, "Avalon" is quintessentially British. Romantic overtures and silky smooth desire combine in "More Than This," opening the disc and setting the mood. By the time Bryan Ferry is crooning "I'll soon be home" at the end of "True To Life," you wish that you were on this journey with him.
Even though Roxy was always an arty band, they were never really a smooth one. There was always a moment on most of their albums that was there to jar you a bit. It seemed that Ferry used his solo records to exorcise his longings (or as some would have it, loungings) and that debonair side to his personality. Later Roxy albums (from "Manifesto" on) seemed to move more into that territory. Ferry brought his exquisite longing to the entirety of "Avalon" ("this space between us, better close it up tonight..."), that it's like he's moving through a long continual slow dance. That being the case, I want to follow him all the way till we stroll into the afterglow of "Tara."
I have had a copy of this album in some form or another since it first came out. Quite frankly, it is on my shortlist for desert island listening. HOWEVER: The remastered version brings out many of the subtle highlights the original CD lacked...so move up to it. September 25, 2003
I'm right there with the fan from Ohio, this is an album that you just feel right down into your bones. How many times can you say that you hear an album that never really starts or finishes, just flows from one song into the next in complete harmony? Avalon is that album -- it tells a story from the first song to the last, and it definitely takes you on a journey with it. Every time I listen to it, I just don't want to say goodbye to it, I don't want it to leave, which is just what the last song, Tara, is doing in such a poignant way. Think of Kate Bush's Hounds of Love, U2's The Joshua Tree, Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy, albums that from beginning to end pull you in, and put Avalon in there with it. Definitely a must-have.
May 19, 2002| | | In a class of it's own...... | |
The first time I listened to this cassette, (yes, cassette - that's how long ago I purchased it) I thought it was a little on the mellow side. Then I REALLY listened to it. It is by far the most beautiful, classy and romantic pieces of music I have ever listened to. If this is "chick music" that's fine with me, every chick in the world should own this CD. It doesn't get much better than this.
July 26, 1999Yes, Avalon was indicative of the times, pure 80's at its best -was it featured on an episode of Miami Vice (or was that another Ferry effort, Slave to Love perhaps)? Nonetheless, its a beauty of an album, who cares what shape the band was in when it was recorded. Ferry deserves the credit. BTW, Mamouna was a pretty decent album.
July 17, 1999| | | The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. | |
I can agree with people who say Avalon breaks no new ground for Roxy, isn't musically challenging, isn't technical enough, isn't as angry or fascinating or what-have-you as their early work. All true. I'd also guess most of the people who say this are male.
Sometimes you just have to shut up and *feel.* Nothing feels like this album [OK, with the possible exceptions of Rain Tree Crow's eponymous album and Talk Talk's "Spirit of Eden"]. I heard this album for the first time in 1987 and it opened me up to a whole new level of popular music. It's impossible to describe, there aren't words, but if I could throw a few at it: it feels like love.
If you don't know what love feels like, then perhaps there's no point your trying to experience this. July 7, 1999
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