Avalon [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Roxy Music | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 14, 2000)
• Original Release Date: 1982
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B0000256VK
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (131 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,169 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #83 in Music > Classic Rock > Glam

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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

Product Description

Their 1981 triumph, with More Than This the highlight.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 62 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Roxy Music's Swan Song March 5, 2004

By Thomas Magnum HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

Roxy Music's albums in the 70's representing the cutting edge of avant-garde pop music. For their final release, Avalon in 1982, they shift gears towards the soulful sounds that lead singer Bryan Ferry would explore on his solo albums. As depicted on the album's cover, the band crafts a lush, airy and ethereal sound. The songs are awash in sophisticated synthesizers and longing guitar riffs. Mr. Ferry broodingly sings seductive and smart lyrics. "More Than This" is one of the most elegant love songs around. Mr. Ferry sings with longing and heartbreaking weariness and Phil Manzanera's guitar shimmers throughout. The song is quite simply a masterpiece. The title track is another elegantly crafted love song that is subtle and beautiful. "While My Heart Is Still Beating" has a terse, propulsive beat that literally thumps throughout. The only problem with Avalon is that is woeful short. The ten tracks clock in at barely over thirty-five minutes and two ("India" and "Tara") are short instrumentals. That aside, Avalon, set the standard for romantic synth-pop that countless bands in the 80's tried to copy, but could never replicate.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Roxy's best album even if they didn't break up afterwards June 14, 2000

By 32-year old wallflower

Format:Audio CD

After reigniting their creative fuse with FLESH + BLOOD, the time seemed to be right for Roxy Music to be a band again. But there was still dissension, and Bryan Ferry seemed to have more fun with his solo career than being the leader of a band. So before AVALON was demoed, it seemed this was intended to be Roxy's second and presumably final swan song. While it's an album that could have used a follow-up, AVALON is still an appropriate farewell to Roxy. With members approaching middle age, their mellowing out in their later years now seems warranted. "More Than This" could only have come to pass as a slightly beat-driven ballad. Phil Manzanera's guitar work is his all-time greatest, and his opening figure on "More Than This" has to be the most beautiful use of electric guitar ever recorded. And for the first time in ages, Bryan Ferry turns in a convincingly emotional performance on a song that could also be a goodbye to his days as leader of Roxy Music. While they hadn't really had a hit since "Love Is The Drug", I'll bet songs like the title track, "The Space Between", "While My Heart Is Still Beating," "To Turn You On", and "Take A Chance With Me" had to be the smoothest pop music permeating from the world's radios in 1982 (I was only 2 at the time). Roxy's first "break-up" was really a hiatus of sorts, but so far, 18 years after AVALON, it appears as if Roxy Music really is no more. If that's the case, then thank you, Roxy, for going out with some style.

59 of 69 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Album of the 80's....Perhaps Even of all Time June 6, 2003

By Amazon Jon

Format:Audio CD

For years now, I've gone back and forth over what is my favorite ROXY MUSIC album. They never made a bad one, in my opinion. Even MANIFESTO has a few decent tracks. While I'd have to say that FOR YOUR PLEASURE or SIREN are the best examples of why ROXY MUSIC remain unequaled and contain some of their best work, I think that, at the end of the day, AVALON is their masterpiece.
There is a mood and atmosphere that surrounds this album that no other album, by any artist has achieved. From the haunting, opening chords of the exquisite "More Than This," to the sea-drenched melody at the end of the beautiful "Tara," the music on this disc is 37 minutes of complete and utter erotic bliss.
"More Than This," the title track, "Take a Chance with Me," "The Main Thing," and "True to Life," rank as some of the best songs in the ROXY MUSIC catalog.
Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music inspired two generations of musicians with their music. In the 1980's, their influence loomed large over the new-romantic sounds of bands like ABC, DURAN DURAN and DEPECHE MODE (to name just three!), and in the 1990's, right on up to today, one can hear and see their influence in such Brit bands like RADIOHEAD, SUEDE and PULP.
It is AVALON, their studio swan-song, that is perhaps their most groundbreaking and innovative work. Without hesitation, this is my pick for Best Album of the 1980's. Even Rolling Stone Magazine had it in their top 100 of the 80's. I'm even willing to go out on a limb and put it as my favorite album of all time- alongside the likes of The Beatles "Abbey Road," and U2's "Achtung Baby."
And, yes, it's true what's been said time and time again about AVALON- it is, undoubtedly, THE album to have playing for the ideal intimate encounter!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous. September 30, 2006

By Alex Fencl

Format:Audio CD

Roxy Music's final hour was characterized by lush atmospherics similar to Joy Division or Tears for Fears. I love "Avalon" because it is so strikingly different from everything else that they have recorded. "For Your Pleasure" is one of the greatest albums of the 70s, but "Avalon" definitely tops the 80s list.

It is haunting, austere, and sparse. It is like the band died of natural causes and this album acts as a ghostly afterthought. It has been 24 years since its release, and it still gives me chills. It is the aural equivalent of those brisk October nights when the leaves change in the half-light.The depth of emotion is unrivaled in albums from the 80s or any other decade for that matter.It will certainly haunt me for the rest of my life.