The Best of Roxy Music

Roxy Music | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 3, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B00005CDUE
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,704 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #44 in Music > Alternative Rock > Hardcore & Punk > Proto Punk

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Roxy Music appeared to have beamed in from another planet when they appeared in the early '70s. Impossibly alien and exotic, they bucked trends by being kitschy, avant-garde, and unashamedly pop. Bryan Ferry was the sensual frontman, Brian Eno threw his deconstructionist spanner into the works, and they played songs that sounded like demented, sexy logarithms. After Eno left in 1973, frustrated that Ferry was marginalizing his input, Roxy became a different beast entirely, developing a suave, sophisticated pop-soul sound and abandoning the art-rock niche to enlist a wider audience. This lush compilation, released to accompany their reunion tour (minus Eno), captures both sides of Roxy and, true to the subversive spirit that informed their early years, does so in reverse order. This anti-chronology means they open with the languid, supper-club croon of 1980s hits "Avalon" and "More Than This," plus the beauteous cover of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy," then peel back the years through midperiod gems such as "Dance Away" and "Love Is the Drug," before closing with the hyperventilating, superbly twisted bubblegum of "Pyjamarama" and "Virginia Plain." The sequencing may be bonkers, but this is an essential souvenir of a band in a million. --Ian Gittins

Product Description

Roxy Music Photos

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great introduction to the band..., August 24, 2004

By 

A. C. Johnson (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best of Roxy Music (Audio CD)

This CD is obviously not meant for the Roxy Music fan, but rather is meant as an hors d'oeuvre platter for those wanting to sample their music.

In that regard this album is perfect. It is jam packed with music. Every one of their albums is represented on this CD providing a listener a reasonable way to find out 'which' version of Roxy Music they find themselves drawn to.

After owning this for about a month, I had a good sense of which songs I liked and went and bought the album that those songs came from - Siren - and now a few months later am happily listening to their first album Roxy Music.

This band is extremely difficult to approach. It is one of the greatest aquired tastes in pop music (especially their earlier stuff) and I highly recommend this album for anybody interested in them, but overwhelmed by how to approach getting into them.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Perfect Introduction That'll Leave You Craving More, March 17, 2007

By 

WalterDigsTunes - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best of Roxy Music (Audio CD)

Categorizing the magic of Roxy Music is rather difficult. They fall into some ambivalent left-of-centre area that can range from frantic glam, smooth love songs, disco grooves and experimental fervor. Having undergone such a constant and ultimately dramatic evolution, constructing a compilation that presents the ever-changing face of the band is a hard task. Various collections have tried and failed. Some of them have included material from singer Bryan Ferry's solo career. This compilation, however, sticks purely to Roxy Music and looks at the material the band released from 1972 to 1982. However, it tackles the issue of evolution in an interesting way: the tracks are presented in reverse chronological order. This logic, although somewhat puzzling at first, serves to be key in ensuring this compilation's success.

The music:

1. Avalon- From 82's "Avalon." An incredibly smooth track, slick production, mellow and with female backing vocals. This is how the band sounded at the end of their run.

2. More Than This- Also from "Avalon," but with a poppier sensibilty. Flawless production, masterfully crafted and catchy as you might hope.

3. Jealous Guy- Cover of a Lennon track. Subdued even compared to the the surrounding songs.

4. Over You- Poppy and clean, not at all obscene. A clear example of latter-day Roxy.

5. Same Old Scene- Things get slightly moodier on this track :)

6. Oh Yeah- Bland pop, and a weak spot. But then it leads us too...

7. Angel Eyes- Almost a throw-away disco song, if not for its infectious pulse, slightly sci-fi effects and memorably sugar-coated lyrics.

8. Dance Away- The softer counterpart to Angel Eyes. "Dance away the heartache/dance away the pain," gives you an idea of the subject matter.

9. Both Ends Burning- Disco of a dark sort. Excellent.

10. Love Is The Drug- Again, disco-ish: a pulsating bass line drives the song, which itself is a great little ditty about going out "to score" some of that "love" drug. Hanging out with the ladies of night, Bryan? Of course.

11. Out Of The Blue- Experimentation time. Flanger effects sweep the majority of the track, and its all the more rousing for it. Energetic and exciting are the best ways to describe the pace of this art-rock journey.

12. All I Want Is You- Things get a bit more conventional here, but not quite. You'll see that in many ways, this song could have been made by any 70s band but at the same time, its execution is pure Roxy Music.

13. Mother Of Pearl- It starts out as a fast-paced rocker, with Ferry liberally employing with idiosyncratic delivery to great effect. And the, more than a minute into the song, it collapses into a beautiful mid-tempo piano ballad. Only Roxy!

14. Street Life- The classic early phase starts here. Completely unforgettable, grade A track.

15. Do The Strand- "There's a new sensation"... it's the strand! Marvelously produced and delivery with a canny sense of fun that makes Roxy Music stick out from the pack.

16. Pyjamarama- The simple chords that introduce the song lead us to a song whose melodies and textures you'll never forget.

17. Virginia Plain- A classic, hands-down.

18. Re-Make/Re-Model- Back to the very beginning. Ferry's quirk and energy stand in stark contrast to the crooner we see 10 years later. The music itself is also jarringly different. It's production is hardly dated, and the music borders prog and glam. And the song structure is playful, and it gets you every time: You think its going to end, and it fools you for more than 3 minutes. One of the best songs I know.

So what did we see? We begun with the best make-out tracks ever and ended up with some iconoclastic musical geniuses. The compilers made an excellent choice by framing their selections in this manner. Rather than seeing a band "devolve," "sell out" or "lose its edge," we see a band that exchanged certain elements for others throughout a 10 year period. Once that mindset (along with the cracking tunes) is embedded in you, you'll gladly go out and seek out the albums from the period that appeal to you the most.

This excellent compilation is readily available, has excellent tracks, boasts great sound quality, is well assembled and is a perfect introduction to an incredible influential band.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine overview of seminal band, August 26, 2001

By 

WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best of Roxy Music (Audio CD)

Complain all you like but this is a pretty good overview of the band. Yes, there are glaring omissions and some of the choices are kind of goofy. All things considered this is a pretty fine single disc compilation. I actually like the sequencing--it makes it interesting telescoping their career in a very interesting fashion. I caught the show in Northern California (it was actually at the Chronicle Pavillion) and was impressed. The passion that was sadly lacking during the Avalon tour was back. Clearly these guys were having a blast and it showed. As a long time fan I appreciated hearing the pre-Avalon stuff again. Out of the Blue still sounds as fresh as it did in '74. You could easily argue that any best of should be divided into two discs (by the time of the last three studio albums the band had not only streamlined their sound but given up any appearence of being a band)but this fine disc captures all the highlights. I do have to disagree with what one reviewer stated. While some of their later albums were a bit spotty (particularly Flesh & Blood)their 2nd, 3rd and 4th albums are uniformly strong albums. Around the time of Siren the quality control began to slip (and it was clear that the album-tour-album thing was both growing old and wearing). Manifesto despite a some weak tracks still had enough teeth to make it interesting. If this single disc compilation intrigues you I'd suggest For Your Pleasure, Stranded and Country Life as additions to your collection. All three have more than their fair share of highlights that are not represented here. After the disappointing final tour for The High Road (essentially an extension of the Avalon tour from the previous year), it's great to see Ferry, Manzanera, MacKay and (yeah!)Thompson enjoying themselves again.