Bryan Ferry

Bryan Ferry invests considerable time and energy in cover albums (he should, considering that they compose a good portion of his solo catalog), treating them with as much care as a record of original material. He's always found ways to radically reinvent the songs he sings, so it's easy to expect that his collection of pop standards, As Time Goes By, would re-imagine the familiar. Instead, As Time Goes By is his first classicist album, containing non-ironic, neo-traditionalist arrangements of songs associated with the '30s. That doesn't mean it's a lavish affair, dripping with lush orchestras – it's considerably more intimate than that. Even when strings surface, they're understated, part of a small live combo that supports Ferry throughout the record.

1995 anthology, originally released to coincide with the release of the four disc box set Thrill Of It All. Roxy Music began life as a British Art Rock band in the early '70s but by the time they split a decade later, they had matured into a smooth Rock outfit capable of creating some of the most lush, romantic and beautiful music on the Pop charts. Lead vocalist Bryan Ferry carried on the Roxy tradition on his solo albums recorded during and after the band's original 10 year career.

On the album art of Avonmore, the record he released when he was a year shy of 70, Bryan Ferry showcases himself as a dashing young man – a portrait of an artist not as a glam trailblazer or distinguished elder statesman, but rather caught in an indeterminate time between the gorgeous heartbreak of Roxy Music's Avalon and the meticulous solo work that came immediately in its wake…