Bryan Ferry

BMG will issue Live at the Royal Albert Hall 1974 in February a Bryan Ferry live album that was recorded 45 years ago at the famous London venue. This concert saw the setlist built from Ferry’s first two solo albums, 1973’s These Foolish Things and Another Time, Another Place from 1974. Both albums saw the Roxy Music frontman cover other people’s songs (with the exception of Another Time, Another Place‘s title track).

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.

Frantic manages to touch upon virtually every musical style of Bryan Ferry's career. Ferry has proved to be as interested in covering other artists' material as penning original songs, and he straddles a smart mix of originals and covers here. Two brilliant Bob Dylan songs appear among the opening tracks: "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" sees a return to the eclectic, energetic experimentation of Ferry's early albums with Roxy Music as a lush modern swirl of instruments mingles with the singer's stylized vocals and throwback harmonica; "Don't Think Twice It's Alright" completes the Dylan pair, as Ferry intones with confidence and again takes up harmonica over Colin Good's rolling piano. The reverent Leadbelly cover "Goodnight Irene" reimagines Ferry as a kind of blues troubadour.

While his tenure as the frontman for the legendary Roxy Music remained his towering achievement, singer Bryan Ferry also carved out a successful solo career that continued in the lush, sophisticated manner perfected on the group's final records.

When Slave to Love: The Best of the Ballads was released in 2000, there hadn't been a true Roxy Music compilation in print for years. Street Life and More Than This were both grab bags of Roxy Music singles and material from Bryan Ferry's solo career. While it's logical to assume that fans of one artist would certainly be interested in the other, the approach never made for a unified compilation – Roxy Music's sound shifted quite a bit over the years, and their earlier, edgier singles never sat well next to the smooth balladeering of Ferry's companion career.