Album: Avonmore
We last heard from Bryan Ferry earlier this year after lending his voice to Todd Terje's debut album on the track "Johnny and Mary," which I didn't realize was actually a Robert Palmer cover. That followed 2012's The Jazz Age, which was a commercial disappointment until Baz Luhrmann used a track in The Great Gatsby, which led to a further collaboration with the Bryan Ferry Orchestra. I was quite the fan of Olympia, Ferry's last album of original material and was happily surprised to hear he was coming back with his fourteenth solo album, Avonmore.
Avonmore isn't as punchy as Olympia, but it has Ferry's trademark sexy, jazzy, evocative sound that made him, along with his band Roxy Music, fixtures of the music scene for decades. If you're a fan, I highly recommend it.
The album includes the "Johnny and Mary" cover as well as, oddly, a cover of Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns." I can't say I'm familiar with Sondheim's version, though Ferry's take fits right in with his sound and on record. I've always found Sondheim's music rather annoying so this is quite the feat. Beyond the covers there are some new Ferry classics to these ears, including opener "Loop De Li," "Midnight Train," "Soldier of Fortune" with Johnny Marr, as well as "One Night Stand," which comes late in the album and features heavy female back up singing.
Enjoy.
Midnight Train
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