THE EARLY YEARS

This is a wonderful work since it features songs from their first three albums. I do not own this compil as such. I just recreated it from their studio albums. What to say about the track choices ?

Six out of ten come from their first album (which was their more interesting one IMO). I think it would have been better for the casual fan to which this effort is oriented to have "Bitter's End" instead of "2 HB" but this is not a major point. The great "Pyjamarama" only released as a single is of course a fabulous track and is a plus here.

Five songs come from "For Your Pleasure" : the fabulous "Do The Strand" and "Editions Of You" : they were the strongest tracks of the original album. "Beauty Queen" was a good one.

About "Bogus Man" this is what I wrote in my review for the album : it's a quite elaborate track with some true prog and complex moments. The ambiance of the track is very special : repetitive, bizarre, decadent and hypnotic. It sounds surrealistic (maybe due to the synth work from Eno). It is way toooooooo long (over nine minutes) and a bit boring at the end.

"In Every Dream Home a Heartache" is about the same story. I wrote that this track has a rather horrific and sinister atmosphere (Peter Hammill could have written this one). It starts with Ferry reciting his text as a psalm, the second part of the song being more "human" (Are We Not Men?).

While essential numbers for die-hard fans (like myself) they are maybe not adequate on a compil effort.

Four from "Stranded" of which only "Sunset" really doesn't belong here.

For the casual fan, this is quite a good way to get the essence of the early Roxy. With this CD, a newcomer could cheaply have a pretty good idea of the output of this influent band of the early / mid seventies. It is the perfect companion of course of their other compilation called ... The Later Years. Four stars.