AVALON

When I listen to the opener, "Modern Than This" I guess that this album will not be different. Good pop / commercial music, for easy radio listening. It peaked at the sixth spot in the UK charts. The song was rehearsed for the Avalon tour but was dropped after the first show in Dublin. It was played at the first few shows on the reunion tour in 2001 in a lower key as Bryan found it more comfortable to sing in the new key.

"The Space Between" is a disco/soul tune with no flavour, and truely monotone. Insipid. The title track is a more classic Roxy song : the crooner style of Ferry being brought once more in evidence. But the song is just OK. It lacks in passion from. The single peaked at number 12 in UK.

The song I prefer is "While My Heart Is Still Beating" : a slow intruiging tempo with good bass and piano. Ferry's interpretation is fairly good. "The Main Thing" is a bit of the same vein, but not so good : a bit experimental but with little feeling. It was the opener of the "Avalon" tour.

My second fave is "Take A Chance With Me" : this is not a wild one (there won't be any on "Avalon") but it's catchy and has a good melody. It sounds very fresh and nice. It was the last Roxy single released during the life of the band. It only peaked at number twenty-six in the UK charts.

I guess that "Avalon" is an album representative of an era (disco / pop). There are a sum of average tracks here but no highlights (on their two last efforts there was at least one or two great tracks which can not be found here).

Four tracks are rather weak : "The Space Between", "India", "To Turn You On", "True To Life" and "Tara" which makes this album rather boring, I'm afraid.

When John Lennon was killed, Roxy decided to do a tribute single to him and recorded "Jealous Guy" in 1981. They needed a new song for the b-side and as "To Turn You On" was ready they released it as such. When Roxy recorded "Avalon", Bryan said : "this is a quality track and I don't want it to be lost as a b-side." As far as I'm concerned, it could have remained so.

Avalon was a huge commercial success reaching number one in the UK album charts and their most successful album in US. IMO, this is an album that is absolutely not necessary to own. It has nothing to do with the great Roxy we all know and love. No real highlights here. No hits. Just supermarket music. Two stars (and I am generous).

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