THE EARLY YEARS

I had this compilation in the early 90´s, a time when it was nearly impossible to get the original Roxy Music early CDs in Brazil. And I must say I was never satisfied with it. You see, every one of RM´s LPs were a kind of work of art. Roxy was never a singles band and each album meant it was to be seen (or heard) as a whole, a complete efford, not just a mere bunch of tracks put together.. Even if The Early years is composed exclusively of songs from their first three albums (i.e. their best), something is always missing when I hear it.

It is like cutting pieces from a painting and puting together the chosen ones into a new frame, got it? It might sound ok for the casual listener and still he won´t see (or hear) the real, complete thing. Even if the new version of this compilation has some extra songs than the one I once had, the only reason to have it is that it now includes the original non LP song Pyjamarama. And I don´t think thist is reason enough to buy this CD.

Roxy Music was an extremely important band, and their first works were quite revolutionary, groundbreaking and influential. But to understand this you´ll have to listen to the full albums. Each one of their first CDs are essential to any prog music colletion. That´s why I can´t rate The Early Years higher, even if the tracklist is of great quality.

Incomplete.