FOR YOUR PLEASURE

After the revolutionary debut album Roxy Music faced the hardship of putting out a follow up that could prove they were no fluke. Believe it or not, it came less than an year after that LP. And For Your Pleasure showed they were truly special, even if the sound here is less accessible than their first. From the striking cover to the last notes of the title track, this is a quite dark and experimental work. But it is also their most interesting and progressive to date.

Bryan Ferry´s style of singing has matured a lot and he already using his famous crooning delivery that was so imitated on the following decade. The overall production is better and the songwriting more focused. Some of Roxy´s best known classics are here like very arty and ironic Do The Strand and the disturbing tale of urban loneliness In Every Dream Home A Heartache. Eno´s influence is all over the album and it is certainly his finest hour within his brief stay in the band (he left soon after this album was out).

Sometimes the experiments went a bit too far, or too long, like on the otherwise very interesting. 9 minute minimalistic tune The Bogus Man (interesting dissonant sax lines) and the title track. On songs like Editions Of You the balance is much better achieved and pre-dates punk rock (just hear Eno´s absolute crazed synth solo!). The remaining stuff (Beauty Queen, Strickly Confidential and Grey Lagoons) are leaning more towards the traditional side, but only the latter is what you can call a ´straight´ rock song (and even then with a sort of twisted country feel and synthesized harmonica solo).

As a whole I found For Your Pleasure to be a powerful and bold album, almost as good as their first, but in different ways. It is only a shame that Eno wasn´t around longer, it certainly would have been quite interesting to see what the band would do next with him on board. But I guess two genius in one group was just too much to last. Still they delivered two masterpieces. Not bad for a totally unknown act less than two years before and which had only played a handful of gigs before they recorded their debut!

Rating: 4,5 stars.