Rise

Formats

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  ROXYCD4CD  £5.00

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  2436491LP  £15.00

Label

Virgin

Roxy Music

Country Life

My favourite Roxy Music album and thats not because of the cover. Honest.
The first two Roxy albums are much lauded for their art school experimentation and in my opinion, although both albums are fantastic, too much is made of the Eno factor. Stranded, their third album, featured the mind bogglingly ace Mother Of Pearl alongside commercial hit Street Life. With Country Life, the follow up album, it seems as though the band attempted to write material that combined the epic of the former with the pop bombast of the latter.

So album opener The Thrill Of It All is 6 minutes plus of a hyper-ventilating Ferry: Every time I hear the latest sound, its pure Whiskey reeling round and round, my brain.

Its about the record you cant wait to hear again, or the girl you cant wait to see again. Its about the romance and passion of life. OK, Im starting to sound like a judge off of Strictly Come Dancing or something but hot damn! What a song!

Out Of The Blue is from the same mould, a wide eyed and loved up Ferry with the white dinner jacket on while Paul Thompson destroys his kit and Phil Manzaneras riffs build to an amazing climax.
And make no mistake, this is the first Roxy album where the White Dinner Jacket definately be on.
Thats why I love this album so much, its evocative of speeding down winding country lanes with the top down, endless parties at country piles that wont finish until the sun comes up, loosened bow ties, ambassadors daughters. Blame those Ferrero Rocher ads I saw as a kid.
Theres still some brilliantly bonkers moments. The oompah band break in Bitter Sweet as Ferry sings in german. The medieval Triptych half way through the album that reminds you your still listening to the same band who recorded The Bogus Man and the sheer bloody mindedness and acid tongued Casanova which features the ace line

Now your flirting with heroin or is it cocaine. Or as Ferry sings it Herroiiiiiiieeeeen. I need a lie down.

Tracklist

• 1 — Thrill of It All
• 2 — Three and Nine
• 3 — All I Want Is You
• 4 — Out of the Blue
• 5 — If It Takes All Night
• 6 — Bitter Sweet
• 7 — Triptych
• 8 — Casanova
• 9 — Really Good Time
• 10 — Prairie Rose