Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure

Roxy Music: For Your Pleasure

Album #169 - March 1973

Episode date - March 2, 2022

The Alternative Top 40
    0:00
    0:00

    Released just nine months after their debut album, “For Your Pleasure” displays considerable growth for Roxy Music, particularly in regard to production techniques.

    Where the first album had the sound and feel of raw discovery and total abandon, “For Your Pleasure” adds a touch of sophistication into the mix, without diluting the crazy glam freshness of the first album. The band shifts gears like deranged race-car drivers with no governor, adding rave-up instrumental breaks into otherwise reflective compositions. The break in “Beauty Queen” is so gleeful that it often makes me laugh out loud, as is the middle section of “Grey Lagoons”. Few singers can camp it up as joyfully as Bryan Ferry, and he sounds like he’s having a ball on this album, lithely winking at us as he throws out a seemingly endless stream of literate phraseology.

    The song’s topics are so far removed from cliché that it’s impossible to imagine anybody else addressing anything in the vicinity of Ferry’s perspective. Do the Strand” trumps just about everything else the band did up to this point, ripping through a bizarre lyrical maze of trendy images, locales and dances, all of which pale in comparison to “Strand power”. Nobody does a better job of capturing high-class ennui than Bryan Ferry, and he does so brilliantly on “In Every Dream Home a Heartache,” a simultaneously funny and spooky depiction of a rich loner who falls in love with his blow-up doll. “Strictly Confidential” could be the same character on his deathbed, attempting to reveal his last thoughts on paper. Such wild and convoluted topics only partially convey the diversity of this record. Musically, the album veers from the driving rock rhythms of “Do the Strand” and “Editions of You” to the ‘Krautrock’ trance beat of “The Bogus Man” (which can grow a bit tedious after nine minutes).  “Beauty Queen” is a remarkably intelligent depiction of a break-up, and one of the most beautiful melodies Ferry has ever written, although “Grey Lagoons” comes very close. The title track contains yet another gorgeous melody that unfolds like classic poetry, until it descends into an experimental but tedious variety of studio effects.

    The extended sections in “Bogus Man” and “For Your Pleasure” slow down the album’s pace, but not enough to derail it. Although exhaustingly redundant, they still convey the loose nature of discovery and experimentation that defines the record. This is an album that tries to go everywhere all at once, and somehow the wheels don’t fall off of the bus. “For Your Pleasure” is the sound of a band on the brink of glory, and making the most out of every second along the way.

    Featured Tracksd:

    Do the Strand

    Beauty Queen

    Strictly Confidential

    Editions of You

    In Every Dream Home a Heartache

    The Bogus Man

    Grey Lagoons

    For Your Pleasure

    March 1973 - Billboard Charted #193

    Related Shows

    Bonnie Raitt: Takin' My Time

    Bonnie Raitt: Takin' My Time

    Album #181 - October 1973

      0:00
      0:00
      Genesi - Selling England By The Pound

      Genesis: Selling England By The Pound

      Album #180 - October 1973

        0:00
        0:00
        Bruce Springsteen: The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle

        Bruce Springsteen: The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle

        Album #179 - September 1973

          0:00
          0:00
          Can: Future Days

          Can: Future Days

          Album #178 - August 1973

            0:00
            0:00
            Waylon Jennings: Honky Tonk Heroes

            Waylon Jennings: Honky Tonk Heroes

            Album #177 - July 1973

              0:00
              0:00
              The New York Dolls

              The New York Dolls: The New York Dolls

              Album #176 - July 1973

                0:00
                0:00
                O, V. Wright - Memphis Unlimited

                O. V. Wright: Memphis Unlimited

                Album #175 - June 1973

                  0:00
                  0:00
                  Free Jazz – Ornette Coleman Quartet

                  The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz: Part 10

                  Album #174 - June 1973

                    0:00
                    0:00
                    Blue 7 – Sonny Rollins

                    The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz: Part 9

                    Album #174 - June 1973

                      0:00
                      0:00
                      Django – Modern Jazz Quartet

                      The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz: Part 8

                      Album #174 - June 1973

                        0:00
                        0:00
                        Misterioso – Thelonious Monk Quartet

                        The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz: Part 7

                        Album #174 - June 1973

                          0:00
                          0:00
                          Night in Tunisia – Bud Powell Trio

                          The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz: Part 6

                          Album #174 - June 1973

                            0:00
                            0:00