Siren [Remaster]

Notes

Roxy Music: Bryan Ferry (vocals, keyboards); Phil Manzanera (guitar); Edwin Johnson (strings, keyboards, synthesizer); Andrew Mackay (oboe, saxophone); John Gustafson (bass); Paul Thompson (drums). Recorded at Air Studios, London, England in 1975. All tracks have been digitally remastered using HDCD technology. Roxy Music's fifth album, SIREN, is a return to the form of their first couple of records--that is, it mixes astonishing material with some that, well, isn't quite as good. This is not to say that the band abandoned sophistication, however. If anything, they turned the suaveness up a notch--tracks like "Sentimental Fool" and the brilliant "Just Another High" both, albeit in different ways, suggest the path the band would follow before arriving at their masterpiece, AVALON. For those keeping track of these things, the cover model on this album is Jerry Hall. "Love Is The Drug," the album's first track, is a classic. A story-song that could describe the beginning of the relationship that dissolves in "Dance Away" (from MANIFESTO, the band's next studio album), it is built on solid rhythm grooves with added flourishes of bright guitar. Bryan Ferry's vocals are more expressive than usual on "Both Ends Burning," a fairly sedate, but insistent dance groove with synthesizers weaving in and out of the propulsive bass line. SIREN, as the middle album in the band's studio career, includes pointers to both their past and future and is an excellent introduction to the worlds of Roxy Music.