roxy music
Roxy Music Wrap Up 50th Anniversary Tour With a Look Back at Their Underrated Influence
The often enigmatic and consistently stylish British band Roxy Music closed out their U.S. tour at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. The tour marked the band’s 50th anniversary, and the string of dates was the first time the band performed on stage since 2011. Roxy Music was never fully embraced by the wider record-buying public, as their music did not slot easily into any single genre. Nonetheless, the band was held fervently close by a sufficiently sized fan base. The band’s first album was a solid progenitor of art rock. But Roxy Music would likely prefer not to be stuck with any label. They may be most responsible for launching glam rock in the 1970s and they certainly presaged the dapper New Romantics by a decade. Roxy Music were one of the first bands to maintain a certain look across th...
The 50 Best Albums of 1982
Looking back at 1982 in music, the headline is obvious: Thriller Sells A Bajillion Copies, Becomes World’s Biggest Album. But is it the year’s best album? Funny enough, Michael Jackson‘s sixth LP hardly even affected the charts that year — it snuck out in late November, just as Men at Work’s 1981 blockbuster, Business as Usual, began its commercial stranglehold in the U.S. Only one record on our list, Fleetwood Mac‘s chart-targeted Tusk follow-up, Mirage, hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200. (Doesn’t it seem weird, looking back, that Prince‘s 1999 peaked at No. 9?) Lots of fascinating shit was happening in 1982, and you didn’t always find it on the radio. On our list, we included everything from early hip-hop (Grandmaster Flash) to horror-punk (Misfits) to lo-fi synth-pop (Solid Space). Revisit...
Every Roxy Music Album, Ranked
Roxy Music gave us Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno, influenced punk and new wave, and charmed a legion of musicians with their sonic collage art: David Bowie, Chic, Grace Jones, Sex Pistols, U2, Duran Duran, Siouxie and the Banshees, Radiohead, Scissor Sisters, Franz Ferdinand, and more. So why the hell did it take decades for Roxy Music to get their due? Apparently, art schoolers with an unabashed love of animal print, cinema and eyeshadow were “remarkably inaccessible” for the gatekeepers of rock canon, a scourge that delayed Roxy Music’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame until 2019. Now that Roxy Music are reuniting to celebrate their 50th anniversary, it’s the perfect time to get (re)acquainted with their deluxe and delightful catalog. Crooner and keyboardist Ferry, guitarist P...
Every Roxy Music Album, Ranked
Roxy Music gave us Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno, influenced punk and new wave, and charmed a legion of musicians with their sonic collage art: David Bowie, Chic, Grace Jones, Sex Pistols, U2, Duran Duran, Siouxie and the Banshees, Radiohead, Scissor Sisters, Franz Ferdinand, and more. So why the hell did it take decades for Roxy Music to get their due? Apparently, art schoolers with an unabashed love of animal print, cinema and eyeshadow were “remarkably inaccessible” for the gatekeepers of rock canon, a scourge that delayed Roxy Music’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame until 2019. Now that Roxy Music are reuniting to celebrate their 50th anniversary, it’s the perfect time to get (re)acquainted with their deluxe and delightful catalog. Crooner and keyboardist Ferry, guitarist P...
Every Roxy Music Album, Ranked
Roxy Music gave us Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno, influenced punk and new wave, and charmed a legion of musicians with their sonic collage art: David Bowie, Chic, Grace Jones, Sex Pistols, U2, Duran Duran, Siouxie and the Banshees, Radiohead, Scissor Sisters, Franz Ferdinand, and more. So why the hell did it take decades for Roxy Music to get their due? Apparently, art schoolers with an unabashed love of animal print, cinema and eyeshadow were “remarkably inaccessible” for the gatekeepers of rock canon, a scourge that delayed Roxy Music’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame until 2019. Now that Roxy Music are reuniting to celebrate their 50th anniversary, it’s the perfect time to get (re)acquainted with their deluxe and delightful catalog. Crooner and keyboardist Ferry, guitarist P...
Every Roxy Music Album, Ranked
Roxy Music gave us Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno, influenced punk and new wave, and charmed a legion of musicians with their sonic collage art: David Bowie, Chic, Grace Jones, Sex Pistols, U2, Duran Duran, Siouxie and the Banshees, Radiohead, Scissor Sisters, Franz Ferdinand, and more. So why the hell did it take decades for Roxy Music to get their due? Apparently, art schoolers with an unabashed love of animal print, cinema and eyeshadow were “remarkably inaccessible” for the gatekeepers of rock canon, a scourge that delayed Roxy Music’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame until 2019. Now that Roxy Music are reuniting to celebrate their 50th anniversary, it’s the perfect time to get (re)acquainted with their deluxe and delightful catalog. Crooner and keyboardist Ferry, guitarist P...
The Reissue Section – April 2022
Hey fellas, have ya heard the news? CDs are back! If Rolling Stone, Vice, The Guardian all said so, then it must be gospel, right? If you’re a reader of this section you’re well aware that we’ve always been advocates of the compact disc. Fads come and go, but a passion for owning the music you purchase lastss forever. And with that said, we give you our picks for the best archival titles of this first quarter of 2022. The LemonheadsIt’s A Shame About Ray: 30th Anniversary Edition (Fire Records) The Lemonheads hit 1992 like a beam of sunshine, piercing the dark veil of grunge with their fifth LP It’s A Shame About Ray. And where their early TAANG! Records whirlwinds felt like an expensive J. Crew sweater dragged across the floor of CBGB, Ray is that very shirt after being washed and worn by...
The 50 Best Albums of 1972
Last year, when helping assemble SPIN‘s 50 Best Albums of 1971, I wondered if that year could have been popular music’s absolute peak. Now I’m asking myself that same question all over again. As I built a spreadsheet for 1972, gathering our writers’ votes alongside my own weird choices, I was once again struck by how many bronze-cast classics came out that year: LPs from David Bowie, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, The Allman Brothers Band, Yes, Stevie Wonder, Roxy Music, and on and on. Run down basically every genre – glam, soul, prog, art rock, Southern rock, metal, folk, MPB — and you’ll find the very best shit, whether eternally famous or sadly obscure. (My poor spreadsheet, swelling each day, originally had hundreds of worthy records. But you have to start chopping eventually.) Here’s wher...
Roxy Music Reassembling for First Tour In 11 Years
Roxy Music is reuniting for their first tour since 2011 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of its self-titled debut album, the legendary British group announced this morning. Vocalist Bryan Ferry, saxophonist Andy Mackay, guitarist Phil Manzanera and drummer Paul Thompson will return to the road in September for 10 North American arena shows, followed by three gigs in the United Kingdom. St. Vincent will open all but one of the North American performances, with a U.K. opener yet to be announced. In further celebration of the debut LP’s anniversary, the 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees will reissue all eight of their studio albums in deluxe vinyl editions. Roxy Music and 1973’s For Your Pleasure (the last Roxy Music album to feature early member Brian Eno) will arrive on April ...
The 50 Best Alt-Rock Love Songs
Not all love songs are romantic. Not all love songs are even happy. It all depends on your definition of the term. For every “My Girl” or “Your Song,” there’s at least one track with a nuanced take on the darker, more complicated sides of love — the drama of a long-term relationship, the fear of losing a partner, the void left in love’s wake. Many of those songs fall under the admittedly broad umbrella of “alt-rock.” So to mark Valentine’s Day, we decided to gather 50 of our favorite “love songs” in the genre — both conventional and otherwise. Throughout this list, you’ll find lines about blooming romance and marital bliss. You’ll also find nods to drug addiction and car crashes. There’s something for everyone. – Ryan Reed 50. that dog. – “I’m Gonna See You” You take the good, you tak...
