GREATEST HITS

Roxy Music had a huge significant influence in the early punk movement, providing a new model for many of the new wave bands and for some electronic groups that appeared in the early of the 80's. Of the many artists and bands who have claimed Roxy Music as an influence band on their music, we have an amount of them like Madness, Sex Pistols, Siouxsie And The Banshees, The Cars, Grace Jones, Kate Bush, Adam Ant, The Human League, Japan, Duran Duran, ABC, Spandau Ballet, Depeche Mode, The Fixx, Men Without Hats, Annie Lennox from The Tourists and Euythmics, Morrisey from The Smits, Jarvis Cocker from Pulp and Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy, for instance. Of course, many of these bands and artists aren't really progressive, but some of them made some interesting musical works and were famous in those times. Still, we even can also find two of them on this site. I'm talking about Japan and Kate Bush.

"Greatest Hits" has eleven tracks. The first track "Virginia Plain" was a song that was released on their debut single. The song wasn't present on the original version of their debut studio album "Roxy Music", and hasn't been recorded when the album was released. However, after the success of their debut studio album, it was included on later reissues of it. It was also released as a new single, together with "Pyjamarama", in 1977. It's a very interesting song which was made originally to be released as a hit single. It has some good interesting appointments of Brian Eno. The second track "Do The Strand" is from their album "For Your Pleasure". It's a perfect way to open that album brilliantly. It's a song with a fantastic vocal work by Bryan Ferry that sung curious lyrics, and it has also great guitar, keyboard, and saxophone performances, very well accompanied by some strong and vigorous drums. This is an excellent song plenty of energy. The third track "All I Want Is You" is from their album "Country Life". It's a very powerful song full of energy, very melodic and with another absolute fantastic guitar work performed by Phil Manzanera. The fourth track "Out Of The Blue" is also from their album "Country Life". It's a rock song with plenty of energy with great vocals, good piano, great synthesizer effects, a fantastic violin solo and an amazing guitar work. Soon, it became as one of the favourite songs of the fans in their live concerts. The fifth track "Pyjamarama" was never released on any studio album of the band. It was released as a single to promote their album "For Your Pleasure". As I said before, it was also released as a new single, together with "Virginia Plain". It shows the true essence of Roxy Music. Like many of the early Roxy Music's tracks, it's fantastic and rocks nicely. The guitar work is great. The sixth track "Editions Of You" is from their album "For Your Pleasure". It's a song with a high rhythm, full of energy and very wild. The absolute fantastic moments by the saxophone of Andy Mackay, the guitar of Phil Manzanera and the synthesizer of Brian Eno are completely amazing. This is one of the most fantastic songs made by Roxy Music. The seventh track "Love Is The Drug" is from their album "Siren". It's an incredible song, very melodic and with great quality. It has an incredible performance. Andy MacKay and his saxophone are absolutely great, Phil Manzanera and his guitar work is great too and Bryan Ferry and his vocals are fantastic as always. The eighth track "Mother Of Pearl" is from their album "Stranded". It has the spirit of art rock and the avant-garde experimentation of their two previous studio albums. It's divided into two parts. The first part is a crazy rock rhythm, aggressive and chaotic and the second part is more a conventional slow ballad with very emotional Bryan Ferry's singing supported by some amazing chorus. The ninth track "A Song For Europe" is also from their album "Stranded". It's a quiet and beautiful song, one of the most loved songs by their fans and one of the most played live by them. It's a song with beautiful and emotional vocals by Bryan Ferry and has a fantastic and beautiful saxophone work performed by Andy MacKay. The tenth track "The Thrill Of It All" is from their album "Country Life". It's a great opener for "Country Life", which is usual with this band. It's a Roxy Music's classic rock song very frenetic and with great individual performances. It deserves special mention Phil Manzanera's individual work and the powerful presence of the violin of Eddie Jobson. The eleventh track "Street Life" is from their album "Stranded". It's a song in the pop/rock style, enjoyable and composed in a commercial vein. It's well performed and Bryan Ferry's vocal style is good too, as usual.

Conclusion: "Greatest Hits" is another very good compilation album of Roxy Music. As happened with their other compilation album "The Early Years" released in 1989, it has also an amount of tracks that belong to some of their best studio albums. In this case, I'm talking about tracks that belong to their first five studio albums, "Roxy Music", "For Your Pleasure", "Stranded", "Country Life" and "Siren". These five albums belong to what is considered Roxy Music's golden era. So, we can say that "Greatest Hits" is really a nice introduction to Roxy Music's career. All these albums are essential, especially the first two ones which are considered, in general, two of the best and most innovative and influential albums in music. With "Greatest Hits" we can have a good picture of some of the best music made by them.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)