Roxy Music – The Best of Roxy Music – Yellow 180 Gram Double Vinyl Record

Description

Roxy Music – The Best of Roxy Music – Yellow 180 Gram Double Vinyl Record

The Best of Roxy Music follows the band's catalog in a revealing direction, beginning with the sleek romantic atmosphere of its final studio era and moving backward toward the disruptive art rock of the early 1970s. Originally assembled in 2001, the collection contains eighteen songs chosen from a career in which Bryan Ferry, Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay and their collaborators repeatedly changed the possibilities of British rock. Heard in this sequence, Roxy Music's transformation does not sound like a simple move from experimental to polished. The wit, tension and fascination with style remain present even as the surfaces become more luxurious.

“Avalon” and “More Than This” open with the spacious refinement of 1982, Ferry's voice floating inside arrangements built from subtle guitar, keyboards, saxophone and carefully controlled rhythm. The band's version of John Lennon's “Jealous Guy” follows, then “Over You” begins to increase the rhythmic pressure. “Same Old Scene,” “Oh Yeah,” “Angel Eyes” and “Dance Away” document the strong run of late-1970s and early-1980s singles in which melancholy, dance music and pop concision became inseparable. “Both Ends Burning” closes the second side with greater urgency, pointing toward the rawer and stranger music still to come.

The third side reaches the middle of the catalog, led by “Love Is the Drug,” whose bass line and controlled pulse remain among the band's most immediately recognizable achievements. “Out of the Blue” gives Mackay's saxophone and Eddie Jobson's violin prominent roles, while “All I Want Is You” combines glam-rock attack with Ferry's theatrical phrasing. “Mother of Pearl” is the side's expansive centerpiece, moving from its explosive opening into an extended, hypnotic meditation. These tracks show Roxy Music joining art-school experimentation to physical rhythm without treating either side of that identity as a compromise.

The final side arrives at the founding years. “Street Life” and “Do the Strand” turn modern life, fashion and dance into sharp-edged manifestos; “Pyjamarama” is compact and sly; and the debut single “Virginia Plain” still sounds startlingly self-assured. “Re-Make/Re-Model” closes the entire collection at the beginning, with each musician cutting through the arrangement in a collage of pop references, instrumental personality and controlled disorder. Ending there changes the listener's understanding of the polished opening: the elegance of later Roxy Music was built by artists who had first learned to make sophistication feel dangerous.

This yellow-vinyl edition spreads the program across two substantial 180 gram records. The collection was mastered and cut at half speed at Abbey Road Studios in London, and the package includes enhanced artwork and complete lyrics. It was prepared as part of Roxy Music's fiftieth-anniversary celebration, giving the long-unavailable-on-vinyl compilation a presentation suited to both focused listening and catalog discovery. The reverse-chronological shape makes it more than a stack of singles. It becomes a guided journey from the immaculate atmosphere of Avalon back to the restless invention of the debut album, demonstrating how broad and influential the band's language became.

Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic

Track Listing

Side A
Avalon
More Than This
Jealous Guy
Over You

Side B
Same Old Scene
Oh Yeah
Angel Eyes
Dance Away
Both Ends Burning

Side C
Love Is the Drug
Out of the Blue
All I Want Is You
Mother of Pearl

Side D
Street Life
Do the Strand
Pyjamarama
Virginia Plain
Re-Make/Re-Model