Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room Bryan Ferry's Olympia

I have to say that I find it very hard to listen to Thursday Afternoon (maybe that's the point!) but that's the exception to the rule as regards Eno and me.

I'm no fan of Kate Moss, but the style in which the photography has been done is very good and I think it works, certainly in terms of fitting in with Ferry/Roxy releases.

I'm not particularly keen on the Scissor Sisters collab or the Jeff Buckley cover "Song to the Siren" which everybody else is raving about, although the intro is gorgeous. For me the two songs which make the album worthwhile are the 2 more stripped-back pieces with Ferry on piano; "Oh Me Oh My" and "Reason or Rhyme"; echoing "Your Painted Smile" or "My Only Love" - I can't get enough of them.

I nipped into a Tesco on Monday to buy this. Shock and horror it wasn't in stock. Not even in their "Top 100" (although Jedward was).

I should know better I know.

Still really enjoying this album. It's been worth the long wait.

And there's a superb interview with Bryan over on The Quiet Us , which (you were right, Martin!) confirms the location of the "You Can Dance" video as Wilton's Music Hall.

He was on Italian telly last night .. a one hour special thing, he only mimed to Slave to Love and a new one, but the interviews was quite interesting and also featured Amanda Lear who spoke a bit about them meeting and working together in the 70s, David Bowie also mentioned...
pics here:
http://www.tvblog.it/galleria/bryan-ferry-al-chiambretti-night/1

he is looking quite good at 65 I must admit, although I'm still not sure about the new album....

It's a shame some TV shows still make their guests mime. Oh well, at least he's getting coverage.

Olympia isn't really a commercial album – it's clearly an album for himself and the hardcore Ferry fans.

There's a trio of tracks in the middle I'm not keen on, but other than that, I think it's a lovely soundscape. I just wish his vocals were more prominent on some tracks.

This album was a slow burner for me, it took a few listens for me to go "oh yeah, I get it, this is brilliant". Some songs are better than others, but on the whole I found it a really entertaining album.
I got Eno's new album a few weeks later as well, also really great, but I think it's pretty ridiculous to try and compare the two. They're completely different entities.

Haven't heard Eno's yet, but I'm not really a fan of his ambient style. I've read good things about it though.

'Olympia' is very good musically and designed beautifully. But it's not a patch on 'Mamouna', which I think may be down to the quality of the material and the amount of different people that play across all the tracks. 'Mamouna' had a much smaller and tighter core band, and a more cohesive musical sound and structure in my mind. But it's nice to have new original material from Bryan Ferry; it's been far too long since that was the case.

Completely agree with you there. Mamouna is, for me, Ferry's best work (it's hard to believe he had writer's block during it's recording!), and that could be, like you say, down to a tighter band and more simple affair.

There isn't a single track on Mamoua that doesn't work for me, whereas on Olympia, there's a good 3 or 4. However, it is much more of a "Ferry" album than Frantic was; there are some brilliant songs on it, especially the first 5.

Sometimes your view of an album changes the more you play it - with Olympia, my view has more-or-less remained unchanged since the first play. There are times when there are too many layers or not enough of Bryan's vocals.

"Me Oh My", "Alphaville" and "Reason or Rhyme" have to be up there with Bryan's best bits though.