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Rating: Mamma mia, how well we remember it. I especially recall, as a confessed and never repentant '80s mallet-wearer, a video with two cinema bombshells, the Blonde with the fringe and the Brunette with a bad girl face, moving like two big cats, driving me crazy. It was "Don’t Stop The Dance". And who could stop it... And it wasn’t even the first or best of Ferry’s or his Roxy Music’s productions. Just think about, and even the most absent-minded can’t have forgotten, "Avalon" or, especially, "Slave To Love". In the '80s, there was a perverse taste for the glossy.
Andrew Blake amazed the world of young horny people with porn with blue filter and imperial babes who were starving for our delight. Sting left The Police to release beautiful, pristine, and highly polished records. Basically, it was a bit of the fashion of the time. Indeed: one of the many fashions of a still very fertile era, despite the contrary—unmotivated or poorly motivated—opinions of the many and comfortable detractors of the eighties. As far as I know, Ferry never stopped making records. It’s simply impossible to keep track of everyone. So, I neglected him, keeping a very excited and adolescent memory of him. In short: if I think of the stupid frenzy of then, I inevitably think of Falco, and especially the splendid and trashy "Rock Me Amadeus", while if I think of the '80s hiding place, rare and inconclusive—in reality—I immediately think of "Slave To Love" (du du du du…).
So when I read, very well, about this album, I was simultaneously attracted and very suspicious. I downloaded it not to regret the purchase. Well. In the realm of pure cover albums, it’s a beautiful, essential, focused work. And the discourse on cover albums should be very long and deep. But this is neither the time nor the place. Suffice it to say that I consider a cover album an excellent work when it is a “true act of love”. We can talk about it, if you want. The repertoire probably reflects Ferry’s loves more than anything else, as it ranges from old Dylan to the very latest, passing from famous tracks to others less known to the masses. The band follows with adolescent lust while he offers a performance as an interpreter worthy, in my opinion, of entering history. Obviously in the debatable and discussed history of cover albums. The voice, first of all. That clean, warm voice has changed. And it has changed for the better. There are voices that have undergone improvements during their careers (I think of Bowie, Van Morrison, especially Waits...), and others that... alas... (I think of our own "Uncle Pino"...). Brian Ferry is hoarser, more “smoky”, less “powerful” (even though in his case, we can only talk of relative power, of course...). But he sings with a lot of soul. With that soul that is rare today, if not impossible, to encounter while wandering, remote in hand, through the useless music channels that disgrace the airwaves.
In short, an album that flies away smoothly and is immediately replayed. Perfectly studied and realized. And, of course, never banal. On the other hand, folks, those things were written by Dylan... And Brian Ferry sings them beautifully.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Simple Twist of Fate (05:18)
They sat together in the park
As the evening sky grew dark
She looked at him and he felt a spark tingle to his bones
It was then he felt alone
And wished that he'd gone straight
And watched out for a simple twist of fate.
They walked alone by the old canal
A little confused I remember well
And stopped into a strange hotel with a neon burning bright
He felt the heat of the night hit him like a freight train
Moving with a simple twist of fate.
A saxophone someplace far off played
As she was walking on by the arcade
As the light bust through a-beat-up shade where he was waking up
She dropped a coin into the cup of a blind man at the gate
And forgot about a simple twist of fate.
He woke up the room was bare
He didn't see her anywhere
He told himself he didn't care pushed the window open wide
Felt an emptiness inside to which he just could not relate
Brought on by a simple twist of fate.
He hears the ticking of the clocks
And walks along with a parrot that talks
Hunts her down by the waterfront docks where the sailers all come in
Maybe she'll pick him out again how long must he wait
One more time for a simple twist of fate.
People tell me it's a sin
To know and feel too much within
I still believe she was my twin but I lost the ring
She was born in spring but I was born too late
Blame it on a simple twist of fate.
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Other reviews
By malley8
Ferry, as always, shows he loves the material and makes it his own, but this time I’d say with reservations.
The album slides down to 'All Along The Watchtower' without surprises and without jolts.
