Sometimes its difficult to hear an album for what it really is, weighed down with what's gone before and what came after.
With Roxy, you always get the feeling that you should either love the early stuff and bemoan their gradual slide into blandness, or revel in the shiny beauty of the later work and dislike their early abrasiveness.
Roxy Music are easily one of the greatest bands that ever existed. And all of it is great. 2HB, Virginia Plain, I'll Do Anything To Turn You On, Oh Yeah, wherever you go, there you will find greatness.
Manifesto came after a break and is regarded as a "not as good as" album. This is the curse of genius and should not stop you from really listening to something that is in fact superb.
Another example: Adventure by Television is wonderful. No one who really listens to it because of Marquee Moon. Your loss.
Manifesto came out in 1979. What was in the charts about then...Dan Hartman? Randy Vanwarmer? B. A. Robertson? As for the New Wave boyos, well, how dated are they when you listen to them now? Manifesto sounds like a band recording now that is influenced by something going on in the new wave era. The irony is it sounds less dated than Franz Ferdinand, and they are recording now.
And there is too much of that svelte oddness going on, too many twisted moments for the accusation of blandness to stand up to scrutiny.
The Martini is spiked and everybody at the party has too many thoughts.
My, what fun....
Buy - Roxy Music - Manifesto
Visit - Roxyrama
Visit - Viva Roxy Music - Manifesto
Mike.
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