Every fibre of my journalistic being is pleading for me not to use this cliché, but I just can’t help myself: BRYAN FERRY IS LIKE A FINE WINE.
Despite Avonmore being 69-year-old Mr. Ferry’s 14th studio album, it is blessed with as much smoothness and finesse as 1985’s Boys and Girls, or even the gauzey 1982 Roxy Music classic Avalon. His voice is slightly huskier now: More tannins, and you could almost see him shimmying through the tracks with a glass of merlot, dancing with guests Johnny Marr ("Soldier of Fortune"), Nile Rogers ("Driving Me Wild"), Flea, Ronnie Spector, and Mark Knopfler.
There are saxophones. There are moonlit synths and funky beats. He sings of dark romance and sex, because that’s what Bryan Ferry does. But the real Jewel of the Nile is the collaboration with Norwegian producer/DJ Todd Terje on “Johnny and Mary”, a cover of Robert Palmer’s 1980 classic. It sits like a black pearl on an ocean of champagne: Expensive, mysterious, sexy.
The only thing missing on Avonmore is a bona fide-smash-hit, that one song that once defined a classic pop album for generations to come. Lucky for Bryan Ferry, we already know he’s a legend. The eternal slave to love.
★★★★
