Your Favourite Roxy Music Album

'VIVA ROXY MUSIC!'

Sound quality barely bootleg quality, but this is everything that made R.M. so different, so exciting, so bonkers. Includes extra Jobson for our pleasure.

 

Looking at the poll results, and....Really? Avalon???????? Avinalaugh more like.

 

Not surprising really. It's easily their most commercially successful album, yeah?

 

Agree with this. Not universally loved, nor their most original, but still love the beauty of Avalon.

 

"Siren" is the one I love the most. The debut, which I agree sounds a bit amateurish in places (but I don't care), is a very close second. This is what I wrote on another thread last November, when I was in a very dark mood due to the end of a very important relationship. I feel better now, but my sentiments regarding this album haven't changed much:

My order of preference is this, including the live records:

1- Siren
2- Roxy Music
3- For Your Pleasure
4- Stranded
5- Avalon
6- Manifesto
7- Country Life
8- Viva!
9- Flesh + Blood
10- Singles, B-sides and Alternative Mixes
11- Live in Concert - The Best Of/Live at the Apollo
12- The High Road/Heart Still Beating

I like all of their albums, even the ones at the bottom, save for "The High Road" and "Heart Still Beating" (which, by the way, I can assure you that, in spite of what's being said, have the same performances: I own both and I compared them) which are still not bad, but have nothing that makes me want to come back to them: I'd rather listen to the studio cuts, instead.

 

This is an audiophile forum so no real surprises that some people are more disposed to what an album sounds like as opposed to any intrinsic musical value. That my guess anyway.

 

Avalon (hoo hoo hoooo!!)

 

So, you're saying that the people here who claim to actually like the music are wrong, that only you can see the true "intrinsic value" of the music?

Hoooo-kaaaay...

 

Avalon?

Still no love for Manifesto? C'mon people!!

 

Stranded is my favorite.
Eno says it's Roxy's best, so I'm in good company!

 

I think that the other factor is that people who prefer their later, glossier sound all gravitate towards Avalon, rather than the preceding two, whereas with fans who prefer the earlier stuff, the votes were much more widely dispersed.

 

Overall such a great body of work.

 

Stranded and Siren with Manifesto coming in second.

 

I've had plenty of time to think about this. I've thought about it plenty of times, and I always end up with "Stranded". It doesn't have my favorite songs, but the album as a whole beats the others. It's just great and even all the way through. Although I will say the debut and "Country Life" have some of my favorite moments.

 

Avalon. (Sacd ).
Then'Manifesto. Such a modern sound when it first came out.
Seen them live in the eighties.
Early album covers 'visual eye candy.
Always thought of them as a singles band.

 

Wow, the first 5 are pretty even right now.

I voted for Siren. love it.

 

Probably Flesh + Blood if anything. Great album too, I think.

 

( ( ( ( ( ((((((( .

I didn't have to cogitate for my answer to this question for long.

They just have produced one 'milestone' in rock history: 'For Your Pleasure' (1973)

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Oddly, for a band I love and for one who never made a bad album (imo), I don't actually have a favourite album of theirs. I love all eras of the band and their progression was part of their genius. I've put my favourite tracks together as a playlist (60 tracks in total, along with BF solo favourites), and have great fun re-programming it, creating new dynamics and 'ways in' into the music. Favourite tracks change by the week - it's Beauty Queen this week - and the new remasters have made me disover or rediscover certain corners of the catalogue, which is a joy. A superb body of work.

The only album I think sounds a little 'unsure', at least in the performances, is the first one but I might well be in a minority there!

 

For Your Pleasure. No contest.

 

I gave this quite a bit of thought. I knew it would be one of the first three albums, but which one? I could make a case, in my mind, for any one of these three.

I bought Roxy Music when it first came out based on hearing Virginia Plain on a Warner Brothers Loss Leader album. I loved every song on that album.

I bought For Your Pleasure when it first came out based on how much I liked Roxy Music. I probably listened to this more than any other Roxy Music album. It was in heavy rotation, along with David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust, when my friends and I were in high school and driving around doing things that we couldn't do at home.

My vote went to Stranded.

I remember vividly how concerned/worried I was when I heard that Eno was leaving Roxy Music. Roxy Music was a BFD to me and one of it's key members was leaving!
I bought Stranded when it came out and was anxious of hearing how an "Enoless" Roxy Music would sound. I was relieved and quite estatic that I loved the album. Then when Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets came out I couldn't have imagined how great that one turned out. Out of one group sprang two fave musical entities!

 

Nope. I qualified that remark as only my personal guess. There are other ways of looking at the results, that's my interpretation. There's good music on Avalon but better music elsewhere in my opinion.
Try not to overthink things, you only end up looking silly.

 

I don't think there are enough audiophiles on Steve Hoffman's Audiophile Music Forum who put sound quality before artistic quality. I think the majority of audiophiles choose genres/bands/artists they like first, then seek out the best pressings of them. Of course I could be completely wrong, it's possible that I am in the minority. I'm just glad I'm not one of them... I imagine it being extremely frustrating and missing a lot of the fun.

That said, I think Avalon is a great album, although a little over-hyped.

 

I've only recently picked up FYP and Stranded although I knew the first three inside out when they came out as they were one of my brother's favourite bands.

I always felt that they lost something when Eno left - call it quirkiness if you like - and they got progressively more safe and dull as they went on. Some great singles but not the band they started out as.

I'm going for For Your Pleasure.

Still amazed that "Do The Strand" wasn't issued as a single in the UK - one of those songs that everyone knew despite it being only an album track.

 

Thanks for this thread! I can't choose (see post above), but it gives me the perfect excuse to listen to them all and try to decide! First up: For Your Pleasure...