Very few albums in rock music, let alone debut albums, are as bursting with original ideas as Roxy Music's first release. 'Roxy Music' is so far ahead of its time, it makes 'Ziggy Stardust', released the same year, sound like the work of a quaint folk singer (as, in a sense, Bowie still was). The album practically invents a new aesthetic, blending fifties nostalgia with futurism, pop art with literary sensibilities, and, musically, Bryan Ferry's ironic crooner persona with Brian Eno's electronic experimentalism. The songs swing eccentrically from one style to another: the cod-country stylings of 'If There is Something'; the lovely, wistful, old Hollywood glamour of '2.H.B'; the mock-lounge music of 'Bitters End'. Even the songs themselves restlessly dart from one sound to another: 'Ladytron' is a sci-fi soundscape, then a retro, crooner-era standard, then a stomping glam rocker. The second side is perhaps less melodic and memorable than the first, and some tracks work better in theory than in practice ('The Bob', just an ungodly mess). But, although they would go on to make better albums than this, no other album in their history is as invigoratingly full of fresh ideas as this one.
By: Morningside.