Country Life

On my first, surface-level listens of Roxy Music, I didn't quite understand what was so exciting and radical about this band other than some of the Eno bleep bloops in the early 70s. As I've learned more about pop music in the late 70s through the 80s, I now hear their influence everywhere. They sat somewhere between prog and glam, but avoided the worst excesses of both genres -- they sound like the first "new wave" band.

Solid Roxy album

Omg breats. Music was a bit too theatrical for me

By the time they Roxy Music came to record this, their fourth album, Brian Eno had long gone and they were distancing themselves from the sort of 50s retro glam theatrics of their early period, transitioning into the sleek hit making machine they became by the time of the Avalon album.

This starts strongly with The Thrill of It All, All I Want is You and Out of the Blue. Three and Nine is forgettable enough and If it Takes all Night is a kind of bar room honky tonk.

It sags a bit with Bitter Sweet, where they go off to The Threepenny Opera for a bit of Weimar Cabaret and then Triptych, where they visit the Renaissance Fair for a song about The Crucifixion of Jesus - bet you weren't expecting that - but it gets back on the rails to finish with the excellent Prairie Rose, Ferry's ode to his then partner, Jerry Hall.

So not entirely good, but the high points are so good that you can forgive the lows.
3½ stars, rounded up because I've owned the vinyl for 50 years.

good but not as good as Avalon...

lol my fault for expecting grrl punk

Definitely a classic album. I feel like everyone has heard this at least once. At least everyone has seen the cover - probably one of the most famous of all time? This marks #3 from Roxy Music on this list so far, that's probably it for them I would imagine.
It's a banger of an album for sure. It's 50+ years old at this point and it's still a great listen. Out Of The Blue, Thrill Of It All, and Bitter Sweet are standouts for me. I would imagine that Roxy Music is not a band that has a whole lot of new fans, and that's really a shame. There's a lot to like, especially on this record. The whole Art Rock or Glam Rock genres basically died at least as far as mainstream music goes. But this is one that I think has a lot of value to revisit and one that I think most people would enjoy. 4/5

Once again in that tough spot between a four and a five. The case for a five is this album’s influence and how ahead of its time it was. That all depends on you liking glam rock and new wave, which I very much do. Indeed, I enjoyed the *sound* of this album even more than anticipated… I played it even more times than my typical 1001 pick just to have nice background noise all day long.

But I become to realize that to hit five stars for me an album had to speak to me emotionally, and I never quite found the message or feeling in Country Life that does that. But it did make me want to listen to more Roxy Music to see if it’s there elsewhere.

Atrociously boring.

The Good: Who doesn’t like country life?
The Bad: Finding out that there is not BBQ included…
The Ugly: And that the latrines are full and it is our turn to clear them out…

Mar 06 2026, that’s when this album was presented to me.
June 8 2026, that’s when I am writing this review…
Why have I let 3 months fly by?…

I really wanted this album to be a 4+* album… I really did.
I have a soft spot for Mr Ferry and his vibrato… but it’s irritating me on this album… really irritating me.

Virginia Plane is a top notch song, but the rest of the album… not so top, nor so notch.

I think I am going to listen to “In Your Mind”, an album that is sadly missing on Apple Music, but I have a CD version of it, so off I go and think fondly of Mr Ferry again…

2 1/2* upgraded for effort...

I thought Country Life was a very enjoyable album. Apparently this was the only Roxy Music album on this list that Brian Eno didn't work on. Overall i liked the glam rock vibe as it gave me that feeling that most of David Bowie's albums did with that extravagant jazzy feel which i can be a sucker for in a lot of cases. I honestly was expecting this to be overly self-indulgent especially with that album cover but this album managed to not do that so thankfully that never got to be an issue. I guess if i can think of one issue, it would be that the album could get a bit forgettable especially with the starting songs sounding a bit samey but i really enjoyed this one.
Best Song: Bitter-Sweet
Worst Song: The Thrill Of It All

Awesome bass player. Quite showy.

Wowie this is bad. His voice is so terrible and the production is really muddy. I knew Roxy Music was bad, and they just keep getting worse with every album I hear. How are they so acclaimed? They're God awful.

Probably my favorite of theirs I've heard so far, even if I'm not totally convinced by them.

3.5/5

The album cover is so 70’s, but I can imagine why people bought it. Helps that music here is pretty good too! Solid glam rock offerings here. Love when a saxophone is thrown my way. All I Want Is You really reminds me of Is She Really Going Out With Him? Favorite songs were The Thrill Of It All, Three And Nine, All I Want Is You, Put Of The Blue, and A Really Good Time.

I remember being somewhat scandalized by this album cover when I saw it in record stores as a kid :)

This is enjoyable stuff, even post-Eno. "Out of the Blue" is a highlight, but I enjoyed pretty much the whole album.

Finally, a Roxy Music album without Eno, and it's pretty rocking. "The Thrill Of It All" is a blistering opening that really sets up everything else that follows. Also an S-tier album cover....

Better than Coldplay

This site needs a NSFW filter, I listen to my daily album at work!
Did people buy this because of the cover? Synthy pop, some Elvis, some ren-faire. Was ok. 2*

It's not bad, but not exactly great either. Not a fan of the singing and the instrumentals didn't hit very well either for me. Solid album, though