Country Life

Ei suuremmin säväyttänyt. 3/5

I was surprised at the quality of this. I never heard Roxy Music before and generally found thelis album to have a diverse array of styles and (usually) more of a modern sound. Some songs came off as a bit dated and underwhelming but all around good. 3.2/5 -> 3/5

Everything is so busy but ultimately kind of boring. High energy low reward. Some cool guitar parts and synth tones though. The best song is Prairie Rose, it sounds just like Talking Heads.

Soyons honnêtes, avant même de poser le diamant sur le vinyle (ou le laser sur le CD, ne soyons pas sectaires), la première chose qui vous saute à la gueule avec "Country Life", c’est cette jaquette. On ne va pas se mentir, c'est probablement l'une des pochettes les plus emblématiques et, disons-le, les plus ouvertement provocatrices des années 70. Deux donzelles, tout juste sorties de la douche semble-t-il, en petite tenue transparente, fixant l'objectif avec un air qui oscille entre l'ennui blasé et l'invitation à la débauche la plus totale. Le tout devant un bosquet bien touffu. La métaphore est aussi subtile qu'un coup de pied dans les valseuses.

Cet album, le quatrième du groupe, est souvent considéré comme le dernier acte de leur période la plus créative, la plus folle, juste avant que Bryan Ferry ne prenne totalement le contrôle pour transformer le groupe en une machine à tubes pour yuppies dépressifs dans les années 80. C'est un disque d'une densité folle. Là où son prédécesseur, "Stranded", était grandiose et luxuriant, "Country Life" est plus nerveux, plus direct, plus rock 'n' roll dans son essence. On sent que Brian Eno n'est plus là depuis un album déjà, et que la démence expérimentale a laissé place à une sorte de frénésie glam-rock ultra-maîtrisée. C'est un bordel, mais un bordel savamment orchestré.

Dès le premier morceau, "The Thrill of It All", on est happé. C'est rapide, c'est urgent, avec la guitare de Phil Manzanera qui part dans tous les sens, le saxophone d'Andy Mackay qui pleure comme un ange déchu dans une ruelle sombre de Berlin et la voix de Ferry, plus dandy que jamais, qui plane au-dessus de tout ça. Ce type pourrait chanter le manuel d'utilisation d'un grille-pain et il arriverait à le rendre sexy et tragique. C'est insupportable et génial à la fois.

Le truc avec Roxy Music à cette époque, c'est qu'ils arrivaient à marier des trucs totalement improbables. Ils pouvaient passer d'un rock quasi-sauvage à une pop song maniérée en un claquement de doigts. "All I Want Is You" est un tube pop parfait, accrocheur, presque joyeux. Et juste après, on se prend des morceaux comme "Triptych" ou "Bitter-Sweet" dans la gueule, des trucs beaucoup plus sombres, presque gothiques avant l'heure, avec des ambiances de cabaret sous acide.

On sent une tension permanente dans ce disque. La tension entre l'art-rock le plus pointu et le glam rock le plus primaire. Entre la sophistication des arrangements et l'énergie brute, quasi-punk par moments. C'est un disque de mecs en smoking qui rêvent de foutre le feu au palace dans lequel ils jouent. Et c'est cette ambiguïté qui fait toute la force de l'album.

Alors, pourquoi seulement 3/5, me direz-vous, si c'est si génial ?

Parce que, justement, c'est peut-être un poil trop maîtrisé. Il manque ce grain de folie, cette démence pure que Brian Eno injectait dans les deux premiers albums. On sent que la machine est parfaitement huilée, presque trop. Bryan Ferry est en train de devenir le personnage qu'il ne cessera plus jamais d'être, et même si c'est fascinant, ça perd un peu de la folie et du danger des débuts. C'est le son d'un groupe au sommet de son art, mais aussi au bord du précipice qui le fera basculer vers autre chose. Quelque chose de plus lisse, de plus adulte, de moins… vital.

Et puis, soyons francs, aussi brillant soit-il, il ne m'a jamais procuré le même frisson qu'un "For Your Pleasure" ou le premier album éponyme. Ces disques-là avaient un côté imprévisible, chaotique, qui me parle davantage. "Country Life" est un disque fabuleux, un classique absolu du glam rock, mais il ne me retourne pas les tripes. Il est trop élégant pour ça, même dans sa crasse. C'est le son de la décadence, certes, mais d'une décadence en smoking, pas en jean déchiré.

N'empêche, quel disque, c'est un instantané parfait d'une époque où le rock osait être intelligent, sexy et dangereusement ambigu. Un disque qui, rien que pour sa pochette, a sa place dans n'importe quelle discothèque qui se respecte. Et puis merde, un album qui contient "The Thrill of It All" ne peut pas être mauvais. C'est scientifiquement impossible. C'est un album essentiel à écouter pour comprendre les années 70, mais il ne fera pas partie de mes disques de chevet.

C'est un excellent album, mais pas un chef-d'oeuvre qui change une vie. Du moins, pas la mienne.

Nothing remarkable...I just don't get Roxy Music all that much. 2/5

Almost every song here is so close to being something great, and so most of them just end up in the good territory. This still leads to a solid album that's lacking in Eno weirdness, but is solid glam rock nonetheless. It just always feels weirdly lacking, whether it be the vocals or the instrumentation, if one piece is peak, the other is mid. Good album, even great at times, but it falls short of the god tier glam rock album I took this for in passing.

I wasn’t sure about this album when it popped up, because I’m sick to death of 70s music. I have to say, at first, I was very pleasantly surprised! I don’t think that it sounded like stereotypical 70s music, it was very interesting and unique. For the first half of the album, I was leaning towards a four star rating, but I think the back half really declined in quality, in my opinion. I’d probably give this a 3.5 if I could, because I do you think that it is a good, interesting example of 70s rock music that isn’t the stereotypical organ rock.

Really interesting, diverse selection of good songs. Elements of everything from early glam to English folk.

I’m not quite sure what to make of this. It’s a pretty nice listen overall. A little strange. Much like their other album I had I guess. It’s not going to be a re-visit, but I’m glad I spent the time with it, and got to get a better feel for the band.

One song sounds like the Stones, the next Bowie.. not really sure what they would sound like intrinsically. Not bad not great for me

Ein recht schönes Album, das insgesamt solide bleibt, ohne spektakuläre Höhen oder Tiefen. Ein echter Geheimtipp ist der Song “Bitter Blue”, der mit versteckten deutschen Spracheinflüssen überrascht. Das furiose Finale “Prairie Rose” hinterlässt einen bleibenden Eindruck, und das interessante Cover rundet das Album ab. Insgesamt eine gute, aber nicht herausragende Platte.

This was a Roxy Music album I finaly enjoyed. Enough diverse interest to be worth the time

I definitely gave this album a try at some point several years ago. If I'm being completely honest, the cover was probably what piqued my interest back then. But the music didn't click with me at that time. Listening to it again now, I can appreciate it much more, maybe because I'm familiar with a lot more of the music that came after which was heavily influenced by Roxy. There are some fantastic songs on here, and no real bad ones. I think Brian Ferry's voice is a bit of an acquired taste, so maybe that is what put me off before. He has some great melodies though. I think I prefer their earlier album For Your Pleasure (which I only got via this generator last week, interestingly enough), but this is pretty much on par with that. 9/10

I like art rock. I like glam. But for some reason, Roxy Music doesn't draw me in, even though I think I should like them. I liked the other two albums on the 1001 more than this one (maybe because those albums had Eno? Hard to say, but possible), but even those took "work" to appreciate. Regardless of the album, Bryan Ferry has a great and unique voice and I really enjoy Phil Manzanera's guitar work, but I felt there aren't a lot of standout moments on this album and even most of the good songs are uneven. For example, The Thrill of It All is a good rocker, but it felt like it went on and on without much change. Three and Nine, All I Want Is You, and If It Takes All Night didn't do much for me. Out of the Blue had some great moments - I liked the intro, but then the initial vocal part was underwhelming (the recording quality may be an issue?). That said, it's got a wild violin solo I really liked (no surprise - Eddie Jobson is pretty amazing). On the second side, Bitter-Sweet is fantastic - the only track on the album that I felt was unequivocally great. The rest were only ok. I feel like this is a 3.5, but I'm going to round down because it was underwhelming compared to their earlier albums and because it took a real close listen just to get to a 3.5 rather than a 3.

Not what I was expecting. Enjoyed it! Lots of different styles blended on 1 album

4 ⭐️

Started off a bit generic. But I really started to enjoy it when it got a bit weirder with Bitter Sweet and Triptych.

This has grown on me. Thinking of it as Eno art-rock instead of pop has helped. It sounds great. I can't think of much else to say about it. Sorry.

Brian Ferry sounds like he's doing a character. It lacks emotional depth and clarity for me. Not very sincere, but it feels like that's kind of the point (?). Songs aren't very memorable. That being said, Phil Manzanera is extremely good on here. Out of the Blue is a GREAT song though! And you can here the New Wave influence in a lot of this. Not awesome.

1.9.

Before today, I'd never heard of Roxy Music before, so I was unsure what I was in for. Upon further research, I learned that they are somewhere between Talking Heads and David Bowie.

Upon listening to the album, that is a quite accurate description. The lyrics are largely nonsensical, which is very similar to Talking Heads, while the music is jazzy/rockin' which is very similar to Bowie.

Also, the album cover has boobs on it, so that's a plus as well! Lol

Overall, a great album. Surprised how much I liked it. There were a few odd songs on the record, but overall, a really solid album! I enjoyed it so much, I listened to it twice today.

Favorite songs: If It Takes All Night, Out of the Blue, All I Want Is You, The Thrill of it All, Three and Nine, Prairie Rose, Casanova

Least favorite songs: Bitter Sweet, Triptych

4/5