Review Summary: Roxy is the drug, i'm thinking of.
In 1975 David Bowie released ‘Young Americans’ - an album that came from complete leftfield, swapping his usual arty, glam rock inclinations for a pure blue eyed soul approach, which he labelled ‘plastic soul’. If by an example of extreme consequence, Roxy Music released ‘Siren’ - an album that, like Bowie’s same year offering, adapted funk and soul elements into its already eclectic boiling pot of musical styles. Whereas ‘Young Americans’ wholeheartedly adapted the idea of plastic soul, Roxy took subtler cues, and the results of both forays into something different, are telling. Whilst Bowie’s offering was very accomplished and enjoyable in its own ways, Roxy’s is ultimately more satisfying and consummate. Roxy, instead of completely changing styles, cleverly integrated funk elements into their repertoire, including alterations to the rhythm sections to include exotic bongo drum tapings and seductive bass melodies, rather than completely dropping the art glam redolent of earlier days. The combination of past avant glam and newly acquired funk rhythms, melded into one fabulously seductive and sophisticated sonic cocktail.
The new styles can be witnessed right from the perfect opener, ‘Love Is The Drug’. Featuring the funkiest bass line this side of James Brown, some of Ferry’s and McKay’s sharpest pop lyrics and gorgeous, winding guitar hooks from Mazanera, ‘Love Is The Drug’ is so ridiculously good its as addictive as the drug in its title. John Gustafson deserves a mention, as his sultry bass lines permeating throughout the album, on tracks like the frenetic ‘Whirlwind’, add the prefect funk backdrop to Ferry’s croon and the subtle background trickery of the rest of the group. His bass ushered Roxy’s new direction a tad, and helped bring about a new phase of the bands music - a phase that would influence as many as their earlier arty output. Early 80’s British ‘New Romantic’ bands like ‘Duran Duran’ (who openly listed Roxy Music as a primary influence) not only took their fashion cues from the ridiculously voguish glamour of Roxy - makeup, dandy foppery and all - but also their musical ideas. One only has to listen to the outstanding 'Both Ends Burning' to witness where the band nicked their ideas from (as it were), with gorgeous washes of synth gently caressing the background, funky bass chords, exotic waves of guitar and typical Ferry warbling, basking in all its proud glory. Other, more contemporary artists had a lot say about Roxy Music also, with none other than David Bowie stating in an interview on an American chat show around the time of 'Siren', something along the lines of: "I think Roxy Music is some of the best new music coming out of Britain at the moment". High praise indeed.
As per, there’s still a great deal of eclecticism on ‘Siren’, with odd country-glam outings like ‘End Of The Line’ and atmospheric, airy numbers like ‘Sentimental Fool’ sitting comfortably aside funky pop-rock tracks like ‘She Sells’ and ‘Could It Happen To Me’, without ever sounding out of place or unwarranted. ‘Siren’ is simply one of Roxy Music’s most cohesive, well realised, surprising, and brilliant albums, with not a single average track, nor a moment were it doesn’t thrill or shock with its unexpected, eclectic twists and turns. Highly influential, critically lauded and commercially successful (with Love is the Drug reaching #2 in the UK singles chart, in ‘75), ‘Siren’ is an album that deserves its place on ‘Rolling Stones’ list of the ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’.
