Manifesto

Roxy Music: Manifesto album

You know, it's pretty easy to sit here in cyberspace and pass judgements, retrospectively on artists' careers, years after the event without taking the imperative of Now into consideration.

One such case would be Manifesto.

Roxy Music 1 had lasted from 1972-1975 attaining considerable success (but not huge sales)
Ferry's solo albums during 1976-77, Let's Stick Together & In Your Mind had not been critical successes and, more importantly, had failed to break in the USA...though they had created enough business in Japan & Australia to balance the books
Ferry's "traumatic" (for him) 1978 album The Bride Stripped Bare had gained some critical success but he was considered very old school, almost obsolete during the Punk revolution of The Sex Pistols et al
Guitarist Phil Manzanera's Diamond Head album & subsequent LIVE tour album with Eno, 801 LIVE had been artistic and minor financial successes but he, too, was now considered old school
Sax player Andy Mackay had spent his Roxy break co-writing the songs for a highly successful TV show, Rock Follies ...though it, too, was considered old school
With Glam rock well and truly down the gurgler...and only David Bowie having managed to extricate himself with reputation intact (possibly, even enhanced) a new music had evolved and become popular, Disco

So there was considerable pressure on all the major members of Roxy Music to come up with something that...well, made them relevant...as well as commercially successful. I believe that this accounts for Manifesto being the most muddled Roxy Music album. It never seems to quite know where it's standing...or what it's standing for:

one moments it's moody and magnificent as with Manifesto and the closers to the two sides (back in vinyl days) Stronger Through The Years & Spin Me Round
the next it's major and minor Euro-disco with Angel Eyes & Dance Away
then perfect English Roxy-pop Trash & My Little Girl &
then faux-Motown Cry, Cry, Cry

...with really only two bum tracks:

Still Falls The Rain &
Ain't That So

...both of which suffer from silly American American affectations...I guess we could classify them as Americana O.D.

And in some ways, Manifesto was the defining Roxy Music album! Both Angel Eyes & Dance Away becoming minor hits across Europe, pushing Roxy towards a dance beat rather than a rock one...and anonymous rather than distinctive lyrics. This process would, of course, come to its fruition with Avalon, a couple of years later (and dominate almost all of Bryan Ferry's later solo work).

Roxy Music: Manifesto

"...Manifesto adds the ingredients of new wave, synth-pop and even disco into the band's art rock sound. The resulting soup is rich and spicy without sacrificing the band's trademark quirky sound:

the dark, swirling vertigo inducing Manifesto
straight ahead rock of Angel Eyes (this newly remastered version features the original song not the disco remix that appeared on later editions and the first CD)
funky Ain't That So &
delicate Spin Me Round

are among the albums stand-out tracks. All would have fit in well with any of Roxy's classic songs. The sound on this edition is spectacular (it was remastered by Bob Ludwig with Bryan Ferry's input using the High Definition Compact Disc system). Ludwig manages to capture the warmth of the original recording without sacrificing the detail inherent in the CD format..." Amazon reviewer wtdk

"...This is maximum weird, but Euro-disco cool, like warm socks in the morning, feeling fresh, or winding down, that last cup of coffee after...many, many beers...Angel Eyes can light my fire and the title track is yummy. A bass dream carry me away..." Amazon reviewer Giddy Goody

Incidentally, I consider the cover one of Roxy's best: A party scene of store-front mannequins in what looks like New Years celebrations. Are any of them real?

Manifesto was for me, the end of Glam Rock.