Bryan Ferry - Bitter-Sweet

Styles: Vocal, New Orleans Jazz Revival 
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:52
Size: 99,5 MB
Art: Front

(2:54)  1. Alphaville
(3:42)  2. Reason or Rhyme
(2:30)  3. Sign of the Times
(3:57)  4. New Town
(2:49)  5. Limbo
(3:57)  6. Bitter-Sweet
(2:47)  7. Dance Away
(3:06)  8. Zamba
(3:01)  9. Sea Breezes
(3:11) 10. While My Heart Is Still Beating
(2:26) 11. Bitters End
(3:47) 12. Chance Meeting
(4:40) 13. Boys and Girls

Building upon 2012's The Jazz Age, and his acting turn as a cabaret singer in the 1930s Netflix drama Babylon Berlin, Bryan Ferry returns to his love of urbane classic jazz with 2018's Bitter-Sweet. Recorded with longtime collaborator/pianist Colin Good, Bitter-Sweet finds the Roxy Music frontman once again embracing the vintage 1920s and '30s big-band swing he first explored on 1999's As Time Goes By, and which he and Good brought to fruition with The Jazz Age. However, whereas The Jazz Age featured instrumental reworkings of many of Ferry's best-loved songs, Bitter-Sweet features Ferry singing jazz versions of both Roxy Music songs and songs from his solo career. Featured on the album are the six songs the singer contributed to the Babylon Berlin soundtrack, including "Alphaville," "Reason or Rhyme," "Bitter-Sweet," "Dance Away," "Chance Meeting," and "Bitters End." As arranged by Good and Ferry, these are all wry and romantic productions that evoke the smoky ambiance of Babylon Berlin's Weimar Republic-era setting. Elsewhere, Ferry transforms the new wave sophistication of "While My Heart Is Still Beating" off 1982's Avalon into a slinky, half-lidded crawl, and similarly mutates the pop exotica of his 1985 title track "Boys and Girls" into a slow-burn flamenco fever dream. Particularly compelling is Ferry and his orchestra's snappy rendition of "Sign of the Times" off 1978's The Bride Stripped Bare, in which the original track's driving guitar lines are transposed to a puckered trumpet lead. This is haunting jazz sprinkled with the golden dust of Ferry's glittery rock past. ~ Matt Collar https://www.allmusic.com/album/bitter-sweet-mw0003219669

Bitter-Sweet

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Bryan Ferry - Another Time, Another Place

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:03
Size: 96.3 MB
Styles: Contemporary pop/rock
Year: 1974/1999
Art: Front

[4:36] 1. The 'in' Crowd
[2:54] 2. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
[4:44] 3. Walk A Mile In My Shoes
[3:32] 4. Funny How Time Slips Away
[6:46] 5. You Are My Sunshine
[2:54] 6. (What A) Wonderful World
[3:57] 7. It Ain't Me Babe
[3:34] 8. Fingerpoppin'
[4:15] 9. Help Me Make It Through The Night
[4:45] 10. Another Time, Another Place

Another Time, Another Place isn't as immediately thrilling as Ferry's solo debut, but still is a great listen. The same core band that backed Ferry up on the earlier record stays more or less in place here. If, like Roxy over the years, this collection is a touch less frenetic at points in comparison to Ferry's earlier solo stab, the opening blast through "The 'In' Crowd" doesn't show it. Porter's guitar rips along as intensely as Phil Manzanera's can, and the whole thing makes Dobie Gray's original take seem pretty tame. Beyond that, things will be familiar to anyone who's heard These Foolish Things -- same general atmosphere, same overall approach of Ferry taking classic originals and putting his own proto-lounge-lizard stamp on them, mixing energetic versions with far calmer ones. A very intriguing development is his inclusion of efforts from up-and-coming country writers and singers -- thus, a loud and groovy cover of "Funny How Time Slips Away" by Willie Nelson and another of Kris Kristofferson's "Help Me Make It Through the Night." Other country atmospheres slip in here and there via another nod to Elvis ("Walk a Mile in My Shoes," originally by Joe South), while other classics get tapped with versions of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and Sam Cooke's "(What A) Wonderful World." The album as a whole feels a touch more formal than its predecessor, but Ferry and company, plus various brass and string sections, turn on the showiness enough to make it all fun. A harbringer of solo albums to come appears at end -- the title track, a Ferry original. ~Ned Raggett

Another Time, Another Place

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Bryan Ferry - Dylanesque

Styles: Contemporary Pop/Rock
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:16
Size: 97,3 MB
Art: Front

(3:49)  1. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
(5:16)  2. Simple Twist of Fate
(3:22)  3. Make You Feel My Love
(3:37)  4. The Times They Are A-Changin'
(2:27)  5. All I Really Wanna Do
(6:13)  6. Knockin' On Heaven's Door
(3:42)  7. Positively 4th Street
(2:41)  8. If Not For You
(2:11)  9. Baby Let Me Follow You Down
(5:10) 10. Gates of Eden
(3:43) 11. All Along the Watchtower

The greatest indeed, only irony of Bryan Ferry's 2007 album-long tribute to the Bard is that Dylanesque never sounds "Dylanesque." There are no solo acoustic guitars, no swirling organs, no thin, wild mercury music, nothing that suggests any of the sounds typically associated with Bob Dylan. No, Dylanesque sounds Ferry-esque: careful, precise, elegant, so casually sophisticated it sometimes borders on the drowsy. There are no new wrinkles, then, apart from a small but crucial one unlike his other records, this was recorded quickly, over the course of a week with his touring band in tow. 

This does give Dylanesque a comparatively loose, off-the-cuff feel, which is a bit of a welcome relief after several decades of cautious, deliberate conceptual albums, and gives the album its understated charm. Since Ferry never radically reinvents the songs apart from the sleek, sly propulsion of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" and a spare, haunting piano-and-strings version of "Positively Fourth Street" this is an album where all the pleasures lay in the subtleties, whether it's how Ferry phrases his delivery, how his road band feels supple yet muscular, how Eno electronically enhances a few tracks or how Robin Trower tears into "All Along the Watchtower."

These are the details to savor upon repeated listens, but upon that first spin it's immediately apparent that the Ferry who made Dylanesque is an assured, relaxed vocalist who isn't sweating the specifics, he's simply singing songs with a band that offers sympathetic support. They may not push him, the way that Roxy did in its prime, nor does this have the meticulous ambition of his original work, but again, that's the charm of this album: Ferry has never felt quite so comfortable as he does here, and if that may not be exactly what all listeners are looking for when they listen to his work, this is the quality that will make Dylanesque a small understated gem for certain segments of his die-hard fans. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine http://www.allmusic.com/album/dylanesque-mw0000777034

Personnel: Bryan Ferry (harmonica, Farfisa); Chris Spedding, Oliver Thompson (guitar, guitars); David E. Williams (guitar); David Williams (guitars); Guy Pratt, Zev Katz (bass guitar); Isaac Ferry (electronics); Me'sha Bryan, Adrianne McDonald, Michelle John (background vocals); Mick Green, Leo Abrahams (guitar); Robin Trower (acoustic guitar); Lucy Wilkins, Gavyn Wright, Jackie Shave (violin); Jon Thorne (viola); Anthony Pleeth (cello); Colin Good (piano); Paul Carrack (organ); Andy Newmark, Bobby Irwin (drums); Frank Ricotti (percussion); Brian Eno (electronics); Tara McDonald, Joy Malcolm, Sarah Brown, Sharon White, Anna McDonald (background vocals).

Dylanesque

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Bryan Ferry - As Time Goes By

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:30
Size: 101.9 MB
Styles: Vocals
Year: 1999
Art: Front

[2:33] 1. As Time Goes By
[3:35] 2. The Way You Look Tonight
[2:20] 3. Easy Living
[4:13] 4. I'm In The Mood For Love
[3:20] 5. Where Or When
[2:56] 6. When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful
[3:10] 7. Sweet And Lovely
[2:39] 8. Miss Otis Regrets
[3:01] 9. Time On My Hands
[2:53] 10. Lover, Come Back To Me
[2:26] 11. Falling In Love Again
[2:43] 12. Love Me Or Leave Me
[2:46] 13. You Do Something To Me
[2:45] 14. Just One Of Those Things
[3:02] 15. September Song

No stranger to covers, Bryan Ferry has often opted for classics from other times and places. As Time Goes By focuses on music largely from the 1930s and '40s and conjures that era's aura of fine cigars, sateen gowns, and gentlemanly romance. The opening title track summons images of Bogie and Ingrid, and is one of the finest moments in the collection. The swanky versions of Nina Simone's signature "Love Me or Leave Me" and "I'm in the Mood for Love" (which has a faint Martin Denny overtone) are perfectly suited to Ferry's low-key vocals (he's no real crooner, let's face it). His talented band swings with fervor, especially on the upbeat tunes "The Way You Look Tonight," "Lover Come Back to Me," and "Just One of Those Things." There are a number of intimate, romantic moments, but the highlight is Ferry's take on "Falling in Love Again," first made famous way back when with devastating sadness by Marlene Dietrich. Ferry's version is almost as moving. ~Lorry Fleming

As Time Goes By

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