Bryan Ferry: Frantic
By Andy Gill
The Independent, 26th April 2002
Bryan Ferry's latest is a a mixed bag, and not
a bad mix, at that: a couple more Dylan covers ("It's All Over Now, Baby
Blue" and "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright"), a few more essays
in Avalon-style erotic languor, a song about Marilyn Monroe, an ill-fitting sortie
into Cajun territory for Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene", and even a Richard
the Lionheart song with crumhorn, virginal, harp and recorder ("Ja Nun Hons
Pris").
The familiar elegant, jet-set ambience is in full effect on "Hiroshima", a romance that whisks us from Versailles to Chiang Mai to Berlin to Hiroshima, and on "San Simeon", an erotic fantasia presumably inspired by William Randolph Hearst's ghastly palace, with lyrics to match: "You are the princess, my wand doth wake you/ Fantasy playmate candlelight lover/ Coffee-table culture full-colour pages." Sometimes it's hard to tell when Ferry's taking the mickey, so completely does he project into the brittle emptiness of this rarefied world; here, he teeters on the cusp with characteristic poise. Less predictable is "Cruel", a rare foray into social commentary, in which verses about Native Americans, the poor and lonely, and ecological concerns are linked by the hookline "Why in the world are you so cruel?" - as if Ferry needed to view such matters through a romantic's glass to bring them into focus.
Text copyright 2002 The Independent, used without permission.
