Bryan Ferry: Frantic

by Gavin Martin

Daily Mirror, 27th April 2002

Return Ferry

Rating: Four Stars out of Four

After the Roxy Music Reunion, 70s Pop Smoothie Bryan Blasts Back, Musing On Everything From Monroe To Atom Bombs

In recent years, Bryan Ferry has become a remote and directionless figure. On recent albums like Mamounia (sic) and his 1930s covers album As Time Goes By, the one-time Godfather of Cool has often seemed in danger of turning into the Prince Charles of pop.

A whole generation has grown up sadly unaware of the dynamic and imaginative figure he cut when Roxy Music first exploded on to a moribund British music scene in 1972.
They needed to be shown that Bryan is one of the major musical forces this country has produced in the last 40 years and so, it seems, did he.

So last year Ferry reassembled most of his old colleagues for a triumphant reunion tour that surpassed expectations of diehard fans and newcomers alike.
The experience has given Ferry a renewed sense of direction. The result is a new solo album - Frantic - his best album in over a decade.

He says: "When you're used to softer sounds it's nice to go on-stage and hear lots of cranked-up guitar. It was very refreshing so I decided I wanted to do a rock 'n' roll album with plenty of electric guitars.
But it's a major part of Frantic's charm that Ferry's brand of rock 'n' roll comes with his own suave imprint. On the album Ferry does what he has always done best, mixing unique interpretations of songs he loves with new compositions of his own that both add to (San Simeon) and gently undercut (Cruel) his mystique.

The album is a fine summation of Ferry's lifelong proccupations - pop culture on the soaring Marilyn Monroe tribute Goddess Of Love, mediaeval mythology on Fool For Love, and scary sci-fi future visions on Hiroshima. Ferry says the album is called Frantic because of the circumstances he's been working under in the past year, perhaps the sense of urgency was partially inspired by his experience aboard a flight to Kenya in a break from recording the album in (sic) Christmas 2000.

Ferry and his family came close to plunging into the sea when a deranged passenger took over the controls.
"My first thought wasn't spare me and all the passengers, it was not yet I've got an album to finish" he admitted after the incident.

Last Updated: 19 July 2008