Cremation Corner

by Chris Brazier

Melody Maker, 5th August 1978

Bryan Ferry: "Sign of the Times" (EG). Very possiby the worst single Bryan Ferry has ever been involved with. The voice quivers, swoops and curls at the notes as recognisably as ever, but it seems a varody [sic] of its former self when allied with such mediocre material and lackluster playing. The flip is worse -- an abysmal facile jerkalong called "4 Letter Love," and together they suggest he's reached his creative nadir. "In Your Mind" and the early solo singles had their moments, but Ferry seems now to have painted over his soul in contemptible jet-set gloss, to be content to live out in reality the role of "love's anguished fool abandoned by his siren" that has so dominated his later work. But anyone who spends £397 a night on an hotel room can neither expect nor deserve to say anything of value to the rest of humanity.

[The August 12 edition of Melody Maker contained this letter to the editor:]
I FOUND myself agreeing with Chris Brazier's review of Bryan Ferry's "Sign of the Times" right up to the last line. And then he made the whole review invalid. True, this is Ferry's worst single. But not because he spends £397 a night for a hotel room, and certainly not because he's living the role of "love's anguished fool". Without this role, such masterpieces as "Sea Breezes", "A Song for Europe" and "Bitter Sweet" could not have been written. As for Ferry's financial status, he wrote the songs for "Siren" long before his sojourn in Switzerland. "Sign of the Times" and the "Siren" album both suffer from the same problem: they are disco songs. Anyone who writes disco songs has nothing to say to humanity. If Chris Brazier thinks that only the poor have anything of value to say, he should throw away the wage packet he gets for writing bitchy reviews. -- DAVID HUGHES, Lodge Drive, Stenhousemuir, Larbert, Scotland. LP WINNER

Text copyright 1978 Melody Maker, used without permission.
With thanks to Grant Goggans