Released
on June 16th, 1972, the eponymous debut LP by Roxy Music is celebrating
it’s 50th anniversary today. It’s an album that managed to bring the
worlds of art-rock and glam together by combining the group’s eccentric
musical approach with their extravagant fashion sense. That fusion
would end up providing fodder for near future movements like punk, new
wave and new romantics within the following decade after the album’s
release. Each scene would have reason to reference Roxy Music as source
material with bands like Japan and Duran Duran taking their cues from
this progenitor and pushing those genetic building blocks to new
heights.
Formed in 1970, Roxy Music went through a lot of
personnel shuffling before they stabilized into a cohesion which was
able to record their first LP. Though they rehearsed the material for a
few months beforehand, they had to power through the recording process
in no more than a week with the studio time financed by the band’s
management. The album was in the can and had it’s cover designed before
they had even signed to a label, but Island Records stepped in to pick
it up shortly after completion and it gained chart traction quickly
after its release.
The band’s music incorporated a number of
different styles, but tied them all together with a bravado and panache
which was offset by the bizarre interjections of Eno’s synthesizer work
and elements of free-jazz via Andy Mackay’s reed work and Phil
Manzanera’s guitar experimentation. It was progressive in execution,
but still held close to pop conventions of catchy hooks and melodies,
making it weirdly accessible without sacrificing the eccentricities that
made it distinctive. CREEM’s Robert Christgau said: "From the drag
queen on the cover to the fop finery in the centerfold to the polished
deformity of the music on the record, this celebrates the kind of
artifice that could come to seem as unhealthy as the sheen on a piece of
rotten meat. Right now, though, it's decorated with enough weird hooks
to earn an A.”
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