Avonmore
Bryan Ferry
(BMG)
Four stars
When the world last heard from Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music's 69-year-old former frontman, he was reimagining parts of his back catalogue as speakeasy songs. His 2012 album The Jazz Age, recorded as The Bryan Ferry Orchestra, was an obtuse release that was wonderfully inventive and almost wilfully uncommercial. The idea of the album was to strip the original tunes of their vocals while recasting such classics as Slave to Love and Virginia Plain in the style of the 20th-century jazz greats Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.
Two years later, Ferry has returned with Avonmore, a far more conventional solo album, and his first since 2010's Olympia. This new work finds Ferry back on more familiar ground, swapping the speakeasy for his more conventional construct as the sultan of suave. If Olympia was dressed up to look like a Roxy release – complete with Kate Moss on the cover, mimicking the fashion model-obsessed artwork of the band's eight albums – it sounded like a Ferry solo release, all melodic tunes and mournful lyrics.
His new album flips that formula on its head. It looks like a Ferry solo album – featuring a typically moody black-and-white shot of the singer on the cover – and sounds like a natural successor to Avalon, Roxy Music’s final studio album, released 32 years ago.
Avonmore pairs eight original compositions with two covers. Roxy's 1981 reworking of John Lennon's Jealous Guy is one of the great examples of how to remake someone else's work, while Dylanesque, Ferry's 2007 album of Bob Dylan originals, is a more recent treasure. On Avonmore, Ferry takes on Robert Palmer's Johnny and Mary with great aplomb – all breathy vocals and simple sonic arrangements – and Stephen Sondheim's Send in the Clowns with less success.
But it's the original compositions that shine through. Ferry has always been at his best when he sings as if he knows the party's over. Loop De Li, Avonmore's opener, begins with instrumental fragments that sound like Roxy outtakes, before introducing lyrics that heavily reference confusion, delusion and bitterness. This is the sour taste of the slow post-party comedown.
That mood and those emotions course through the album, which features collaborations with such notables as Johnny Marr and Nile Rodgers. Ferry is on top form on Lost, featuring Mark Knopfler on guitar, which is a swirling ode to life's wrong turns. Its arrangement, leaning on Knopfler's understated craft, is exquisite.
Will Avonmore win over a new generation of fans? Almost certainly not. Will it reacquaint former fans with Ferry's work? Almost certainly. He hasn't sounded this good for a while.
Know before you go
- Jebel Akhdar is a two-hour drive from Muscat airport or a six-hour drive from Dubai. It’s impossible to visit by car unless you have a 4x4. Phone ahead to the hotel to arrange a transfer.
- If you’re driving, make sure your insurance covers Oman.
- By air: Budget airlines Air Arabia, Flydubai and SalamAir offer direct routes to Muscat from the UAE.
- Tourists from the Emirates (UAE nationals not included) must apply for an Omani visa online before arrival at evisa.rop.gov.om. The process typically takes several days.
- Flash floods are probable due to the terrain and a lack of drainage. Always check the weather before venturing into any canyons or other remote areas and identify a plan of escape that includes high ground, shelter and parking where your car won’t be overtaken by sudden downpours.
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Indoor Cricket World Cup
Venue Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE squad Saqib Nazir (captain), Aaqib Malik, Fahad Al Hashmi, Isuru Umesh, Nadir Hussain, Sachin Talwar, Nashwan Nasir, Prashath Kumara, Ramveer Rai, Sameer Nayyak, Umar Shah, Vikrant Shetty
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
On sale: Now
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
Four-day collections of TOH
Day Indian Rs (Dh)
Thursday 500.75 million (25.23m)
Friday 280.25m (14.12m)
Saturday 220.75m (11.21m)
Sunday 170.25m (8.58m)
Total 1.19bn (59.15m)
(Figures in millions, approximate)
Long Shot
Director: Jonathan Levine
Starring: Charlize Theron, Seth Rogan
Four stars
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