Avalon, released in 1982, was Roxy Music's eighth (and, to date, final) studio album. Recorded in 1981-82 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, it is generally regarded as the culmination of the smoother, more adult-oriented sound of the band's later work. It was a huge commercial success, hitting #1 in the UK (for 3 weeks) and staying on the album charts for over a year. Although it only climbed as high as #53, Avalon is notable as the band's only platinum record in the US. Bryan Ferry's girlfriend (and soon-to-be wife) Lucy Helmore appeared on the cover wearing a medieval helmet and carrying a falcon, evoking King Arthur's last journey to the mysterious land of Avalon and continuing the tradition for Roxy Music albums to feature images of women on the cover artwork (though perhaps less apparently than previous albums). The lush arrangements and synthesizer drenched sound of Avalon later found its way onto Bryan Ferry's solo album Boys and Girls (1985).
A single, "More Than This," preceded the album and was a Top 10 hit in Britain (#6), Australia (#6) and most European countries[citation needed]. Although a chart failure in the US, the song was popular on the college radio circuit. It is unusual for a pop song in that Ferry's vocal ends at 2.45 minutes, leaving the last 1.45 minutes as a synth-driven instrumental. It has since become regarded as a classic Roxy Music song. In 1997, a cover of "More Than This" performed by 10,000 Maniacs with the lead singer Mary Ramsey became a US hit when it reached 25 on US Hot 100.
The title track was released as the album's second single and also became a UK Top 20 hit. A third extract, "Take a Chance With Me," with a remixed version of album track "The Main Thing" on the b-side, reached UK #26 and was Roxy Music's last UK hit single. The extended remix of "The Main Thing" is only available on the 1995 box set, The Thrill of It All. New York DJ duo Rub N Tug released an official dance remix in early 2007.
"The Main Thing" was also used in a 2006 television advertisement for the Vauxhall Vectra, which was based around football and featured Pierluigi Collina. Pianos were added to the track in the advertisement version.
Critical praise
In 1989, the album was ranked #31 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "The 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s". In 2003, the album was ranked number 307 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Avalon is the highest entry of four Roxy Music albums that made the list (Siren, For Your Pleasure and Country Life being the others).
2003 surround-sound remix
In 2003, Virgin reissued Avalon on Hybrid Super Audio CD with a new 5.1-channel surround sound remix by the original production team of Rhett Davies (the producer) and Bob Clearmountain (the mixing engineer). The original 1982 stereo mix is left intact and is the same for the CD layer and for the HD layer, allegedly being transferred from analogue master tapes to DSD and processed in DSD throughout the process. The surround part of the HD layer includes the full album in the original running order plus the bonus track "Always Unknowing", whose original stereo mix is only available on CD on the 4-CD boxed set "The Thrill of It All".
Except for "India," the short instrumental piece whose original multi-track tape had been lost, all tracks in the surround mix were remixed from multi-track sources, as opposed to two-channel stereo mixes being 'upmixed' to 5.1 as in some DVD-Video releases. For "India," the stereo mix is panned clockwise a few times as the piece is being played, which ends nicely in the rear right channel, from which the saxophone begins the next piece, "While My Heart Is Still Beating," making up for "India" not being a fully-fledged surround recording. The surround mix has roughly the same running times as the ten tracks present in the stereo mix. The main difference is in the stereo image being 360-degrees wide, as opposed to a front image plus rear ambiance, and the levels at which various tracks from the multi-track are mixed into the multi-channel mix. For instance, the guitar parts in "The Main Thing" and "Take a Chance With Me" are noticeably more prominent in the multi-channel mix than in the stereo mix. Guitar, saxophone, synthesizer, and percussion parts are often placed in the rear part of the sound field, while lead vocals tend to stick to the front centre, as opposed to being mixed in dual-mono in front left and right like in the somewhat traditional 2.0 stereo mixing.
Track listing
All songs written by Bryan Ferry except as noted.
- "More Than This" – 4:30
- "The Space Between" – 4:30
- "Avalon" – 4:16
- "India" – 1:44
- "While My Heart Is Still Beating" (Ferry, Andy Mackay) – 3:26
- "The Main Thing" – 3:54
- "Take a Chance with Me" (Ferry, Phil Manzanera) – 4:42
- "To Turn You On" – 4:16
- "True to Life" – 4:25
- "Tara" (Ferry, Mackay) – 1:43
Personnel
- Bryan Ferry - vocals, keyboards, guitar synth
- Andy Mackay - saxophone
- Phil Manzanera - guitar
- Neil Hubbard - guitar
- Alan Spenner - bass on tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10
- Andy Newmark - drums on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9
- Jimmy Maelen - percussion on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9
Additional personnel
- Neil Jason - bass on tracks 2, 6, 7 & 9
- Yanick Etienne - vocals on track 3
- Paul Carrack - piano on track 8
- Rick Marotta - drums on track 8
- Kermit Moore - cello on track 8
- Fonzi Thornton - vocals on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 9
- Michael Boddy - tape archivist
- Barry Bongiovi - assistant producer
- Bob Clearmountain - engineer, mixing
- Colin Good - assistant producer
- Ian Little - assistant producer
- Peter Revill - assistant producer
Singles
- "Avalon" / "Always Unknowing" (June 1982) (#13 UK) (#22 AUS)
- "Take a Chance With Me" / "The Main Thing (Remix)" (September 1982) (#26 UK)
Chart positions
Avalon in popular culture
- The Captain, a character from Marvel Comics' Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E., went briefly by the alias "Captain Avalon." He quickly dropped the moniker after learning from his mother that Avalon was the album playing when he was conceived.
- In the Max Brooks novel World War Z, the title song is mentioned. It is sung by a Scripps College student "with a voice like an angel" to inspire the exhausted defenders before the last major zombie incursion, during The Battle of the Five Colleges in Claremont, California.
- When the Toyota Avalon sedan was released to the New Zealand market in 2000, the advertising campaign used the song "Avalon". Due to the success of the campaign, Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry CD compilations in music shops soon had stickers proclaiming "Featuring 'Avalon,' from the Toyota Avalon car commercial".
- Bill Murray performs More Than This in a memorable karaoke scene in the 2003 movie Lost in Translation.
