A great title track is par for the course when it comes to great albums. If the title track doesn’t cut it, what does that say about the album itself? This month, the Mental Jukebox will be playing some of my favorite title tracks – inspired by @NicolaB_73’s music Twitter challenge, #TopTitleTracks.
You can’t copy Bryan Ferry’s vocals and you wouldn’t even try. And you can’t mimic the intricate instrumentation because the soul of the song is Roxy Music, not just the melody. Roxy Music gave the music world an unusual, progressive rock tilt in the 70s, then elevated pop music in the 80s. Of course, there are more than two phases to the band’s musical journey. But these were the two broader eras. The title track to the renowned Avalon album is a perfect example of the latter.
I’ve been binging on Roxy Music lately, spurred on mostly by their big reunion tour. I’ve come to the hard, sober conclusion that I like the idea of Roxy Music more than I like the actual band. Scattered across several innovative and influential albums, there really are only one or two songs from each album that I really like. It’s a bit ironic that it’s the most mainstream of their albums – Avalon – that’s the one that I love from beginning to end. The production qualities on the title track are phenomenal with its rich, vast soundscape, and Ferry’s lyrics, equally sublime.
“Much communication in a motion. Without conversation or a notion. Avalon.”