In the summer of 1972 a friend and I were seeing London record store by record store, club by club, absorbing as much of the music scene as possible.  We saw the Annie Haslam edition of Renaissance performing for free in a pub before their first album came out.  We went to a weekend folk festival that featured Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, the Strawbs, Al Stewart and lots of others.  Bowie doing Ziggy Stardust at the Rainbow.  Yes premiering Close to the Edge, opening acts included Mahavishnu Orchestra and Gary Wright.  Mungo Jerry in Torquay (long before Fawlty Towers).   The one group I was most curious to see but didn’t was Roxy Music.  I’d been reading about them in NME and bought the album, even though I had nothing to play it on, just staring at the cover images.  I got back to the US, played the record, it lived up to all my expectations, and I’ve been a fan of all of them – the band, Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay, Paul Thompson – ever since.   (I did get to see them a couple of times later on, the last time being a reunion tour in the U.S. in 2001.)

Bryan Ferry is now 65 years old (gulp!) and has just released a new album, Olympia.  It’s his first album of mostly original songs since 2002.  (The covers include Tim Buckley’s Song to the Siren and Traffic’s No Face No Name No Number).  One song is a collaboration with Groove Armada, another with Scissor Sisters.  Musicians on the album include Eno, Manzanera, Nile Rodgers, David Gilmour, Jonny Greenwood, Flea.   And I can’t figure out if I like it or not.

(That’s Kate Moss on the cover.)

The sound of the album is what you expect from a Ferry album – very lush and “produced,” it may initially hit you as a wall of sound but listen closely and there’s a lot going on and it sounds as if they labored for years over every note and arrangement, it sounds carefully crafted and completely un-spontaneous, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

But the first thing is Ferry’s voice.  Never your typical crooner, I think in the early years many saw that voice as an acquired taste.  (Roxy Music was practically booed off stage on their first US tour, opening for Jethro Tull.)  But his singing here, where his voice is mostly little more than a harsh whisper , it sounds as if he’s singing a half tone flat for the entire album.

As for the songs?  You Can Dance is remix-friendly, the Traffic cover sticks in my mind, the rest of the album sort of floats by, not much is really sticking.  To me this is mood music, atmosphere music, a soundtrack or background to some club that would never let me past the velvet rope.

I’m gonna keep playing it.  There’s something about it that I can’t quite put my finger on.  Curious to get other peoples’ impressions on it.

I don’t listen to too much current pop music.  Most of what I do hear leaves me cold.  Bruno Mars is the rare exception.

25 year old Peter Gene Hernandez is Puerto Rican/Filipino and raised in Hawaii.  He rose up the music ladder by co-writing songs like Right Round by Flo-rida and recent global hit Fuck You by Cee Lo Green.  His first album is called Doo-Wops and Hooligans and I think it’s a real winner.

While one might have expected a hip-hop heavy album from Mars, he has instead released a mix of pop and soul with a touch of reggae thrown in.  He has a pure falsetto voice that at times will have you thinking of Michael Jackson.  He has a habit of writing ridiculously catchy melodies and hooks.  His lyrics may not be deep but they are not stupid or insulting.  I predict that within five years, lead single Just The Way You Are will be played at every wedding – not saying that’s a good thing necessarily but it is one pop song you don’t have to feel ashamed for liking.

When I see your face
There’s not a thing that I would change
Cause you’re amazing
Just the way you are
And when you smile,
The whole world stops and stares for awhile
Cause girl you’re amazing
Just the way you are

Not the deepest stuff in the world, as I said, but what guy hasn’t felt this way about some girl at some point in his life?

Check out his recent SNL performances of Just the Way You Are and Grenade, the second single from the album.  And while I’m at it, here’s a link to the video of the ridiculously catchy Fuck You by Cee Lo.