Album Review: Bryan Ferry - Avonmore (BMG Records)

For Bryan Ferry fans it has been a long time coming - an album of new tracks from him. After his detour into "The Jazz Age" he returns to the present with a new album of 8 new songs and 2 cover versions.

He has already performed two of the tracks off the new album on Later.. with Jools, a few weeks ago so you may know some of the tracks already. The album starts off with Loop De Li - a typical Ferry track: sultry with a jazzy edge to it. It is a track that could have come off any of his solo albums.

Midnight Train is one of the stand out tracks from the album, it sounds like an old Bob Dylan track speeded up but the track is in fact one of Ferry's own compositions.

Special Kind of Guy sounds like it has come off Roxy Music's Avalon album, it has the same feel of that album whilst the title track, Avonmore sees him taking things up a gear for a more energetic pace.

One Night Stand is classic Ferry and the track will become a live favourite when he tours the UK next spring. Sassy and intriguing it is the most memorable track on the album.

It would not be a Bryan Ferry album without some cover versions, Send in the Clowns was always a dreary song and his version is not much different. Yorkshire man, Robert Palmer wrote and sang Johnny and Mary, Ferry slows down the track for his interpretation but it is not a patch on the original version. Apart from these last two tracks the album is a fine comeback

3 out of 5.