Bryan Ferry: Frantic : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Bryan Ferry wasn't the first guy to believe that nothing should exceed the grasp of rock recording. But nobody ever made that conviction sing like he did on his albums with the legendary Seventies London band Roxy Music. On Frantic, Ferry coaxes the work of Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Leadbelly, Richard the Lionheart, Orson Welles, Alain Resnais and others into one great, silvery song. The music, with players including Brian Eno and Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, concerns itself more with songfulness than with texture. Frantic jumps with energy, from the pure pop sensation of "One Way Love" to "Goddess of Love," which opens with the line "Marilyn says/'I got nothing to wear tonight/Only a pair of diamond earrings to catch the light.' " The string section on Ferry's cover of Dylan's "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" is tough enough to break windshields. Other pieces lounge ("San Simeon"), minuet ("I Thought") and dart ("Cruel"). And Ferry's voice, even for Earth's maestro of remote-control Sinatra-esque soul, is plainly spectacular.

JAMES HUNTER
(RS 896 - May 23, 2002)