The 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time: 'Roxy Music'

The 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time

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'Roxy Music'

Courtesy of Island Records

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Roxy Music
Reprise, 1972

In England in the early Seventies, there was nerdy art-rock and sexy glam-rock and rarely did the twain meet. Until this record, that is. Roxy Music mixed future-shock experimentalism in the form of Brian Eno's synth-doodles with Old-world charm in the form of Bryan Ferry's tuxedoed croon. "2HB," an ode to Humphrey Bogart, looked back to the grace of vintage Hollywood, while the storming electro-glitz of "Virginia Plain" proved they could write wham-bam hits and translucent cyber-rock like "Ladytron" laid the cloud-car highway to Radiohead and beyond.