It was easy in the 1980s. All you had to do was having a song that was remotely catchy, own a synthesizer, and sing like David Bowie. What else was there to it? Then, in the 1990s, music got very cliche-y. if it wasn't part of a scene, then music had nowhere to go. A plethora of successful acts withered out in the 90s and dropped like flies. What ever happened to Belinda Carlisle, Debbie Gibson, The Cars? Well, they became nostalgia. If you were lucky enough to be like Madonna or Bruce Springsteen, you whithered the fickle decade and made it into the new millennium, where you could use the internet and other forms of production to find and reach your audience. Though never a US celebrity, Bryan Ferry (formerly of Roxy Music) managed to battle through decades and decades and has stayed in the public eye since he hit the scene. In 2002, he dropped Frantic, a solid and slickly styled album that kisses you square on the mouth and then kicks your ass.

Mr. Ferry has always been known for his suave style and sexy imagery-- a man who orders martinis, graces the room like Frank Sinatra, but then lays down an interesting dance beat. On Frantic, we get a handful of interesting genres to please fans of both his work with Roxy Music and fans of his late-80s disco. Though the genre are, appropriately, frantic, they bridge together bits and pieces from his whole career. A huge of Mr. Bob Dylan, Bryan borrows (yet again) from his impressive songbook and records his own beautiful renditions. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue starts the album, and it's definitely a great introduction. The vocals are, though, different. Sure, they have that withering, offbeat styling, but his voice is a lot heavier and darker than it used to be. The Bryan Ferry of Kiss and Tell and Slave to Love is left behind in the past. I definitely prefer these deeper tone he's taken-- as if he's marching toward death. Songs like the thumping Nobody Knows Me and the bittersweet Don't Think Twice, It's Alright really showcase his knack for evoking emotion and his talent for production.

This album also has a David Byrne flair to it, especially on the track Cruel, a pop/rock song that peaked my interest when I heard the clever melody. Overall a very brooding and dark record, Frantic experiments with odd sounds and instrumentation; a beautiful example is the spacey Hiroshima... and the dramatic A Fool for Love. The record is very cold, as outlined by a very well-packaged and designed record concept. Though quite hopeless, the song I Thought is one of the lighter tracks, co-written with former band mate Brian Eno: "I thought you'd be my Streetcar Named Desire..." I feel like Bryan Ferry pulled inspiration from 1,000 different directions and made them all his own: French poetry, his own writings, Bob Dylan, 80s new-wave, 60s rock, bluegrass. It's all hear on one rather convenient disc. There's something so sad about this record, but that something sad also makes it genius.

His discography tends to be all over the place for me. Whereas I liked his cover records and his Slave to Love album, I couldn't really get into others like Momouna. That said, I can always go back to Frantic, an album that showcases everything I love about Mr. Ferry's music.

TRACKLIST
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Cruel
Goddess of Love
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Nobody Loves Me
Ja Nun Hons Pris
A Fool for Love
Goodnight Irene
Hiroshima...
Sam Simeon
One Way Love
I Thought

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Listening