This is the second album by Bryan Ferry where he goes through his song catalog and re-arranges his both, Roxy Music and solo songs into the era of early big band jazz. What sounds like a gimmick on paper, is actually one of Ferry's best album projects. I would even argue that these recordings stand up, and even exceed some of his original recordings. Half the album is instrumental, and once, Ferry's aging voice adds emotional overtures to the material. It's beautifully sung and played by a large group of musicians. Ferry has always been fascinated with the modern world, and that includes not only the present, future but also the past in such a 'moderne' mode or fashion.
On the surface, one can see this as a nostalgic love for an era that passes away, but for Ferry, I think it's a style of music that never left him. He has always taken music as a historian, who tried to find new meaning within its framework. "Bitter-Sweet" is an accurate title for the album (and also one of his great songs from Roxy Music) because the feeling of regret is very much felt. To say this album is romantic is like saying it's sunny in a cloudless day in Southern California. Repeated listenings bring new rewards, and it is a gift that does keep on giving. One, I always loved the sound of Roxy Music and most of Ferry's solo recordings, but now, I realize that he's a magnificent songwriter. These arrangements are great because they are working from a great source, which of course are the songs themselves.
A big band but intimate music is coming from this group. This is a sound where musicians are looking at each other eye-to-eye, with perhaps a conductor in the middle of the room. As Ferry has one theme of his work, which is to locate the perfect romantic spot that is blissful and painful at the same time. It's not about sexual conquest, but more of a situation where the pain of romance-lost is like a beautiful yet distant island. Ferry is the one artist, who stands at the dock of the bay and looks out to this island, not that far off from a scene in F. Scott Fitzerald's 'The Last Gatsby."
Side one is more danceable or uptempo, but side two is a reflection that is sour, and three of its songs is from the debut Roxy Music album. A classic, and which on the original recordings it is about the past as a concept, Ferry now re-frames these songs as actually a spirit from an era of the past. It's similar to the last scene in "The Shining" where the caretaker Jack is placed in a photo of a party from the 1920s. It's like the future is not really here. Ferry's "Bitter-Sweet" is a brilliant album. Just as great as the first Roxy album, and "For Your Pleasure."
