Roxy Music – Avalon – Yesteryear Vinyl
Avalon is the eighth and final studio album by English rock band Roxy Music. Released in May 1982, by E.G. Records, it was recorded between 1981–1982 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, the Power Station, NYC and was mastered by Robert Ludwig at Masterdisk, NYC.
It was the band’s most successful studio album, reaching No. 1 in the UK Charts and peaking at 53 on the USA Billboard 200 charts, becoming the band’s only million-selling record in the USA, ultimately receiving a RIAA platinum certification.
This rock album is the original 1982 UK release – EGHP 50.
Tracks:
Side A:
- More Than This
- The Space Between
- Avalon
- India
- While My Heart Is Still Beating
Side B:
- The Main Thing
- Take A Chance With Me
- To Turn You On
- True To Life
- Tara
Weighing in at paltry 125 grams, this ‘as new’ album looked pristine after a quick clean with my Nitty Gritty vinyl cleaner. Unfortunately, even on the second play, the vinyl noise only rated a 4 on side A and a 4- on side B. There were also several pops and clicks on side B, but not sufficient to interfere with my listening enjoyment.
After all these years I thought that musically the album still ‘held its own’ but whether intentional or not it had a ‘hollow’ sound overall and tended to lack presence. Unfortunately ‘More Than This‘ must have been damaged during its earlier use as distortion was evident on Bryan Ferry’s lead vocals, but not on any other track .
Overall the dynamics were a little restricted, especially the kit that was placed center stage and just behind the lead vocal. The kick drum lacked significant slam and bottom end extension and its beater sound predominated on many tracks. Snare was clean and well controlled with good impact and clarity, but cymbals and hi-hat tended to be dull and lacked detail. Toms were well controlled with a well damped decay but were only really apparent on a few tracks and during brief solos. Percussive instruments like wood blocks, maracas, tambourine etc. were all well imaged, clean and natural, but again lacking in ‘sparkle’.
The bass guitar, while clean and tight, often lacked in body. The notes had a very short decay and often carried little weight and depth. There were however several occasions were the bass line rose to the front of the mix and held its own. Overall however I felt it often provided more of a background accompaniment rather than driving the music along, even when it was, it barely raised an eyebrow.
Except for T1S1 Bryan Ferry’s vocals were clean and solid and placed front center stage with no apparent mid-range hardness or sibilance, with the backing vocals nicely located across the image. Guitars and keyboards/piano were all well detailed, imaged and placed right up front being clean and open but generally not too inspiring. The saxophone generally sat back into the stereo image, sounded natural, if not a little dull, and presented without any excessive hardness.
Electronic reverb was abundant and well detailed with clean tail outs enhancing the studio sound and providing openness to the recording.
The album provides a clean open sound with good instrument separation and stereo placement, but lacked sparkle and presence and its bottom end wasn’t what you would call stellar by modern day audiophile standards.
While the album was well performed and sonically and musically enjoyable, it is not audiophile by todays standards.
In 1982 the album cost £4.49 or $8.08.
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I must dig my copy out and see if my memory is accurate, as I seem to remember this as a good recording – let’s put the Entré to the test.
I look forward to your review.