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Country Life
Studio album by Roxy Music
Released 15 November 1974
Recorded July 1974–August 1974 at AIR Studios, London
Genre Art rock, glam rock
Length 41:42
Label Island, Polydor (UK), Atco, Reprise (U.S.)
Producer Roxy Music, John Punter
Professional ratings
Allmusic 5/5 stars
Rolling Stone 5/5 stars
Robert Christgau B+
Piero Scaruffi 6.5/10 stars
Country Life is the fourth album by British rock band Roxy Music, released in 1974 and reaching #3 in the UK charts. It also made #37 in the United States, their first record to crack the Top 40 there. The album is considered by many critics to be among the band's most sophisticated and consistent. Band leader Bryan Ferry took the album's title from the British rural lifestyle magazine Country Life.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 387 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It was one of four Roxy Music albums that made the list (For Your Pleasure, Siren and Avalon being the others).
Style and themes
The opening track, "The Thrill of it All", was an up-tempo rocker that further developed the style of songs like "Virginia Plain" (1972) and "Do the Strand" (1973); it included a quote from Dorothy Parker's poem "Resume": "You might as well live". Edwin Jobson's violin dominated the heavily-flanged production of "Out of the Blue", which became a live favourite. Esoteric musical influences were betrayed by the German oom-pah band passages in "Bitter-Sweet", the Elizabethan flavour of "Triptych" and the lighthearted, boogie-blues, Southern rock edge to "If It Takes All Night".
"Casanova" was singled out for praise by a number of critics as a more cynical and hard-rocking number than the usual Roxy Music fare. Like the earlier "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" (1973), it was seen as a critique of the hollowness of the contemporary jet set, and contained further instances of Bryan Ferry's idiosyncratic word association ("Now you're nothing but / Second hand in glove / With second rate"). A re-recorded version, more mellow than the original, appeared on Ferry's 1976 solo album Let's Stick Together.
The final track, "Prairie Rose", was an ode to Texas and one of its daughters, Jerry Hall, Ferry's new girlfriend, who was soon to appear on the cover of Roxy Music's fifth album, Siren (1975), and later in the video to Ferry's hit single "Let's Stick Together".
Country Life included Roxy Music's fourth single, "All I Want Is You" b/w "Your Application's Failed", which reached #12 in the UK charts. An edited version of "The Thrill of It All", with the same B-side, was released in the United States. The album was released on Atco Records, a division of Atlantic Records.
Cover art
Shot by Eric Boman, the cover features two scantily-clad models, Constanze Karoli (reportedly either the sister or the cousin of Can's Michael Karoli) and Eveline Grunwald. Bryan Ferry met them in Portugal and persuaded them to do the photo shoot as well as to help him with the words to the song "Bitter-Sweet". Although not credited for their photos they are credited on the lyric sheet for their German translation work.
The cover image was considered controversial in some countries such as the United States, Spain, and the Netherlands, where it was censored for release. As a result, a later American LP release of Country Life (available during the years 1975-80) featured a different cover shot. Instead of Karoli and Grunwald posed in front of some trees, the reissue used a photo from the album's back cover that featured only the trees. Author Michael Ochs has described the result as the "most complete cover-up in rock history".
The cover art has been mimicked by:
Electronic band Ladytron with the cover of the mix compilation Softcore Jukebox.
Electro girl band Robots in Disguise with the cover for their 2002 singles "Boys" featuring comedian Noel Fielding and musician Chris Corner.
Indie rock band Sweet Apple for the cover of their 2010 album Love & Desperation.
American baseball/music-themed magazine ChinMusic!, featuring Parisian singer Cecilia Meneau (No-Talents, Operation S, Cécilia et Ses Ennuis).
Track listing
All songs written by Bryan Ferry except where noted.
Side One
1. "The Thrill of It All" – 6:24
2. "Three and Nine" (Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay) – 4:04
3. "All I Want Is You" – 2:53
4. "Out of the Blue" (Bryan Ferry, Phil Manzanera) – 4:46
5. "If It Takes All Night" – 3:12
Side Two
6. "Bitter-Sweet" (Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay) – 4:50
7. "Triptych" – 3:09
8. "Casanova" – 3:27
9. "A Really Good Time" – 3:45
10. "Prairie Rose" (Bryan Ferry, Phil Manzanera) – 5:12
Personnel
Bryan Ferry – vocals, keyboards
John Gustafson – bass
Edwin Jobson – strings, synthesiser, keyboards
Andrew Mackay – oboe, saxophone
Phil Manzanera – guitar
Paul Thompson – drums
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