★★★★★
The King of Cool is back. Not since 2002's Frantic has Ferry released an album with originals, and once again he recruits the talents of Dave Stewart (co-writer on a few tunes), Jonny Greenwood (guitar), Colin Good and Brian Eno (both on keys). Also appearing are David Gilmour, Nile Rodgers, Flea, and Phil Manzanera, with surprising collaborations featuring Scissor Sisters and Groove Armada...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-04-25
★★★★★
Bryan Ferry works steadily, recording, releasing, and (only if necessary, perhaps) touring new albums, even if he remains unable to step out from what was established on earlier work. But then Ferry seemed born to both reinterpret and to look backwards. His solo career started one year after Roxy Music's own debut full length with These Foolish Things, a collection of soul, jazz, and rock'n'roll standards often revisited in utterly surprising ways...
- pitchfork.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Such the jokester, that Bryan Ferry. The man hasn't done anything remotely frantic since "Both Ends Burning" from Roxy Music's majestic 1975 album Siren. He therefore must possess, at least, a dry sense of humor, and likely named the album so just to watch critics write opening paragraphs like, uh, this one. While Frantic may be anything but frantic, it is easily his best solo record since 1987's Bete Noire...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
Speaking to this author in 2007, Roxy Music saxophonist Andy Mackay claimed that Bryan Ferry's solo career wasn't necessarily advantageous. Ferry's self-titled solo debut, released in 1973, just five months after Roxy's second LP, proved him a master of the fearless interpretation. The following year's Another Time, Another Place, however, saw Ferry tone down the eccentricites on the likes of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, posing in that soon-to-be ubiquitous dinner jacket...
- www.recordcollectormag.com
2010-12-21
★★★★★
It's been eight years since Bryan Ferry released Frantic, his last album of original material. What started out as a possible Roxy Music album turned into a celebration of the singer himself. Boasting a star-studded guest list - Flea, Dave Stewart, David Gilmour, Jonny Greenwood, Groove Armada and Scissor Sisters, plus original Roxies Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay and Brian Eno - it's like hobnobbing at a cocktail party at the Ferry estate...
- www.hour.ca
2010-12-13
★★★★★
"Olympia" may be the most successful Bryan Ferry album in more than two decades. The singer has delivered a collection that works the way "Bete Noire" and "Boys and Girls" did in the mid-1980s -- it's sexy, layered, packed with tension, and subtle in its variations from track to track. This album is Ferry displaying that he still knows how to assemble a collection that holds a listener's interest for more than a few tracks, a quality lacking in his albums of the last 17 years...
- www.soundspike.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
It was interesting to note that Bryan Ferry's recent appearance on Strictly Come Dancing, while rather mundane, did not grate to the extent of Alice Cooper in the preceding week. At least Ferry - even the Ferry of old, the gauche and elegant mainstream subversive - would have actually fitted into the sheen, polish and obvious glam of the Strictly... dance floor. As such, and for old times sake, really, we should give him the benefit of the doubt, despite his hard sell...
- thequietus.com
2010-11-22
★★★★★
Bryan Ferry has long been the sultriest of crooners and the most compelling of lyricists. There are smoke rings and cool passion to be found in every sway of his albums, whether he's solo or with art-glam legends Roxy Music. After the husk of 2007's Dylanesque's tribute to the rustic bard, something suave and strange was in order...
- www.filter-mag.com
2010-11-15
★★★★★
The cover of the latest Bryan Ferry album, featuring a supine and glossy Kate Moss languishing glamorously on satin sheets, is obviously meant to be a visual representation of Olympia's sound. Whilst the ten tracks here are so laid back, they're as horizontal as Ms Moss on the aforementioned cover and the louche guitars and satin, velvety quality of Ferry's vocals are as smooth as expected, the glamorous quality found on the cover doesn't translate into the music...
- hangout.altsounds.com
2010-11-15
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