Bête Noire by Bryan Ferry

Bête Noire, Bryan Ferry's seventh solo album, came out on 2 November 1987, on Virgin in Britain and Reprise in America, and it's the former Roxy Music frontman at his sleekest and most nocturnal. Patrick Leonard produced, wrapping Ferry's velvet croon in glossy, pulsing sophisti-pop that sounds built for the small hours in a very expensive nightclub.

"The Right Stuff" is the curio, a Johnny Marr collaboration built out of "Money Changes Everything", a Smiths B-side with no vocals. "Kiss and Tell" struts harder, became his only solo single to crack the US Top 40, and turned up in the film Bright Lights, Big City. Coming after Boys and Girls, it kept Ferry in the UK top 10, peaking at No. 9 and going gold, and critics liked it as much as the buyers did.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.