Avalon by Roxy Music

Avalon was the last word from Roxy Music, their eighth and final studio album, released on E.G. Records and cut between 1981 and 1982 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, with Rhett Davies producing. By now the lineup had come down to Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay and Phil Manzanera, and they spent their last session polishing their later, smoother sound until you could see your reflection in it.

It's a record of silk and mist. It sounds like a moonlit terrace after the party's gone quiet: the grooves glide rather than push, and every note is placed with a jeweller's care. "More Than This", released ahead of the album, is pure longing on a loop, while the title track glows like the last hour of a summer night. "The Space Between" slinks, "To Turn You On" whispers. Sophisti-pop has more or less credited its birth certificate to this album, and you can hear why.

"More Than This" went top 10 in Britain, Australia and across Europe, "Avalon" reached the top 20 and "Take a Chance with Me" the top 30, though in America the first and last stalled at 103 and 104. The album itself spent three weeks at number one in the UK and more than a year on the chart, and though it only reached No. 53 in the US, it kept selling quietly until it became the band's only million-seller there, and their most successful studio album. The band has toured since, but Avalon still stands as their final album of new songs.

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