10 Essential Glam Rock Albums
4. Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
Roxy Music’s brief shelf life would see them transition from arch artistes to soft rockers, and fans can debate the relative merits of the eras to no end. For pure propulsive power, though, the glam days of Roxy Music take some beating, and their second album can stand up against most records of the era.
Spearheaded by Brian Eno, who’d leave after this album, For Your Pleasure strikes a fine balance between icy cool intellect and the swagger of frontman and Eno foil Bryan Ferry.
“Do The Strand” is a stuttering rocker with screeching sax that still sounds revolutionary, and “Editions Of You” sees Roxy on full throttle, sounding like they’re having a total blast.
The disturbing “In Every Dream Home A Heartache” is the other side of the coin, an ode to an inflatable doll with Ferry’s lounge lizard persona put to its best possible use, ramping up the sinister vibe as the song reaches epic lengths.
While the hits would keep coming, Roxy without Eno was never quite the same. He’d go on to his own legendary career, first on a glam vibe, later as the godfather of ambience. His indefinable role in Roxy Music, though, made them still one of the best British bands of all time.