Olympia (Bryan Ferry album)

Olympia
Studio album by Bryan Ferry
Released	25 October 2010
Genre	electropop Pop sophisti-pop pop rock
Length	49:18 56:38 (Extended edition) 109:32 (Collector's edition)
Label	Virgin, Astralwerks (US)[1]
Producer	Bryan Ferry, Rhett Davies
Bryan Ferry chronology
Dylanesque (2007) Olympia (2010) The Jazz Age (2012)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
The A.V. Club	(B)[3]
Clash	(7/10)[4]
Entertainment Weekly	B+ [5]
Pitchfork Media	(7.5/10)[6]
Popmatters	(8/10)[7]
Rolling Stone	[8]
Slant Magazine	[9]
Spin	[10]

Olympia is an thirteenth studio album by the British singer Bryan Ferry, released by Virgin Records on 25 October 2010. Co-produced by Ferry and Rhett Davies, Olympia is Ferry's first album of largely original material since 2002's Frantic.

The album features a wide range of contributors, including co-songwriter David A. Stewart of Eurythmics, Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera and Andy Mackay of Roxy Music, the electronic group Groove Armada, David Gilmour, Marcus Miller, Scissor Sisters, Nile Rodgers, Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, Steve Nieve, and Flea.

The album features some songs previously recorded by Ferry in collaborations with other artists. "You Can Dance", a version of which appeared as "U Can Dance" on DJ Hell's 2009 album Teufelswerk, is the record's first single. A version of "Shameless" previously appeared as a collaboration with Groove Armada on their album Black Light earlier in 2010. The album also features covers of Tim Buckley's "Song To The Siren" and Traffic's "No Face, No Name, No Number." The album came out in three versions: the regular one with 10 songs, the "Extended edition" containing two additional tracks and the "Collector's edition" with all the 12 tracks, a 40-page booklet and second CD containing remixes.

In 2011 the single Alphaville was sent to a number of radio stations and appeared on BBC Radio 2's playlist and 106.9FM WHCR's

The album art features the fashion model Kate Moss and refers to the Édouard Manet 1863 painting of the same name.^[11]

Critical reception

Reviewing for AllMusic critic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote of the album "Such command of mood is a tell-tale sign of a quiet perfectionist, but Olympia doesn't feel fussy; it's unruffled and casually elegant, its pleasing familiarity reflecting the persistence of an old master honing his craft."^[12] And reviewing for Rolling Stone critic, Jon Dolan wrote of the album "Ferry could do a record with the Star Wars cantina band and it would come out pretty much the same: a bunch of lush, languorous Euro-glam ballads about love's labour's lost, all of them slathered in a sexy-vampire croon that makes lines about being "faithfully entwined in a shameless world" seem like some deep shit."^[13]

Track listing

All tracks by Bryan Ferry and David A. Stewart unless otherwise noted.

References

External links