Saturday, September 15, 2012

Viva! Roxy Music - and Avalon, the decade's best album...?


A great SLA - Viva! A shame it was not a double.  They probably had enough material for a DLA, but perhaps - well, not sure why it was not released in the classic DLA format.  On the right is their capstone album.  Roxy Music's Avalon.  Has any band ever had a better last album?  Name one?   Talk about going out on top.  Over the last ten years, those that lead up to the advent of the compact disc, this group was ideally suited for vinyl.  They were artists first, and musicians later.  Bryan himself took control of the art design of their album covers.  As for Avalon,  I saw an interview of recording engineer and record producer Bob Clearmountain.  [All-time best name!]  He has helped bands make some of the greatest records ever.  Think: Bruce Springsteen (he mixed Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A.), The Rolling Stones (he mixed their singles "Miss You" and "Out of Tears"), Bryan Adams (he has mixed almost all of his albums since Reckless), Robbie Williams (Intensive Care), TotoBon Jovi (These DaysCrushBounce), Altered StateSimple Minds, and 235 other artists.   But the one he gets asked most about is Avalon.  Clearmountain is an award-winning American music engineer, mixer and producer.   He has been nominated for four Grammy Awards and won a Latin Grammy Award in 2007 for Best Male Pop Vocal Album for his work with engineering Ricky Martin's "MTV Unplugged".  He has also won an Emmy and he has won seven TEC Awards for "Best Recording Engineer", two others for "Best Broadcast Engineer", one special "Les Paul Award" and a Monitor Award for the Rolling Stone's Voodoo Lounge pay-per-view show.  Clearmountain also played bass on The Dead Boys' first album, Young, Loud and Snotty, before Jeff Magnum rejoined the group.

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