Falling halfway between musical primitivism and art rock ambition,
Roxy Music
's eponymous debut remains a startling redefinition of rock's boundaries. Simultaneously embracing kitschy glamour and avant-pop,
shimmers with seductive style and pulsates with disturbing synthetic textures. Although no musician demonstrates much technical skill at this point, they are driven by boundless imagination --
Brian Eno
's synthesized "treatments" exploit electronic instruments as electronics, instead of trying to shoehorn them into conventional acoustic patterns. Similarly,
Bryan Ferry
finds that his vampiric croon is at its most effective when it twists conventional melodies,
Phil Manzanera
's guitar is terse and unpredictable, while
Andy Mackay
's saxophone subverts rock & roll cliches by alternating R&B honking with atonal flourishes. But what makes
such a confident, astonishing debut is how these primitive avant-garde tendencies are married to full-fledged songs, whether it's the free-form, structure-bending "Re-Make/Re-Model" or the sleek glam of "Virginia Plain," the debut single added to later editions of the album. That was the trick that elevated
from an art school project to the most adventurous rock band of the early '70s. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine