When they were young...
Arye Mirovski | Haifa Israel | 07/08/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Roxy Music was at its best in the years 1972-5, when they released 5 great albums. Then, they broke up for the first time and came back together in 1978 for the album "Manifesto", that caused great dissapointment to the band fans. "Manifesto" started a new era of the band, that did'nt look back, and made something else, that in my opinion is nothing but great and clean productions of a weak, boring, and uninspired material. Fans like me, who felt unsatisfied from the new Roxy Music, started to look for bootlegs of live performances during the fruitfull years of 1972-75. One leagal album "Viva!" was released, but it was'nt enough. So it was a pleasent surprise to find the 2 CD's -"Valentine" and "Vintage" - that bring us rare recordings of the band, from the good years, that were taken from the German TV show "Musikladen" (made by Radio Bremen), and not only this - if you put them on your CD ROM you can watch the show! Also, the 2 CD's have nice booklets. This is why the prices are high. This is also why they sound more like a very good bootleg. All i can do is "bravo" NMC, for making such a good work. Suddenly you can see Ferry, Manzanera, McKay, Thompson, Jobson, Eno and even John Wetton almost 30 years ago. Right, "Hard rains gonna fall" is Ferry solo plus a playback, that starts from the middle of the song, but i can live with it. "Psalm" and "If it takes all night" are for the first time on a legal live album, and i enjoy every minute of them. Still i don't understand, why the company did'nt make "Valentine" and "Vintage" one dbl. CD album. After all, the 2 CD's bring us songs from the same shows (for example - "Editions of you" from "Vintage" came originaly after "Do the Strand" from "Valentine), and even the pictures on the covers are 2 parts of the same photograph."
Track Listings (5) - Disc #1