Olympia (Bryan Ferry album)
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''Olympia'' is the thirteenth studio album by English singer Bryan Ferry, released on 25 October 2010 by Virgin Records. Co-produced by Ferry and Rhett Davies, ''Olympia'' is Ferry's first album of predominantly original material since 2002's ''
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''. The album features a wide range of contributors, including co-songwriter
David A. Stewart David Allan Stewart (born 9 September 1952) is an English musician, songwriter and record producer, best known for Eurythmics, his successful professional partnership with Annie Lennox. Sometimes credited as David A. Stewart, he won Best British ...
of
Eurythmics Eurythmics were a British pop duo consisting of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. They were both previously in The Tourists, a band which broke up in 1980. The duo released their first studio album, '' In the Garden'', in 1981 to little succ ...
,
Brian Eno Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...
, Phil Manzanera and
Andy Mackay Andrew Mackay (born 23 July 1946) is an English multi-instrumentalist, best known as a founding member (playing oboe and saxophone) of the art rock group Roxy Music. In addition, he has taught music and provided scores for television, while his ...
of Roxy Music, the electronic group Groove Armada,
David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett. P ...
,
Marcus Miller William Henry Marcus Miller Jr. (born June 14, 1959) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work as a bassist. He has worked with trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock, singer Luther Vandros ...
, Scissor Sisters,
Nile Rodgers Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, record producer and composer. The co-founder of Chic, Rodgers has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million ...
,
Jonny Greenwood Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood (born 5 November 1971) is an English musician and composer. He is the lead guitarist and keyboardist of the alternative rock band Radiohead, and has written numerous film scores. Along with his elder brother, th ...
of
Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
, Steve Nieve, and Flea. Early in the recording process ''Olympia'' was developed as a Roxy Music project, the first since the band's 1982 album '' Avalon'', with participation from numerous guests. However, despite the presence of other Roxy Music members at the sessions, it was released as a Bryan Ferry solo project. The album peaked at number 19 on the UK Albums Chart.


Background

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 Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...
. A version of "Shameless" previously appeared as a collaboration with Groove Armada on their album ''
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'' earlier in 2010. The album also features covers of Tim Buckley's "
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" and Traffic's "No Face, No Name, No Number." The album came out in three versions: a standard edition with 10 songs, the "Deluxe Edition" containing two additional tracks and a DVD featuring "The Making of Olympia" documentary and a promo video for the song "You Can Dance", and the "Collector's Edition" with the 12 tracks and DVD from the Deluxe Edition as well as a second CD containing remixes and a 40-page hardback book. In 2011 the single "Alphaville" was sent to a number of radio stations and appeared on
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's playlist and 106.9FM WHCR's The album art features the fashion model
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and refers to the Γ‰douard Manet 1863 painting of the same name.


Critical reception

Reviewing for AllMusic,
Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...
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." And reviewing for '' Rolling Stone'', Jon Dolan wrote of the album "Ferry could do a record with the ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' 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."


Track listing


Personnel


Musicians

* Bryan Ferry – vocals, keyboards, acoustic piano (1-9, 11, 12) * Colin Good – keyboards (2), synthesizers (6) *
Brian Eno Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...
– synthesizers (2, 4, 6, 8) * Babydaddy – keyboards (3), guitars (3), bass (3) * Steve Nieve – acoustic piano (10) * Robin "Radar" Rimbaud – electronics (1, 10) * Chris Mullings – electronics (2, 3) * John Monkman – electronics (4-9, 11, 12) *
Nile Rodgers Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, record producer and composer. The co-founder of Chic, Rodgers has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million ...
– guitars (1, 5, 10) *
Oliver Thompson Oliver Thompson is an English Guitar player, songwriter and singer. He has toured with Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry since 2005, playing with guitarists including Phil Manzanera, Chris Spedding and Johnny Marr. He has played on Ferry's solo tours, f ...
– guitars (1, 5, 10) * David Williams – guitars (1, 5, 10) * Neil Hubbard – guitars (2, 12) *
David A. Stewart David Allan Stewart (born 9 September 1952) is an English musician, songwriter and record producer, best known for Eurythmics, his successful professional partnership with Annie Lennox. Sometimes credited as David A. Stewart, he won Best British ...
– guitars (2) *
David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett. P ...
– guitars (4, 6) *
Jonny Greenwood Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood (born 5 November 1971) is an English musician and composer. He is the lead guitarist and keyboardist of the alternative rock band Radiohead, and has written numerous film scores. Along with his elder brother, th ...
– guitars (6) * Phil Manzanera – guitars (6, 8, 9, 11) * Chris Spedding – guitars (7, 8, 11) * Merlin Ferry – guitars (9) * Flea – bass (1, 7, 11), bass solo (3) * Gary "Mani" Mounfield – bass (1, 8) *
Marcus Miller William Henry Marcus Miller Jr. (born June 14, 1959) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work as a bassist. He has worked with trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock, singer Luther Vandros ...
– bass (2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 12) *
Guy Pratt Guy Adam Pratt (born 3 January 1962) is a British musician. He is best known for his prolific work as a session bass player, working with artists including Pink Floyd (also David Gilmour and Nick Mason), Roxy Music (also Bryan Ferry), Gary M ...
– bass (11) * Andy Cato – bass (5) * Tara Ferry – drums (1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11) *
Andy Newmark Andrew Newmark (born July 14, 1950)
– drums (1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11) * Emily Dolan Davies – drums (2, 6, 7, 9) *
Steve Ferrone Steve Ferrone (born 25 April 1950) is an English drummer. He is known as a member of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from 1994 to 2017, replacing original drummer Stan Lynch, and as part of the "classic lineup" of the Average Whi ...
– drums (12) * Frank Ricotti – percussion * Anthony Pleeth – cello (2, 4, 6, 7) * Vicci Wardman – viola (2, 4, 6, 7) * Perry Montague-Mason – 1st violin (2, 4, 6, 7) * Emlyn Singleton – 2nd violin (2, 4, 6, 7) *
Andy Mackay Andrew Mackay (born 23 July 1946) is an English multi-instrumentalist, best known as a founding member (playing oboe and saxophone) of the art rock group Roxy Music. In addition, he has taught music and provided scores for television, while his ...
– oboe (3, 6, 11) * Alice Retif – chorus vocals (1, 2) * Katie Turner – chorus vocals (1) * Ruby Turner – chorus vocals (2, 3, 11) * Me'sha Bryan – chorus vocals (3, 11) * Thomas Fetherstonhaugh – treble vocals (3) * Sewuese Abwa – chorus vocals (4, 6-10, 12) * Aleysha Gordon – chorus vocals (4, 6-10, 12) * Hannah Khemoh – chorus vocals (4, 6-10, 12) * Shar White – chorus vocals (5, 11) * Tallulah Harlech – voice (6, 9) * Jhelisa Anderson – chorus vocals (11)


Technical

* Bryan Ferry – producer * Rhett Davies – producer * Johnson Somerset – producer * David A. Stewart – additional producer (2) * Babydaddy – additional producer (3) * Jake Shears – additional producer (3) * Groove Armada – additional producers (5) * Phil Manzanera – additional producer (8) * John Monkman – additional producer (8), additional engineer *
Robin Trower Robin Leonard Trower (born 9 March 1945) is an English rock guitarist who achieved success with Procol Harum throughout 1967–1971, and then again as the bandleader of his own power trio known as the Robin Trower Band. Biography Robin Trowe ...
– additional producer (11, 12) * Simon Willey – engineer * Ash Howes – additional engineer * Jamie Johnson – additional engineer * Tim Roe – additional engineer * Sven Taits – additional engineer * Chris Mullings – additional recording * Bob Clearmountain – mixing *
Bob Ludwig Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...
– mastering


Artwork

* Bryan Ferry – art direction * Isaac Ferry – artwork production * Gideon Ponte – set design * Chris Peyton – layout * Jono Patrick – digital artwork * Adam Whitehead – photography *
Anton Corbijn Anton Johannes Gerrit Corbijn van Willenswaard (; born 20 May 1955) is a Dutch photographer, film director and music video director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2,Pitman, Joanna"The silent partner"' ...
– portrait of Bryan Ferry * Richard Williams – liner notes *
Kate Moss Katherine Ann Moss (born 16 January 1974) is a British model. Arriving at the end of the "supermodel era", Moss rose to fame in the early 1990s as part of the heroin chic fashion trend. Her collaborations with Calvin Klein brought her to fas ...
– cover model


Charts


Notes


References

{{Authority control 2010 albums Albums produced by Rhett Davies Bryan Ferry albums Virgin Records albums