Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

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Rolling Stone MAY 23, 2002 - by James Hunter

BRYAN FERRY: FRANTIC

Roxy Music maestro channels Bob Dylan and, uh, Orson Welles.

Bryan Ferry wasn't the first guy to believe that nothing should exceed the grasp of rock recording. But nobody ever made that conviction sing like he did on his albums with the legendary '70s London band Roxy Music. On Frantic, Ferry coaxes the work of Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Leadbelly, Richard the Lionheart, Orson Welles, Alain Resnais and others into one great, silvery song. The music, with players including Brian Eno and Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, concerns itself more with songfulness than with texture. Frantic jumps with energy, from the pure pop sensation of One Way Love to Goddess Of Love, which opens with the line "Marilyn says / 'I got nothing to wear tonight / Only a pair of diamond earrings to catch the light.'" The string section on Ferry's cover of Dylan's It's All Over Now Baby Blue is tough enough to break windshields. Other pieces lounge (San Simeon), minuet (I Thought) and dart (Cruel). And Ferry's voice, even for Earth's maestro of remote-control Sinatra-esquc soul, is plainly spectacular.