Another Time, Another Place

Roxy Music had backed Bryan Ferry on his first album of cover songs, but for the sequel he set out on his own. Without Roxy's familiar backing, Ferry could better define himself apart from the glam rock milieu that had birthed him. He appears on the cover of Another Time, Another Place standing in front of a glassy pool in an ivory tuxedo. His posture is a perfect simulation of Humphrey Bogart's, right down to the cigarette. That’s pretty much the recipe for this music: old Hollywood glamour applied to the balloon-sized rock music of the mid-'70s. Dobie Gray’s “The In Crowd” fits Ferry as well as that white tuxedo: he transforms a previously teen-oriented pop song into proto-disco decadence. Those in search of voluptuous rock songs in the mold of early Roxy will delight in “Fingerpoppin’,” “Funny How Time Slips Away," and “Walk a Mile in My Shoes,” but this album is better defined by Ferry’s increasing attraction to the poignancy and vulnerability of torch singers. His version of “Help Me Make It Through the Night” exudes a smoldering lust that would make Marlene Dietrich proud.