The Best of Roxy Music

1	Avalon 4:16
2	More Than This 4:18
3	Jealous Guy 4:57
4	Over You 3:27
5	Same Old Scene 3:58
6	Oh Yeah 4:52
7	Angel Eyes 2:51
8	Dance Away 3:46
9	Both Ends Burning 5:15
10	Love Is the Drug 4:08
11	Out of the Blue 4:44
12	All I Want Is You 2:53
13	Mother of Pearl 6:34
14	Street Life 3:29
15	Do the Strand 4:02
16	Pyjamarama 2:52
17	Virginia Plain 2:57
18	Re-Make/Re-Model 4:52

Barnes & Noble

Glam before the glitter sparkled, new wave before the surf came up, and techno-cool long before chill-out lounges ever existed, Roxy Music rank as one the most influential bands in rock history. Beginning at the end -- although the British band have regrouped for a 2001 tour -- this 18-song retrospective disc begins with the title track of their impossibly lush swan song, Avalon, a shimmering, textural production that remains a standard-bearer of moody synth-pop. Moving back in time, it becomes clear that Roxy Music have always dabbled in elegance and experimentalism. The atmospheric disco of "Dance Away," the sexy, sax-fueled fatalism of "Both Ends Burning," the cool quirky funk of "Love Is the Drug," and the early screechy sonic "treatments" on the energetic "Virginia Plain" are all held together by the marvelously muscular croon of suave singer Bryan Ferry and the brave avant-pop leanings of bandmates Phil Manzanera, Andy McKay, and, in the early years, Brian Eno. The Best of Roxy Music is a fine starter kit for anyone in search of a quick and catchy overview of this adventurous pop outfit (a more thorough vision can be found on the four-CD box The Thrill of It All). Seth Kaufman

All Music Guide

Released to herald a reunion of the band and superseding several out-of-print predecessors, The Best of Roxy Music is an excellent summary of the group's hits and album highlights between 1972 and 1982. There are really two editions of Roxy Music, the glam rock unit that achieved widespread U.K. success from 1972 to 1975, and the more polished one that was a broader international success from 1979 to 1982. The compilers have dealt with the dichotomy and the more lasting popularity of the later recordings by presenting the compilation in reverse chronological order, so that soft rock hits like "Over You" and "Dance Away," which scored in America, come before U.K.-only hits like "Street Life" and "Virginia Plain," which rock much harder. But all the major hits are here (only a couple of less-successful British singles chart entries are missing), augmented by memorable album tracks like "Do the Strand" and "Mother of Pearl." In print or not, this is the best single-disc collection of Roxy Music, since it is more complete than earlier compilations like the 1977 Greatest Hits and 1983 The Atlantic Years (1973-1980) LPs, and, unlike later best-ofs such as Street Life: 20 Great Hits (1986), The Ultimate Collection (1988), and More Than This: The Best of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music (1995) (the latter two U.K. releases), it is not divided between Bryan Ferry solo tracks and Roxy Music ones. William Ruhlmann