Hark the frozen chimes of winter crystal shimmer in your mind

Continuing my trip back through the 1977 album charts.

10/04/77 : In Your Mind - Bryan Ferry

I don't mind Bryan's croonier stuff when I'm in the mood for it, but as far as I know anything about his earlier stuff it's like the Roxy Music stuff but not as interesting, which just makes you wonder why he left/bothered.  Last time I met him it was a mixed bag, so let's hope for a more consistent quality here...

And yeah, I think it is - it all slid passed me nicely enough without really sticking in there.  "Tokyo Joe" was probably my favourite and that's very Roxyesque - the rest of it is perfectly fine, but at first listen it's very forgettable.  I'm also very unclear what kind of look he's going for on the album cover.

We're at #23 in the chart this week on his seventh week of a 23 week run, with it having peaked at #5 in its second and third week which seems very generous - but there wasn't exactly loads of contemporary music around to challenge it, it seems.  The top five this week were ABBA (starting a nine week run at the top) and best-ofs from Frank Sinatra, The Shadows, Glenn Miller and The Hollies and the highest new entry was Demis Roussos (#55 - is no-one actually recording any new music this year?).

Wikipedia tells us this is his fourth solo album but the first one that is all original material - the critics either thought it was totally different from, or exactly the same as, his Roxy Music stuff, so make of that what you will!  It did surprisingly well in some countries, getting to #4 in Sweden and #2 in Australia, but not so well in the US, only making #126.

"Customers also listened to" Roxy Music (who knew?!?), Tim Love Lee, Mott The Hoople and David Bowie - a bunch of crazy cats and no mistake.  But Bryan never came across as particularly crazy (you always got the feeling it was the big boys making him do it) and this is perfectly bearable without really leaving any impression.

03/04/77 - Check out the album cover, but no more than that
17/04/77 - Not as dreadful as I feared

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