These Foolish Things [Remaster]

Wildly controversial in its day, Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry's first solo album now seems more eccentric than groundbreaking; more one man's oddball take on an eclectic bunch of his favourite artists' songs than an ironic manifesto of a new pop order. Rock purists, of course, were outraged. How dare Ferry implicitly maintain the esthetic equivalence of Bob Dylan ("A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall", complete with gospel backup singers and thunderstorm effects), with teen angst queen Leslie Gore (an unabashedly camp version of her classic "It's My Party")?
Although Bryan Ferry's mannered, tremulous vocals are better suited for his own romantically bruised lounge lizard songs, he obviously connects with these tunes on a personal level. THESE FOOLISH THINGS contains many instances, most notably on the title track and Smokey Robinson's "Tracks of My Tears", where Ferry transcends his vocal limitations and comes up with his own foppish, but still valid, version of the blues.|