Bryan Ferry Boys And Girls CD

All tracks have been digitally remastered using HDCD technology.
Personnel: Bryan Ferry (vocals, harmonica, piano); Bryan Ferry; Alfa Anderson Barfield (vocals); Alan Spenner, Mark Knopfler, Neil Hubbard (guitar); Omar Hakim (drums); Chester Kamen, David Gilmore, David Sanborn, Ednah Holt, Fonzi Thornton, Guy Fletcher , Alfa Anderson, Marcus Miller, Martin McCarrick, Neil Jason, Nile Rodgers, Andy Newmark, Ruby Turner, Tony Levin , Keith Scott, Jimmy Maelen, John Carin, Michelle Cobbs, Yannick Etienne, Colleen Fitz Charles, Virginia Hewes, Anne Stephenson.
Audio Mixer: Bob Clearmountain.
Audio Remasterers: Robert C. Ludwig; Bob Ludwig.
Recording information: AIR Studios; Compass Point; Effanel; RPM; Sarm west; The White House.
Photographer: Antony Price.
Unknown Contributor Roles: Rhett Davies; Mark Knopfler; Bryan Ferry; Tony Levin ; Nile Rodgers; Marcus Miller; David Sanborn; Alfa Anderson; Michelle Cobbs; Guy Fletcher ; Omar Hakim; Ednah Holt; Neil Hubbard; Neil Jason; Chester Kamen; Jimmy Maelen; Martin McCarrick; Ruby Turner; Andy Newmark; Alan Spenner; Fonzi Thornton; Anne Stephenson; David Gilmour; Lisa Fitz-Charles; Lisa Fiz Charles; Virginia Hewes; Simone Fitz Charles; Jon Carin.
Having at last laid Roxy to bed with its final, intoxicatingly elegant albums, Ferry continued its end-days spirit with his own return to solo work. Dedicated to Ferry's father, Boys and Girls is deservedly most famous for its smash single "Slave to Love." With a gentle samba-derived rhythm leading into the steadier rock pace of the song, it's '80s Ferry at his finest, easy listening without being hopelessly soporific. As a whole, Boys and Girls fully established the clean, cool vision of Ferry on his own to the general public. Instead of ragged rock explosions, emotional extremes, and all that made his '70s work so compelling in and out of Roxy, Ferry here is the suave, debonair if secretly moody and melancholic lover, with music to match. Co-producer Rhett Davies, continuing his role from the latter Roxy albums, picks up where Avalon left off right from the slinky opening grooves of "Sensation." The range of people on the album is an intriguing mix, from latterday Roxy members like Andy Newmark and Alan Spenner to avid Roxy disciples like Chic's Nile Rodgers. Everyone is subordinated to Ferry's overall vision, and as a result there's not as much full variety on Boys and Girls as might be thought or hoped. The album's biggest flaw is indeed that it's almost too smooth, with not even the hint of threat or edge that Ferry once readily made his own. As something that's a high cut above the usual mid-'80s yuppie smarm music, though, Boys and Girls remains an enjoyable keeper that has aged well. ~ Ned Raggett
Ferry's first solo effort since the second breakup of Roxy Music is arguably his best, in part because it continues in the direction the band had been going. It's like AVALON, only more so.
Here, Ferry's lounge lizard affectations are writ large; the lyrical pose is all bruised romantic fatalism (say hello, "Slave to Love"), and the music fits it like a glove. The album's soundscapes are lush and echo-laden, and nearly every track has a discreet disco pulse; "Valentine," the one exception, is mid-tempo reggae. Overlaid with skittish percussion and guitars, BOYS AND GIRLS is the aural equivalent of a white dinner jacket and a half-empty bottle of champagne.Q (2/00, pp.99-100) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...having been stylistically frozen by high concept soul....[it] lends Ferry's work a timeless quality....BOYS & GIRLS is essentially a sister album to Roxy Music's sublime swansong [AVALON]..."