The Best of Roxy Music

Editors’ Notes Roxy Music started its career in the age of glam rock and ended in the age of new wave. Within that timespan, Roxy happened to be at the vanguard of several pop music trends. This wasn't because the band chased success—it was because the rest of the music industry was always chasing Roxy’s sense of imagination. Though it never had the mainstream cachet of Zeppelin or the Stones or even David Bowie, Roxy created a canon of classic songs that exists unto itself: a beautifully lit and highly exclusive neon tower on the outskirts of the music business. In an intriguing and somewhat perverse twist, The Best of Roxy Music adopts a reverse-chronological track sequence. Therefore you start with 1982’s elegiac farewell song “Avalon” and witness the band get younger. By the time you get back to 1972’s “Virginia Plain,” the members almost seem like teenyboppers—or at least teenyboppers disguised as space aliens. The recurring musical themes are disco, torch songs, flaming guitars, and an overall penchant for a particular type of celestial grandeur. Despite the wild diversity of these singles, Roxy retained a signature touch that's always immediately recognizable.