New striking strokes

16 March 2025

Photo by Albert Sanchez

As announced late January, former Roxy Music luminary BRIAN FERRY (79 now) and Scottish artist/writer/painter AMELIA BARRATT teamed up for an album, titled LOOSE TALK. It lands on March 28.

Album artwork

Ferry: “The whole experience of making Loose Talk has had an interesting newness about
it. It seems to have opened a whole new chapter in my work. There’s a really strong mood
to the work that Amelia does and I was very conscious of not getting in the way of her words. Hopefully, together, we’ve created something neither could do on our own.

The nearest I ever got to doing pieces like this before would maybe be back in Roxy with
“In Every Dream Home A Heartache” and “Mother Of Pearl.” To some extent, those are
kind of spoken monologues.”

Barratt: “Loose Talk is a conversation between two artists: a collaborative album of music
by Bryan Ferry with spoken texts by me. It’s cinematic; music put to pictures. There’s possibility for experimentation within a frame. And there’s a freedom in knowing exactly what my part to play is, then being able to pass a baton, stretching out creatively and knowing there is someone on the other side to take it further. Nothing feels off limits.”

With LOOSE TALK, the title track, we get a third
preview, following Florist and Orchestra.

It resonates like, yes, a Roxy Music groove with Barratt (who reminds me
of Laurie Anderson here) + telling a story all over it. Magnetizing stuff.

WATCH/LISTEN

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