Avonmore
Bryan Ferry
(BMG)
Four stars
When the world last heard from Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music's 69-year-old former frontman, he was reimagining parts of his back catalogue as speakeasy songs. His 2012 album The Jazz Age, recorded as The Bryan Ferry Orchestra, was an obtuse release that was wonderfully inventive and almost wilfully uncommercial. The idea of the album was to strip the original tunes of their vocals while recasting such classics as Slave to Love and Virginia Plain in the style of the 20th-century jazz greats Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.
Two years later, Ferry has returned with Avonmore, a far more conventional solo album, and his first since 2010's Olympia. This new work finds Ferry back on more familiar ground, swapping the speakeasy for his more conventional construct as the sultan of suave. If Olympia was dressed up to look like a Roxy release – complete with Kate Moss on the cover, mimicking the fashion model-obsessed artwork of the band's eight albums – it sounded like a Ferry solo release, all melodic tunes and mournful lyrics.
His new album flips that formula on its head. It looks like a Ferry solo album – featuring a typically moody black-and-white shot of the singer on the cover – and sounds like a natural successor to Avalon, Roxy Music’s final studio album, released 32 years ago.
Avonmore pairs eight original compositions with two covers. Roxy's 1981 reworking of John Lennon's Jealous Guy is one of the great examples of how to remake someone else's work, while Dylanesque, Ferry's 2007 album of Bob Dylan originals, is a more recent treasure. On Avonmore, Ferry takes on Robert Palmer's Johnny and Mary with great aplomb – all breathy vocals and simple sonic arrangements – and Stephen Sondheim's Send in the Clowns with less success.
But it's the original compositions that shine through. Ferry has always been at his best when he sings as if he knows the party's over. Loop De Li, Avonmore's opener, begins with instrumental fragments that sound like Roxy outtakes, before introducing lyrics that heavily reference confusion, delusion and bitterness. This is the sour taste of the slow post-party comedown.
That mood and those emotions course through the album, which features collaborations with such notables as Johnny Marr and Nile Rodgers. Ferry is on top form on Lost, featuring Mark Knopfler on guitar, which is a swirling ode to life's wrong turns. Its arrangement, leaning on Knopfler's understated craft, is exquisite.
Will Avonmore win over a new generation of fans? Almost certainly not. Will it reacquaint former fans with Ferry's work? Almost certainly. He hasn't sounded this good for a while.
Paris Agreement
Article 14
1. [The Cop] shall periodically take stock of the implementation of this Agreement to assess the collective progress towards achieving the purpose of this Agreement and its long-term goals (referred to as the "global stocktake")
2. [The Cop] shall undertake its first global stocktake in 2023 and every five years thereafter
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
ANATOMY OF A FALL
Director: Justine Triet
Starring: Sandra Huller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado-Graner
Rating: 5/5
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COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Almouneer
Started: 2017
Founders: Dr Noha Khater and Rania Kadry
Based: Egypt
Number of staff: 120
Investment: Bootstrapped, with support from Insead and Egyptian government, seed round of
$3.6 million led by Global Ventures
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Celta Vigo 2
Castro (45'), Aspas (82')
Barcelona 2
Dembele (36'), Alcacer (64')
Red card: Sergi Roberto (Barcelona)
If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Funchal via Lisbon, with a connecting flight with Air Portugal. Economy class returns cost from Dh3,845 return including taxes.
The trip
The WalkMe app can be downloaded from the usual sources. If you don’t fancy doing the trip yourself, then Explore offers an eight-day levada trails tour from Dh3,050, not including flights.
The hotel
There isn’t another hotel anywhere in Madeira that matches the history and luxury of the Belmond Reid's Palace in Funchal. Doubles from Dh1,400 per night including taxes.
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
SPECS
Engine: Dual electric motors with 102kW battery pack
Power: 570hp
Torque: 890Nm
Range: Up to 428km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh1,700,000
SPEC SHEET: APPLE M3 MACBOOK AIR (13")
Processor: Apple M3, 8-core CPU, up to 10-core CPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Display: 13.6-inch Liquid Retina, 2560 x 1664, 224ppi, 500 nits, True Tone, wide colour
Memory: 8/16/24GB
Storage: 256/512GB / 1/2TB
I/O: Thunderbolt 3/USB-4 (2), 3.5mm audio, Touch ID
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
Battery: 52.6Wh lithium-polymer, up to 18 hours, MagSafe charging
Camera: 1080p FaceTime HD
Video: Support for Apple ProRes, HDR with Dolby Vision, HDR10
Audio: 4-speaker system, wide stereo, support for Dolby Atmos, Spatial Audio and dynamic head tracking (with AirPods)
Colours: Midnight, silver, space grey, starlight
In the box: MacBook Air, 30W/35W dual-port/70w power adapter, USB-C-to-MagSafe cable, 2 Apple stickers
Price: From Dh4,599