Listen to Bryan Ferry’s trippy new single ‘Star’ – his first original new music in over a decade

NME

Bryan Ferry has today shared a new single called ‘Star’ – his first new music in over a decade. Check it out below.

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The song features on an upcoming album from Ferry called ‘Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973-2023‘, which is set for release on October 25. You can pre-order it here.

The 81-track collection is described in a press release as “a celebration of Bryan Ferry’s peerless career as a solo artist, spanning a period of over 50 years of music and 16 solo albums, bringing the story right up to the present with a snapshot of his latest work.”

New single ‘Star’ began as a “sketch” by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails, and was developed by Ferry and painter and writer Amelia Barratt, who also features onto the track. It’s described as “an anxious, darkly gleaming slab of pounding post-techno” in a statement.

It adds: “The song sees Ferry continuing to explore uncharted creative territory, with Barratt and Ferry creating a duet that blurs the lines between art, music and poetry.”

You can watch the video for the new track, which features Barratt and was filmed by Ferry and James Garzke, here:

Speaking about the new track, Ferry said: “‘Star’ is a collaboration with the painter and writer Amelia Barratt. A couple of years ago I helped her record an audiobook here in my studio. I was very impressed by her writing, and this is the first song we did together. I’m very excited about this new work – there’s a lot more to come.”

‘Retrospective’ will be the first collection to span the entirety of Ferry’s solo career, covering 16 solo albums and over five decades of recordings. The new collection brings together his recordings with various labels over the years, including Virgin, Polydor and BMG, and will be available in a 5CD deluxe box set, accompanied by a 100-page hardback book with extensive new liner notes and rare and unseen photographs and imagery.

There will also be a 2LP gatefold edition titled The Best Of Bryan Ferry, comprising 20 tracks, and a 1CD version made from the same choices.

A statement about the new collection says it will “illustrate an adventure in
music like no other. A story in songwriting that has been unfolding for more than 50 years will now be celebrated in this kaleidoscopic compendium of Bryan Ferry’s music.”

Included among the vintage tracks will also be a new version of ‘She Belongs To Me’, first released on Bob Dylan’s 1965 classic album ‘Bringing It All Back Home’.

Ferry released his debut solo album ‘These Foolish Things’ in 1973, just weeks before Roxy Music’s third album ‘Stranded’, and continued to record and release music both on his own and with the band until Roxy Music’s first split in 1983.

The full tracklist for ‘Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973-2023’ is: 

Disc One: ‘The Best Of Bryan Ferry’

1. ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’
2. ‘These Foolish Things’
3. ‘The ‘In’ Crowd’
4. ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’
5. ‘Casanova’
6. ‘Let’s Stick Together’
7. ‘Sign of the Times’
8. ‘Slave To Love’
9. ‘Don’t Stop The Dance’
10. ‘Windswept’
11. ‘Kiss and Tell’
12. ‘As Time Goes By’
13. ‘Your Painted Smile’
14. ‘I Put A Spell On You’
15. ‘Which Way To Turn’
16. ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’
17. ‘Make You Feel My Love’
18. ‘You Can Dance’
19. ‘Love Letters’
20. ‘Johnny and Mary’

Disc Two: ‘Compositions’ 

1. ‘Can’t Let Go’
2. ‘Tokyo Joe’
3. ‘This Island Earth’
4. ‘Love Me Madly Again’
5. ‘Limbo’
6. ‘When She Walks In The Room’
7. ‘Boys and Girls’
8. ‘Zamba’
9. ‘Chain Reaction’
10. ‘Bête Noire’
11. ‘I Thought’
12. ‘The Only Face’
13. ‘Valentine’
14. ‘Loop De Li’
15. ‘Reason or Rhyme’

Disc Three: ‘Interpretations’

1. ‘The Price of Love’
2. ‘Shame Shame Shame’
3. ‘Hold On (I’m Coming)’
4. ‘Just One Look’
5. ‘Girl of My Best Friend’
6. ‘What Goes On’
7. ‘That’s How Strong My Love Is’
8. ‘You Go To My Head’
9. ‘Where or When’
10. ‘The Way You Look Tonight’
11. ‘One Night’
12. ‘Simple Twist of Fate’
13. ‘Positively 4th Street’
14. ‘Song to the Siren’
15. ‘Fooled Around and Fell In Love’

Disc Four: ‘The Bryan Ferry Orchestra’ 

1. ‘Virginia Plain’
2. ‘Do The Strand’
3. ‘While My Heart Is Still Beating’
4. ‘This Island Earth’
5. ‘Bitter-Sweet’
6. ‘Dance Away’
7. ‘Zamba’
8. ‘Reason or Rhyme’
9. ‘Avalon’
10. ‘Back To Black’
11. ‘Limbo’
12. ‘Young and Beautiful’
13. ‘Love Is The Drug’
14. ‘Sign of the Times’
15. ‘Chance Meeting’

Disc Five: ‘Rare and Unreleased’ 

1. ‘Feel The Need’
2. ‘Mother of Pearl’ (Horoscope Version)
3. ‘Don’t Be Cruel’
4. ‘I Don’t Want To Go On Without You’
5. ‘I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know’
6. ‘Crazy Love’
7. ‘Whatever Gets You Through The Night’
8. ‘Bob Dylan’s Dream’
9. ‘He’ll Have To Go’
10. ‘A Fool For Love’
11. ‘Lowlands Low’
12. ‘Is Your Love Strong Enough’
13. ‘Sonnet 18’
14. ‘She Belongs To Me’
15. ‘Oh Lonesome Me’
16. ‘Star’ (with Amelia Barratt)

News of the compilation comes after the singer sold 50 per cent of his music catalogue in March as part of a deal with Iconic Artist Group. It includes a range of assets from his career, including his solo work and his records with Roxy Music, as well as image and likeness rights.

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