Bryan Ferry announces first new song in a decade to mark release of ‘Retrospective’ boxset

1 August 2024, 14:22

His musical career has spanned half a century. And the rest.

Now glam-rock's most sartorially elegant icon Bryan Ferry is celebrating the landmark with a new release.

Alongside his career fronting art-rock pioneers Roxy Music, Ferry has also frequently focused on his musical efforts away from the band.

His first solo album, These Foolish Things, was released in 1973 shortly after Roxy Music had broken through with their lauded single 'Virginia Plain'.

• Roxy Music's 15 greatest songs, ranked
• Roxy Music will never play together again, Phil Manzanera confirms
• Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music reunite at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with amazing set
• Dexys singer Kevin Rowland called David Bowie a "bad copy of Bryan Ferry" and still regrets it

Since then, Ferry has gone on to release a total of sixteen studio albums, the most recent of which was 2018's Bitter-Sweet, an album of orchestral re-workings of his music which was dedicated to his late friend historian Jeremy Catto.

The veteran singer is now taking a look back at his life's work away from Roxy Music, with the announcement of his new Retrospective boxset.

To mark the occasion, he's also released his first new song in a decade - a ruminative cover version of Bob Dylan's 1965 classic 'She Belongs To Me'.

Bryan Ferry - She Belongs To Me (Official Visualiser)

Ferry has been delving into his back catalogue more frequently in recent years, like the deluxe edition of 1994 album Mamouna which featured a full unreleased album as a bonus.

He has released a lot of cover versions too, as well as re-imaginings of his own work, though he had not released any original material for a decade.

The last album of Ferry's to feature original music was 2014's Avonmore. However, that's set to change according to the recent announcement.

Now he has announced the career-spanning box set called Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973-2023 which will feature more previously unreleased music alongside the Dylan cover.

The 81-track boxset will include a brand new composition called 'Star,' which is a collaboration with Glasgow musician Amelia Barratt.

Typically, Retrospective will also feature a swathe of covers, given that reworking his idol's music has been a primary feature of Ferry's solo career.

And even more typical, is that it'll feature several Bob Dylan covers - Ferry first covered Dylan's 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall' on his 1973 debut album, and has made a habit of it since.

He even released an entire album of Bob Dylan cover versions, the aptly named Dylanesque in 2007 which featured his take on classics like 'The Times They Are a-Changin'', 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door', and 'All Along the Watchtower'.

Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973-2023 is out 25th October 2024 via BMG. You can pre-order it and find all the details here.