Roxy Music

This 1972 debut remains dizzyingly fresh. Bryan Ferry, Eno et al sent the music of the 1940s, '50s and '60s into hyperspace, paving the way for New Wave and punk. The insane opening track "Remake/Remodel" sums up their approach, and the rest of the album keeps refining it. "If There is Something" is just one of the keepers.

From the drag queen on the cover to the fop finery in the centerfold to the polished deformity of the music on the record, this celebrates the kind of artifice that could come to seem as unhealthy as the sheen on a piece of rotten meat. Right now, though, it's decorated with enough weird hooks to earn an A for side one. Side two leans a little too heavily on the synthesizer (played by a balding, long-haired eunuch lookalike named Eno) without the saving grace of drums and bassline. (Grade - B+)