Andy MacKay & The Metaphors - London! Paris! New York! Rome!

Roxy Music reed man unleashes new band

Andy MacKay’s solo albums have been few and far between (only a measly three between 1974 and 2004). The prospect of a new opus from the Cornwall-born saxophone and oboe player who co-wrote Roxy Music’s 1975 disco smash, Love Is The Drug, is a pleasing fillip for fans still waiting patiently for the next studio album from Bryan Ferry’s band (rumoured to be due next year). Accompanying 62-year-old MacKay is The Metaphors, a quartet comprising Roxy sticksman Paul Thompson, harpist Julia Thornton, guitar player TJ Allen and keyboardist Hazel Mills.

MacKay and his group play instrumental music that’s an allusive amalgam of avant-rock, ambient soundscapes, widescreen electronica, jazz and classical music. Of the six extended tracks on the album, four are covers (or, rather, experimental deconstructions of I Love Paris, Three Coins In The Fountain, New York New York and The Kinks’ Waterloo Sunset). Don’t expect note-for-note renditions, however; instead MacKay and his cohorts only allude to the melodic and harmonic content of the originals, preferring to transfigure their source material into something else altogether. Also listen out for a haunting revamp of Love Is The Drug, full of shimmering harps, mournful sax and nocturnal atmosphere. Quite wonderful.

Metaphoric | MET 001

Reviewed by Charles Waring
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