Bryan Ferry hooks up with Nine Inch Nails for his first original song in more than a decade

28 Aug 2024, 22:07 · louder

By Fraser Lewry
( Prog )
published 28 August 2024

Bryan Ferry's new single Star was written with Nine Inch Nails duo Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

(Image credit: Neil Kirk)

Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry has released his first original song in more than a decade, and it's been made with the help of some unlikely collaborators. Star was originally sketched out by Nine Inch Nails duo Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – who also perform on the track – and finds Ferry sharing a mic with Amelia Barrett, a Glasow-based performer.

“Star is a collaboration with the painter and writer Amelia Barratt," says Ferry. "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."

The result is what Ferry's representatives here on Earth describe as "an anxious, darkly gleaming slab of pounding post-techno", with Ferry's whispered vocal barely audible but still undeniably Ferry-esque.

Star comes from the upcoming Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973-2023, an 81-track set that'll be released via BMG Records on October 25. The collection is the first to cover Ferry's time with Island Records, Polydor, Virgin, E.G. Records and BMG, and will be released as a 5CD package accompanied by a 100-page hardback book. An abridged edition, on double vinyl and single CD, will be released as The Best Of Bryan Ferry. Full tracklist below.

Bryan Ferry - Star feat. Amelia Barratt (Official Video) - YouTube

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Bryan Ferry: Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973-2023 tracklist

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

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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)

(Image credit: BMG)

Fraser Lewry

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 38 years in music industry, online for 25. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.

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