For Your Pleasure

For Your Pleasure is the sophomore album from the English innovative art rock outfit Roxy Music. It is also the band’s final album that included instrumentalist and tape loop specialist Brian Eno, who reportedly left before he could be fired due to feelings of jealousy from founder Bryan Ferry.

Unlike the band’s debut album, Roxy Music—which was recorded only in the matter of several weeks and contained more of a pop-rock sound, the band’s label, Island Records, allowed them to work with a timeframe of one month to craft and perform their compositions. Influenced by krautrock acts like Can, the songs on For Your Pleasure contained a more ambient and atmospheric sound which was provided by Eno, who experimented with various tapes. While half of the material heard on the album previously debuted at live shows and was expanded upon instrumentally and lyrically after each concert, the first side of the album was unique material written entirely by Ferry at a cottage in Derbyshire, England.

For promotion, the band decided not to release any singles before its release on March 23, 1973. According to The Essential Rock Discography, it wasn’t until several months later in July, 1973 that the band released “Do the Strand” as a single for the album in the United States and Europe; which ultimately failed to chart. Despite the single failing to chart, the album peaked at number 4 on the UK album charts and was met with mixed reviews from critics. Writing for Rolling Stone, critic Paul Gambaccini penned in his review that the album was “[(…) either] above us, beneath us, or on another plane,” and pointed out its progressive and droning sounds mixed with the glam rock aspects the album exuded which was growing in popularity at the time.

In retrospect, For Your Pleasure has been more positively received by critics; with many lauding its futuristic instrumentalism and abnormal lyricism. In 2016, Classic Rock magazine listed it as one of the ten greatest glam rock albums of all time. Similarly, Happy Mag named it one of the ten greatest art-rock albums ever recorded. Rolling Stone and NME have also listed it among one of the greatest records ever recorded, listing it at 351 and 88, respectively. In 2004, Pitchfork listed For Your Pleasure as the 87th best album of the 1970s, and just several years later in 2012, Pitchfork critic Tom Ewing gave the album an extremely rare overall score of 10. Several musicians were also moved by the album, including Smiths frontman Morrissey who claimed in a press interview that it was the “[…] One truly great British album.”