Country Life, released in 1974 through Island Records in the UK and Atco Records in the US, is the fourth album by British Glam Rock band Roxy Music. A continuation of the straightforward glam sound of Stranded, the album sees the band lean further into that album's mix of artsy flair, mainstream accessibility, and leftfield esoteric influences. Fittingly, the album sports a wide range of sounds from the Ray Davies-inspired whimsy of "Three and Nine" to the Elizabethan "Tryptich" to the bombastic country rocker "Prairie Rose", all kept together by the suave glam sound that had already become the band's trademark.
The album is best known for its original cover art, featuring German models Constanze Karoli and Eveline Grunwald (the sister and girlfriend of Can's Michael Karoli respectively) posing against an evergreen bushel in nothing but translucent lingerie. The idea to use that for the cover wasn't particularly unusual for Roxy Music, given their longstanding practice of designing their album covers to look like fashion magazines, but it caused enough of a row among American distributors for the album to be sold in the US packaged in a green outer nylon bag obscuring the album art.
The band later settled on reusing the back photo, which depicted just the bushel, as the front cover on a later American release, which author Michael Ochs described as "most complete cover-up in rock history," though Roxy Music would successfully get the UK cover reinstated worldwide in time for its first CD releases. A year after the release of Country Life, Pink Floyd would choose to package Wish You Were Here (1975) in a similar black nylon outer bag as a deliberate nod to the first American release of Roxy Music's album.
Country Life was supported by three singles "Out of the Blue", "All I Want Is You", and "The Thrill of It All".
Tracklist:
Side A- "The Thrill of It All" (6:24)
- "Three and Nine" (4:04)
- "All I Want Is You" (2:53)
- "Out of the Blue" (4:46)
- "If It Takes All Night" (3:12)
Side B
- "Bitter-Sweet" (4:50)
- "Triptych" (3:09)
- "Casanova" (3:27)
- "A Really Good Time" (3:45)
- "Prairie Rose" (5:12)
Lovers you consume, my dear, as others do their tropes:
- Alternate Album Cover: A rather infamous example. The original US release featured the LP sleeve wrapped in a green nylon bag to obscure the Sexy Packaging, before the band agreed to package the album with an alternate cover photo of a standalone bushel (also featured on the back cover in all iterations) in exchange for dropping the bag. Later down the road, the band managed to get their way and have the UK cover reinstated worldwide (though the CD release includes the back cover in the gatefold liner notes for anyone who feels the need to swap out to a less sexualized cover).
- Book Ends: "Triptych" opens with vocals in the left channel only and closes with them in the right channel only.
- Bowdlerization: The first US pressing was packaged in green shrink wrap to cover up the two topless women on the cover. The band incorporated it into the album's American advertising, declaring it "the censored album," and the idea further inspired Hipgnosis to package Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here (1975) in similar black shrink wrap a year later. The cover was eventually changed to a forest (which was originally meant to be on the back cover). Later reissues restored the original cover.
- Dramatic Timpani: Used throughout the choruses of "Bitter-Sweet", accentuating the cabaret-like sound of the song.
- Drugs Are Bad: "Casanova" ends with the title character descending into drug use after her high-class jet-setter life stops providing her the same entertainment for her that it used to.
- Epic Rocking: The 6:24 "The Thrill of It All".
- Everything Is Big in Texas: "Prairie Rose" describes how its country space is big enough "for you and company," focusing more on the narrator's feelings about Texas.
- Fading into the Next Song: "All I Want Is You" segues directly into "Out of the Blue".
- Foreign Culture Fetish: "Prairie Rose" is sung from the point of view of someone so absolutely captivated by Texas that they feel as if they belong there.
- Gratuitous German: The second oom-pah passage in "Bitter Sweet" is sung entirely in German, translated for Bryan Ferry by Constanze Karoli and Eveline Grunwald, who also pose on the album cover. The passage in question translates as follows:No, this is not the end of the world
Stranded in love and art
And the game goes on
As one knows
Many more... goodbyes - Gratuitous Panning:
- The vocals in the first verse of "Triptych" play solely in the left channel, before jumping to the center of the mix right after. The last verse, meanwhile, puts the vocals in the right channel.
- The guitar solo that closes out "Casanova" gradually shifts from the center to the right channel.
- High-Class Call Girl: "Bitter-Sweet" details the narrator's attempts to start a relationship with one; the end of the song implies that she might be reciprocating the feeling deep down.
- Intercourse with You: Bryan Ferry continues to display this trope as his stock in trade throughout the album.
- In the Style of:
- "Three and Nine" nods to the whimsical British Invasion rock and nostalgic lyrical themes of The Kinks.
- "Bitter-Sweet" features occasional "oom-pah" passages inspired by German folk music.
- "Triptych" takes its sound from Elizabethan-era English folk music, and is fairly accurate in sound.
- Fitting for a song about Texas, "Prairie Rose" pastiches American Country Music in the band's Glam Rock style.
- Longest Song Goes First: The 6:24 "The Thrill of It All" opens the album.
- Lyrical Cold Open: "Casanova" immediately starts on Bryan Ferry's first line.
- Mythology Gag: The blunt opening of "Casanova" harks back to that of "Do the Strand" off of For Your Pleasure.
- Nostalgia Goggles: The central theme of "Three and Nine", detailing Bryan Ferry's fond memories of watching movies in his youth; the song's title is derived from the cost of a film ticket in the 1950's, 3 shillings and 9 pence.
- Packaged as Other Medium: Country Life maintains the band tradition of making their album covers look like fashion magazines, at least on the original UK release.
- Sexy Packaging: The UK cover depicts two scantily-clad models in translucent lingerie, one of whom is outright topless (albeit covering her chest with her hands); the album art had to be censored in two different ways when it was sent over to the US.
- Shout-Out: The line "you might as well live" in "The Thrill of It All" is quoted from the ending of Dorothy Parker's 1926 poem "Resume", which currently serves as the page quote for Suicide as Comedy.
- Take That!: Like "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" before it, "Casanova" takes a jab at contemporary jet-set culture, with Bryan Ferry calling them out as vapid and materialistic.
