Phil Manzanera

As the guitarist for Roxy Music, Phil Manzanera already has an impressive body of work, but add his time with Brian Eno in 801 and his solo work and suddenly two CDs hardly seem like enough space to anthologise his musical career. For that reason, The Music: 1972 ― 2008 occasionally glosses over the most interesting moments. Fortunately, the DVD that rounds out this set helps fill in any gaps with its 23-minute documentary, along with seven live performances filmed over three decades. Manzanera wrote or co-wrote all 25 tracks, meaning the Roxy Music songs aren't necessarily their best-known ones, although five different albums are represented. There's also a song from Brian Eno's magnificent Here Come The Warm Jets ("Needles in a Camel's Eye"), but the majority are from the past ten years when his head was very much in Roxy Music mode. This translates into a collection that has a much more uniform sound than is the case when examining his discography. A more scattershot approach to track selection would have made for a more satisfying overview, but until that happens, this isn't a terrible retrospective by any means.