For Your Pleasure is Roxy Music’s second studio album, released in March 1973. It was recorded in February 1973 at AIR Studios in Oxford Circus, London. Roxy Music self-produced it with Chris Thomas; John Middleton and John Punter handled audio engineering. The band spent more studio time on this album than on their debut, integrating Bryan Ferry’s songs with more elaborate production treatments. The title track ends with an elaborate fade-out using tape loop effects. Amanda Lear, Ferry’s girlfriend at the time, was photographed with a black jaguar for the front cover, while Ferry appears on the back cover as a dapper chauffeur standing behind a limousine. It marked the beginning of Roxy Music’s long, successful collaboration with producer Chris Thomas. It was promoted with the non-album single 'Pyjamarama'. It is the final Roxy Music album to feature Brian Eno, who departed soon after the supporting tour ended.
This is Roxy Music’s second album, recorded in February 1973 at AIR Studios in Oxford Circus, London, and released in March.
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How it was built
The band self-produced with Chris Thomas, spending more studio time than on their debut to layer Ferry’s songs with elaborate treatments.
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What sticks in the ear and eye
The title track ends in tape loops; the cover places Amanda Lear with a black jaguar and Bryan Ferry as a chauffeur — image and sound both perform irony as structure.
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Who shaped it, and why
Chris Thomas stepped in after John Cale’s aborted production — launching a long collaboration that defined Roxy Music’s classic era.
Film placements are the ones described in each film's own entry, so the list is partial rather than complete.
Worth your time?
Yes. Hear the whole thing.
4.5/ 5
What works
The cover lands: Amanda Lear with a black jaguar on the front; Bryan Ferry as a dapper chauffeur behind a limousine.
The title track’s tape loop fade-out lands as a deliberate, textural conclusion.
The collaboration with Chris Thomas lands as the start of Roxy Music’s classic 1970s run.
What does not
It does not contain contributions from Eddie Jobson.
It does not feature bass parts by Graham Simpson on all tracks.
Hear it if
People who want to hear the final document of Roxy Music’s foundational line-up — Ferry, Mackay, Eno, Manzanera, Thompson, and Simpson — should hear it.
People seeking unambiguous songcraft or consistent genre logic should not.
Skip it if
People seeking unambiguous songcraft or consistent genre logic should not.
Who should hear it, and who should skipHide who it is for
The written brief2 min read
What the record is and where it came from
For Your Pleasure is Roxy Music’s second studio album, released in March 1973. It follows their 1972 debut and precedes Stranded (1973). It was recorded in February 1973 at AIR Studios in Oxford Circus, London.
How it sounds, and how it was made
It was recorded in February 1973 at AIR Studios in Oxford Circus, London. Roxy Music self-produced it with Chris Thomas; John Middleton and John Punter handled audio engineering. The band spent more studio time on this album than on their debut, integrating Bryan Ferry’s songs with more elaborate production treatments. The title track ends with an elaborate fade-out using tape loop effects.
What lands
The cover lands: Amanda Lear with a black jaguar on the front; Bryan Ferry as a dapper chauffeur behind a limousine on the back. The title track’s tape loop fade-out lands as a deliberate, textural conclusion. The collaboration with Chris Thomas lands as the start of Roxy Music’s classic 1970s run.
What does not
It does not contain contributions from Eddie Jobson — he joined mid-1973, after the album’s March release. It does not feature bass parts by Graham Simpson on all tracks — he had already left by the time of release, though his parts may have been retained or replaced.
The ideas inside it
It explores irony, luxury, and theatricality through a preoccupation with artifice, seduction, and detachment — themes embedded in both its visual presentation and its title.
Who should hear it, and who should not
People who want to hear the final document of Roxy Music’s foundational line-up — Ferry, Mackay, Eno, Manzanera, Thompson, and Simpson — should hear it. People seeking unambiguous songcraft or consistent genre logic should not.
Is it worth your time
Yes — it is the last Roxy Music album featuring Brian Eno, the first produced with Chris Thomas, and the only one capturing the full original sextet’s collaborative ambition before creative tensions reshaped the band’s direction.
