ROXY MUSIC Stranded (Atlantic)

BRYAN FERRY These Foolish Things (Atco)

LISTEN! I bent your ears about Lou and the Velvet Underground, I tole ya to go buy Mott last year and aren't you glad! Damn straight. Well, I'm serving notice right now on everybody to go and wolf down the new albums by Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry.

Just try to imagine a lead singer who sounds like a low-warbling cross between Bowie, Lou Reed and Elvis, singing a wide crosscut of punk sneer overlaid with a broad swath of Victorian Romanticism and space noise with mean-ass guitar. Sound like a bit much? Well, that's what I thought at first too, I laughed, but these two albums have been my constant obsessions since I got British editions two months ago. Once you let them work their venal magic on your inner ear canals you'll know why I'm frothing.