In Brief

Bryan Ferry, “Mamouna,” Virgin **1/2. How “atmospheric” do you suppose an album will be whose opening cut includes separate credits for “riff gtr,” “rhythm gtr,” “mood gtr,” “atmos gtr” and “gull gtr,” and that’s not even withstanding Brian Eno’s “sonic awareness”? On some level, this saturated palette of loneliness is as empty as it is lush, but--with or without most of Roxy Music in tow--the woozy sonics are Ab Fab.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).