Avalon is the eighth and final studio album by the English rock band Roxy Music, released on 28 May 1982 by E.G. Records, and Polydor.

It was recorded between 1981 and 1982 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, and is regarded as the culmination of the smoother, more adult-oriented sound of the band's later work.

53 in the US, Avalon endured as a sleeper hit and became Roxy Music's lone million-selling US record, ultimately receiving platinum certification.

The Roxy Music singer, Bryan Ferry, started working on the material for Avalon while staying at Crumlin Lodge on the west coast of Ireland.

"[9] Ferry said: "I've often thought I should do an album where the songs are all bound together in the style of West Side Story, but it's always seemed like too much bother to work that way.

"[11] Rhett Davies recounted the story of how the song got made: "Ferry had stayed up that Saturday night and composed what would be the lyrics to "Avalon."

Sunday was usually a down day at the Power Station, so the studio would let local Haitian bands come in to do demos when there wasn't much happening.

[13] Although less visually obvious than it had been with past releases, Avalon continued the tradition for Roxy Music albums to feature images of women on the cover artwork.

A hooded Merlin Falcon is perched on their gloved hand, evoking King Arthur's last journey to the mysterious land of Avalon.

I started working on the songs for Avalon on the west coast of Ireland, on the very lake that’s used in the photograph on the album cover".

Reviewing the album in Rolling Stone, Kurt Loder wrote: "Avalon takes a long time to kick in, but it finally does, and it's a good one.

Bryan Ferry stars as a remarkably expressive keyboard player and singer whose familiar mannerisms are subsumed in a rich, benevolent self-assurance.

And reed man Andy Mackay shines in a series of cameos (his oboe meditation on Ferry's "Tara" is particularly lovely).

Ten years after its debut, Roxy Music has mellowed: the occasional stark piano chords in "While My Heart Is Still Beating," for example, recall the stately mood of "A Song for Europe," but the sound is softer, dreamier and less determinedly dramatic now.

"[20] Mark Coleman in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide gave the record four-and-a-half stars out of five, and wrote; "this austere, beautiful set of songs represents a mature peak.

The controlled chaotic edge of the early albums is completely gone, and co-founders Manzanera and Mackay provide only skeletal guitar and sax lines.

Ferry fills in the details, creating layered synth landscapes around his tragic scenarios and melodic ruminations.

"[23] In 2003, Virgin reissued Avalon on Hybrid Super Audio CD with a new 5.1-channel surround sound remix by the original production team of Rhett Davies (the producer) and Bob Clearmountain (the mixing engineer).

"[31] In 2024, the album received another surround treatment when Bob Clearmountain remixed Avalon in Dolby Atmos immersive sound.

In November 2024, this version was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Immersive Audio Album, a nod the 2003 release had also received (without winining).

[32] All tracks are written by Bryan Ferry, except where notedTrack numbering refers to CD and digital releases of the album, except where noted.