Bryan Ferry’s followup to Boys and Girls was an intriguing surprise in some ways; while he very much continued in a smooth vein, there was a sharper energy at points throughout Bête Noire, possibly reflective of a recent interest in trying to crack America a little more thoroughly in his own right. Patrick Leonard, a regular Madonna collaborator, cowrote many of the songs — giving Ferry, among other things, his only solo US top 40 hit with “Kiss and Tell” — while Ferry himself showed he was keeping his ears open with “The Right Stuff,” a cowrite with Smiths veteran Johnny Marr.

– Ned Raggett