Ultravox

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Okay so Billie Currie dances like your Dad, and Chris Cross looks more like Jonathan Pryce, but I'd still do Midge, thank you so very much.

'Brilliant' is a good album.  Not Quartet good, but probably Lament or Vienna good.  Better than U-Vox anyway.

They did pick their lyrics purely to scan and for the sound rather than meaning, but still - One Small Day is a bloody fantastic song, as is Serenade.

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Not as familiar with Ultravox as I should be. Will play catchup on Spotify later on today.

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^ Now we know who saves my avatars

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Completed their self-titled debut (!), will resume tomorrow morning with Ha! Ha! Ha! and Systems of Romance, then post my thoughts.

Night all.

That sounds like a good way to make it a miserable experience. I'd stick to selected tracks.

I prefer to listen to whole albums.

Some music should be listened to that way, but most popular music has a use by date. In Foxx's case I'd say the only entire albums worth bothering with are metamatic, systems of romance,  and the garden

Point taken. Skipped to Systems of Romance.

Point not taken. In doing that you've missed one of Ultravox's best tracks, Hiroshima Mon Amour, which is on Ha! Ha! Ha! My point is to be selective about what you listen to. There's good and bad on every album.

I skipped Ha! Ha! Ha! after I caught up with Hiroshima Mon Amour and others on their '99 compilation The Island years. Almost finished with Metamatic now. Great stuff.

Metamatic has aged better than just about anything recorded in the last 40 years. It was recorded on eight track with just a monophonic synthesiser, a string synth and a preset drum machine, and Foxx played and wrote it all himself. 

The thing that sets Foxx apart from so many of his contemporaries is his lyrics. Each song on Metamatic is like an exquisite little film. 

There's an interesting turf war on one track with both Foxx and Nu Ultravox claiming ownership.  The Ultravox version is called Mr X and is on Vienna. Your home work assignment is to spot a very similar tune on Metamatic ...

Tough and Go isn't it? Is that an Arp Odyssey and Roland CR78 on Metamatic?

correct on all counts. The string synth was an elka rhapsody. Foxx hired a polymoog for the Underpass video, which has led to some confusion. However, his considered opinion was that it was piece of shit and he didn't use it on any of his records.

I love He's A Liquid from Metamatic. Is that a phaser pedal on the bass, and a sample & hold LFO for the the sparkling bells?

Vienna's alright, but there's a bit too much guitar wankery for my taste.

Quartet is my favourite album

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Erica Ambler wrote:

Ure had just come off a tour with Thin Lizzy so the extra guitar is no surprise. Nu Ultravox always struck me as having heavy metal tendencies only with synthesisers. I like them for the  latter, Rave likes them for the former. ;-)

Killing Joke followed a similar trajectory from the late 80s onwards, though they started off more post-punk than new wave.

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Wasn't that from the Paul Raven era?

Geordie Walker. Beautiful tone he gets out of his ES-295, partly thanks to his two incredibly rare PA:CE ADT units.

Didn't Jaz have an OBX at one stage, using it for ring mod-type vocal effects (i.e. The Wait)?

I loved everything they did in the first half of the 80s: VIENNA, RAGE IN EDEN, QUARTET and LAMENT were all brilliant. Then came U-VOX, which had its moments, but was really a disppointment, and unfortunatlely that was the tour I caught them live, in 86.

From their last great album LAMENT


And from my favourite album of theirs, RAGE IN EDEN