ULTRAVOX

they mean nothing to me (not true, i used to dig 'em, not sure if they have *aged* well, will reinvestigate)

Get Systems of Romance too.

I almost bought that at the Tower Records blowout! But I didn't! I'll burn in hell forever.

1st 3 are classics.

"quartet" was the first album i ever owned. i was six, i think. still love "visions in blue", despite myself :)

Probably best not to hold your breath waiting for a positive revaluation of Ultravox anytime soon.

Midge Ure has one of the most distinctly awful voices ever to front a purportedly major rock band; but I liked the version of "Vienna" played at Live Aid well enough.

Rage In Eden is classic from top to bottom

there used to be ppl who'd get all frothy about the John Foxx era, they were kinda like those dudes who get all excited about how great the Yardbirds were, only with different hair

'three into one' was a classic of my youth! (the first three albums, best-of.) I probably need to buy a CD copy of their early hits/decent songs.

haven't heard any later ultravox, don't really want to.

The first 3 w/Foxx singing are great, they still sound unlike anything else to this day, poss becuae they're so uncool no-one bothers to explore/rip them off. "Vienna" and "Rage in Eden" are also both great, good tunes, excellent 1/2 electronic, 1/2 electric band sound as well. After that quality tails off pretty quickly I think. I bought the set of later albums - "Quartet", "Lament" and so on from HMV's sale bin earlier this year, expecting to really like them, based on seeing them live on those album tours, live they were always really powerful, w/pounding electronic beats & bass. The albums were pretty lame though, with a couple of exceptions (eg "visions in blue"). The tunes the band wrote had become a bit ordinary & even pub-rock-ish in places and the early digital tech they switched to - PPGs and OSCars onstead of Oddyssey, string machine and minimoog - had this kind of hollow, bass-light sound that has dated really badly. I stick them on from time to time, but I never really enjoy them much. Still 5 albums that I still really like is way, way more than most bands manage.

Didn't George Martin produce Quartet?

I think so. One of them he did, certainly. Whichever one he did, it sounds like it was mixed to sound good on a transistor radio. On decent speakers or phones, it sounds, I don't know, lacking somehow.

It was a disappointingly flat production (I think he may have farmed it out to Geoff Emerick to do the actual producing). But then again the songs weren't much cop either.

Rage In Eden is hugely underrated; an extremely bleak album, especially side two.

"Lament" isn't particularly good. Way too much guitars.
You should really get "Rage In Eden" though, as it is their best other than "Vienna":

Another vote for the first three.

"Monument" - a live album (or is it a boot?) from '83 - is my favorite Ure-era Ultravox. Otherwise, anything with John Foxx is key.

Yep, the first three...its been a coon's age since I've listened to them, but enjoyed them more than just moderately back in the day...

a what's age?

...Ultravox! - Ultravox!...come on!!!!!!!!

What Louis said.

The irony is that that came in his only otherwise reasonable, pleasantly-put post I've yet seen on the board...

pfunk - next accies home game...first goalscorer...Douglas Park rejoicing to the sounds of Young Savage or Quiet Men, surely?

The Wild, The Beautiful, And The Damned (and The Man Who Dies Everyday) (and Dangerous Rhythm) were always my favourites as a youth, together with Slow Motion (although I only found that one later).

to the toddlers who dont know what a coon's age is, please take a few moments to educate yourselves:

http://search.comcast.net/?q=%22coon%27s+age%22&cat=Web&con=net

I see that there are some people here who obviously suffer from white man's guilt. Rather a pity, really...

Just looking for some clarification. I'm in a rather niggardly mood at the moment.

Look, I'm just calling a spade a spade...

seriously, get these fucking people out of here.

I'm going to call a cunt a cunt.

(PEW is a cunt.)

I so regret not picking up John Foxx's Metamatic when I had the chance. PEW stop shitting up this thread.

Metamatic is great. My friend gave me a copy of it a some years back as well as a loan of the 1st 3 Ultravox albums.

Oh my fucking god, people. The Vienna album...I can't believe I have missed that all these years...that is just...oh my fucking god.

This was pre-New Order synthesizery stuff, here.

I'm just slackjawed. Most synth pop is so lightweight...and they were just on that perfect line between punk/rock/synthesizers...

Even the extra tracks do nothing to spoil this masterpiece.

Synthesizers have never sounded so beautiful.

Also I have Rage In Eden, now. I took a special trip downtown to get it.

The title track is playing now.

I haven't heard "The Thin Wall" in over 20 years.

Ultravox junkie am I.

I mean they really were the only thing better than Gary Numan in his department, you know what I mean? They were just that little bit better than Numan. Not much...just enough.

"Your Name (has slipped my mind again)"

And the last part of Accent On Youth was pretty stellar as well.

Struggling to believe my ears.

Trying to believe...

The guy I work with played Frankie's Relax at my work this week and I thought that was funny. I remember the Frankie thing from firsthand, little teenager was I when I read about it in Brit teenager magazines. Because I was a fucking anglophile from an early age. Before I'd ever seen an NME, I knew Brit teenager magazines. That's how I heard of Scritti Politti, too, and bought the Wood Beez 12".

But I digress...Ultravox...

OH my god.

"Paths and Angles" bonus track. Bow DOWN.

No, I've finally found my thrill, as
the old R&B musician from long ago said -

"I found my thrill/on blueberry hill"

Fats Domino.

I can't remember what U.S. city he was from. I will
have to look this up...

aaaah...French Quarter, New Orleans...I'm speechless.

Reap the Wild Wind

For your adoration of Ultravox, Bimbler -- I love you. Rage In Eden is one of my absolute favorite albums of all time. And now I really want to listen to it.

Actually this is very weird you mention the word "adoration" because I was just about to play (gasp) Killing Joke's "Adorations" - I have it set to go on my record player right now...

Although Alex in NYC doesn't like that song, so...too bad for him.

I've put it on now. "The Voice" is on first. Remember the music video for this? It's so very dramatic in an early '80s sort of "inspired by Julien Temple/Russell Mulcahy" way, and I think either one of the two actually directed the video, but it is memorable. I have to look it up on YouTube soon. Oh my God, this song -- it's like I'm 14 or 15 again. I've got to look me up some Midge Ure photos online so I can stare at them for old times' sake. (I used to have a severe crush on him.)

(xpost) You know, Killing Joke are one of those groups I could never get into because they're so much ANOTHER person's group. Much like Belle & Sebastian, really. They are so much a part of an other that I'd feel like a thief or burglar barging into that territory.

Playing Adorations now on vinyl very loud!!!

I LOVE LIFE!!!!!

Sorry I will curb my excess to another KJ thread on this board, thanks.

You are right. I always knew I had a few Ultravox orgasms on YouTube ahead of me.

:)

I too am loving life at the moment, but it's because of "We Stand Alone". I remember lip-syncing along with this song into my hair brush. Oh God, the sweet and rarely revisited memories.

Oh, and please don't think you have to confine anything here. I big Ultravox fan. I say you can stay with Killing Joke talk. OH, you have to watch the video for "Passing Strangers". Two of the Shock troupe people are in it -- one of the two that ended up becoming Tik & Tok and Barbie Wilde. It is a tour de force of massive New Romantic proportions.

OH MY GOD, title song. It still makes me swoon.

Yes, Ultravox, dude...I don't know what to say.

This whole album has successful rendered me all swoony and mute, like a young woman who's in the throes of a real, deep infatuation with someone lost for words because that someone has just passed her by and, with a smile, said hello to her. And "Paths And Angles" is outstanding, isn't it? *swoon*

Well, my good punk friend from Essex just sent me a live version of "New Europeans" it says "BBC In Concert 1981" on it, and I am going to fucking play this thing 50 times in a row, just you watch.

Seriously I've already played it three times, I'm on #4 right now.

Wow, that is an OUTSTANDING friend. Well done. I can't imagine how much a live version of "New Europeans" from 1981 rules. Shit. Now I have to listen to Vienna. This will be an Ultravox night for sure. And FOUR times already -- I believe it.

Well I hope your moniker is real, Krushsister, cause you got a file a'commin'.

I don't pretend to know Ultravox live, but I believe there is probably a live album somewhere that I am disappointed not to have heard yet.

"Passing Strangers" is on now -- yup, definitely have to watch the video now. Also, Bimbler? I'm so glad you admitted to an Anglophilic history. I too grew up an Anglophile, enamored with all that cool almost-European sophistication and well-disciplined and -poised mannerisms. Maybe it was just down to a love of the exotic, but to me, those were feasts of fantasy that I easily devoured as a young adolescent and still to this day am enchanted by. This kind of thing grabs ahold of me, makes me breathe slower, sweeps me away into a world of cool and aloof figures passing me by in a noirish scene of fog and ancient European streets. Swoon, baby, swoon.

(xpost) My email is very much real, as much as my heartfelt gratitude toward you is. And I'm sure there are several different live albums available as bootlegs.

My ancestry is between the north of England and the south of Scotland. No lie.

I need never admit I was born in the US again...

You caught me when I was drunk.

But that's okay with me!

Cheers!

I'll probably pass out to the Pogues tonight, but never mind.

Well, Bimbler, your ancestry explains a lot about your Anglophilia, which is nice. Mine is completely different. Not a single relative or ancestor of mine from anywhere near the U.K. But hey, that makes the Anglophilosophy even more exotic, doesn't it?

Damn, I think I'm going to skip to the end of this disc so I can get to that live version of "New Europeans". Many hugs to you for it. Many sober hugs.

Oh yes, and YAY Scotland! That tiny land has brought forth quite a lot of great music. Not to mention the fact that one Mr. James Ure was born there, in Lanarkshire....

OH DAMN, I'd forgotten how incredibly brilliant "Alles Klar" is. MY GOD MY GOD MY GOD emotions on overload. I have to listen to it again after I get through with that live "New Europeans". And again and again and again and again and again and again and again and....

OH. MY. GOD. This live version of "New Europeans" is indeed genius. They did such a killer job with it. It is hard for me to describe in words what exactly about it is magical, but it all works together to create something that is a feast for the ears. A real aural delight. I'm going to have to go back and forth between "Alles Klar" and this, Sunday morning Mass be dam-- er, darned.

Yes! FUCKING ALLES KLAR!!! THAT was the moment when I knew I'd been hit bad. When I heard that song and it was the LAST one on that album with the extra tracks etc. Yeah that was the moment...I just died.

But hey, that makes the Anglophilosophy even more exotic, doesn't it?

Yes. I had something to say about that but I've forgotten it for now.
Please give me some time to remember it. I will get back to you.

In the meantime...Killing Joke's album "Night Time" album makes me feel like a teenager again.

I mean...

xpost

I promise I'll have something to say later about the Anglophilosophy.

In the meantime Killing Joke "A Love Like Blood"

Cheers to you, Phoenix.

Ah yes, "Alles Klar", track #13 off the Vienna CD reissue. Doesn't the sheer dramatic quotient of this song (sod it, I don't care if that doesn't make sense) make you feel as though you're being transported to another place and time entirely? Shit, I need to turn off the overhead light. This is best listened to in a dark room, where I can really soak up its slightly dark atmosphere and be even more enveloped by the swirling synthesized sounds. Swoonswoonswoon. But first, another play of "New Europeans" live, thank you.

I'm definitely looking forward to what it is you have to say about exotica and Anglophilic affectations. And aw, yay for feeling like a teenager again! Cheers to you as well, Bimbler.

This is the point when I feel like getting off the computer, taking my Vienna CD out of the regular stereo, fishing my portable CD player out from the box it's still packed in, taking both the CD and generic Discman-a-like with me to my bedroom, making sure my bedroom is dark, and playing "Alles Klar" over and over again until I either get sick of it or I end up falling asleep.

xpost

Something tells me a headache is on the way, but it's good to hear from you, Phoenix.

I get the feeling from what you write that you are on the trip, man. You have got it sussed.

Shit, hon, this is how I get high: Through great music that takes me places. With this kind of music, I don't need anything else. Headaches: Take some ibuprofen, man. Don't let the aches harsh your buzz. And it is likewise great to hear from you as well, Bimbler. I'd just about given up hope that there were people with a real affection for Midge-era Ultravox, though I also love the original John Foxx-fronted Uvox.

Oh man. I'm sorry this is overtaking the simply tremendous and wonderful live "New Europeans", but I just cannot get enough of "Alles Klar". I am TOTALLY in a state of addiction now. I can't stop listening to it on repeat.

Yeah well I depend on aspirin, I know the drill. Hot showers and aspirin. That's how I make it through, sometimes. I drain my head to the pseudo-buddhists in hot water.

All I can think about right now is the fact that Japan's 'Quiet Life" album is pumping in my stereo. I'm sorry, I'm a bit distracted.

Here's to Midge Ure era Ultravox, which will very likely appear on my stereo at 6 AM tomorrow (this) morning.

Japan is flipping my (wig) trip.

Ah, well, I figured ibuprofen because it helps with throbbing pain, i.e. the kind of pain a headache is. But if you've worked out your own system, hey, more power to you.

Bloody hell, Japan. Quiet Life. Are you me now?? If it weren't for my addiction, I'd be all over a listening or two of that whole damn album. The "All Tomorrow's Parties" cover is stellar, almost better than the original IMO. And "Halloween" is one of my top ten favorite Japan songs. But now I am stuck in latter-era Ultravox land, where the streets are always cobbled and sprinkled by some fresh precipitation, where the air is cold and crisp and where androgynous and distant men and women congregate.

(xpost) That's not surprising. :)

Actually it occurs to me I used to take ibuprofen a lot in the past, years ago. It hasn't occured to me to do that in a long while. It might be worth thinking about.

Yeah fucking "Halloween" you mentioned that didn't you...yeah that is the shit.

now my turn to confess that I am listening to L.A. band Missing Persons. I particularly liked their album "Rhyme & Reason" from what...1984? and didn't realize I had it on vinyl until tonight! But never mind. It's not for everyone, I guess.

Still loving to dance with you, Phoenix!

get a room you two

a room where they're playin' old Ultravox tunes

Glad to see Japan come up. I've always though the first two albums by Japan, Tubeway Army and Ultravox were similar in how they mixed trashy glam with Kraftwerk. I guess they were partly reviled for it at the time because people were SO OVER glam. Just like a band would be a pariah in 2007/08 if they mixed The Strokes and Four Tet, and people on a music board in 2036 (networked via the wireless neck implant chips course) will lament how underrated they were.

I love solo John Foxx and Gary Numan and later Japan, but haven't listened to later period Ultravox much. I guess I need to hear Rage In Eden again.

I've got it so bad that I actually like Lament. My only regret is I bought the cheap $9 copy when I could have had the remastered version with extra tracks.

Yeah I know I'll be burned at the stake for saying I like it.

My friend has pretty much (in theory) threatened to beat my arse for choosing Ure over Foxx. You know there are those folks who are really into Foxx that will beat your arse over it. I don't know about the Foxx era yet. I'm going to play it later tonight, though. Give me a chance. I plead innocence.

I just know I'm going to be kicked in an alley for liking Lament.

but I can't help it.

Got the John Foxx era on now..."Wide Boy" reminds me of... yeah it reminds me of that part in the Beatles when they say "Bill...eee...shears!!!" you know that part in Sgt. Pepper? It reminds me of that. Which is not a bad thing at all.

"Delightfully unpleasant/with a foxy adolescent"

Also that's kindof Bowie-ish too.

Midge Ure-era Ultravox is far less appreciated than it should be, and less adored by music snobs than the John Foxx era. Not saying anything negative about that rougher, punkier version of Ultravox, but I do think that both eras should be held at the same high level of estimation as is right and proper. Lament is gorgeous. It's very much for when you want slow romantic dirges. I love the title track so much that if I ever by some miracle were to get married, I want to do a couple's dance to that song at my wedding. And the video for it is -- well, it is incredibly evocative and beautiful. Once again, swoonswoonswoon.

(BTW, it took me playing "Alles Klar" repeatedly for two hours straight to get me to be able to stop replaying it.)

this thread inspired me to listen to this band (the midge years anyway) for the first time in about 20 years!! i had forgotten quite a few songs, but they are not bad. good for at leat 3-4 decent songs per album. the foxx years are ok, a bit too *art school* for me. i like ol' cheesy midge.
17 year old me really liked this song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW3IokMijTw

The live version of "The Voice" on the Monument disc is 100% unfuckwithable. They would be heroes for that track alone.

RAMZI YOU WERE SO RIGHT ABOUT "ALLES KLAR"! I got so I couldn't concentrate enough to even read ILM anymore...and I looked to see what song was distracting me so much and guess what it was??? And are you telling me this album Vienna came out the same year as New Order's "Movement"? New Order should have been jealous of "Alles Klar".

Aw, good old Bimbler. (Psst, "Alles Klar" was actually originally a b-side from the Vienna years, I think for the "All Stood Still" single. But it's on the recent reissue.) This song and the accompanying single and album were all released in 1981. I don't remember if that's the same period New Order's Movement was released in, though maybe you got the confirmation elsewhere. Um, damn. Now I want to listen to the song again. In the dark. While lying in bed.

Well, actually I was going to apologize for suddenly assuming you were Ramzi. I realized about an hour after I wrote that that I'd probably made a terrible error and you weren't Ramzi at all.

And no no no, don't you see? You're mistaken. All my sources say the Vienna album came out in 1980, same year as New Order's Movement or I mean...hell..no that wasn't the same as New Order's Movement. So there's my mistake. But they were working on Movement weren't they? Ah hell, it doesn't matter. I'm just saying maybe, just maybe Movement should have had a hell of a lot more synthesizers. And for me that's a blasphemous statement. Dr. C to thread. I'm confused.

Ah, you're probably right. I guess I keep thinking that was 1981 because that's when the single was released, but you're right in the assertion that the actual album itself was released in 1980. Which would make the track even more impressive. So we both erred.

As for Movement: Songwriting for that album took place in the summer of 1980, recording commenced maybe in the last part of that year or the very beginning of 1981, album itself was released in November of '81, so Vienna very definitely came first, actually being released long before New Order even solidified into a cohesive unit, i.e. in July 1980. I'm sorry for erring. I see now I was making assumptions because the "All Stood Still" single was released in May 1981 and that is when "Alles Klar" made its debut, but still, well before Monument was released. (Thank you, Wikipedia.) Damn. Still need to hear that song.

Monument? Movement. Damn. It is WAY too early in the morning.

No! Don't apologize! HAHAHAHA! Every time I've read about "Monument" in the last couple of days, I've inevitably thought "Movement"!!!

Anyway I am giving Quartet a fair spin tonight in earnest for the first time. And I still like "Visions In Blue" after 20 years (Grimly are you out there?) And also "The Song (We Go)" completely killed me, and also "Monument" itself believe it or not. "We Came To Dance" makes me happy to hear it again, too.

"Overlook" the last bonus track is pretty cool as well.

I'm still not quite sure how I feel about Rage In Eden. Vienna & Lament are really hard to beat.

Yes, my JD/NO book confirms July 1980 as the time New Order recorded their first demo, with Kevin Hewick on vocals for "Haystack", etc.

Oh wow, so that thing is contagious, then. Outstanding.

OMG, "We Came To Dance" -- so many basic memories of that song. That was one of the first Ultravox songs that I'd ever heard and one of the ones that convinced me I should definitely check out more of their music. "Visions In Blue" is gloriously high-dramatic. "The Song (We Go)" is great fun to dance to. OMG, "Monument" is one of my favorite Ultravox songs of all time and I LOOOVE hearing it -- that's another song I'm going to have to listen to again. "Hymn" is another one of the first Ultravox songs that I'd ever heard and I remember once being able to remember the entire set of lyrics for that song, back when I was in high school. And "Overlook" IS outstanding, isn't it? They had some great b-sides as well as regular album tracks.

(xpostage) Rage In Eden is fantastic, hon. You should give it a spin for real. One of my favorite albums of all time. And interesting to hear that about the time New Order recorded their first demos as that was apparently before Gillian Gilbert joined the group. Hm.

Excuse me but I can't resist posting this:

http://eil.com/newgallery/Ultravox-The-Collection-63313.jpg

Anyway, so the deal is I managed to remember two things about "The Collection":

1) I bought it only because it was playing in the record store

2) On the inside sleeve, for every song, it told how high in the UK charts it got

How I managed to pull these things out of the deepest recesses of my memory, I don't understand.

I'll tell you what is really driving me nuts right now, though is "Astradyne", first short instrumental on Vienna. Someone made their own video for it on YouTube. That song just paralyzes me.

THE COLLECTION!!! Yes yes yes, this is really the first bit of Ultravox I ever got. I remember I was in seventh grade and I got two birthday presents from my parents: a CD boombox (I still have it) and a card with money in it, and I went with that money and some more money I got from other relatives to purchase my first CDs. The Collection was among that first lot, due to my having heard "Vienna" played on a program I used to like to listen to on my local college radio station. I remember that spurred me to call a radio station for the first time ever in my life; it took all my courage to ask the DJ what she had played, and she was so sweet, and I remember it was very definitely "Vienna", and that made me want to check out this group's music some more. Meeeeeemorieeeeeees, like the corrrrrners in my miiiiiiind.

"ASTRADYNE"!!! Someone made a video for it on YouTube?? No way. I SO have to check it out now. OH, and you have to listen to "Your Name (Has Slipped My Mind Again)" off Rage In Eden. That's the song that's currently stuck in my head. May it be stuck in your head too.

Wow, that "Astradyne" YouTube bit looks very Koyaanisqatsi-like. SWEET. I think that should be made the official video for that song even though it's really from another video and "Astradyne" wasn't a single in the first place. Wow. Instantly rated at the full five stars + favorited.

Im watching the video for "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" on You Tube. And its making me cry.

I mean that in a good way.

Aw. That's one of the saddest videos I've ever seen too. Especially (** SPOILERS AHEAD **) at the very end of the video when you see the family in happier days via their home filmstrips, and as that little girl toddles toward the camera the picture disintegrates you get the full impact of their now non-existence.

BTW, I'm now addicted to "Paths And Angles". Spent 30 minutes last night repeatedly playing it. I'm seriously debating a week listening to nothing but Ultravox now.