Customer Reviews
the best synth album of the 80s
It's dark, chilly, haunting, exciting, and, yes, probably does have some of the most pretentious lyrics ever pressed to vinyl. This is my favorite synthesizer album of the 80s, and one of my favorite albums of the entire New Wave. I listen to it on CD these days, and I still hear new sounds, new rhythms, that I didn't hear on the LP I bought in 1982.
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What ages well? Not this--pompous, dated, and embarassing
If not however, I would skip this, and all later albums by Ultravox. If you are a fan of this band and listened to them back in the early 80's, you can skip this review, b/c you will certainly disagree. The reason? They sound dated and pompous, with the music sounding like thin 80's synth, the kind SNL made fun of on 'Sprockets' ("Now, vee dance. . . "). Imagine robotic breakdancers and you get the point. I recently listened to Vienna, Rage in Eden, Quartet, and Lament again for the first time again since the mid 80's, and they have not aged well at all. Part of the problem for me is that Midge Ure, both as a vocalist and as a songwriter, tries and fails to operatic and grandiose, tackling themes that aim to be profound (check out the laughably bad "The Voice" on this album for an example), and it brings the songs way down, making them sound unsuccessful attempts at depth.
To my ear, even the sound on these albums is thin, easily classifiable as "80's synth rock". This is a real shame, considering their 1978 album Systems of Romance is a superb fusion of punk/new wave energy combined with electronic/synth sounds, and with much better/more inventive guitar playing courtesy of Robin Simon and a more robust production job from Conny Plank, who thinned out the sound on Vienna and Rage In Eden for some inexplicable reason.
Music is of course subjective, and a large part of why I dislike this and most other Ultravox albums is due to Midge Ure, who is just embarassing. If you are interested in hearing Ultravox at their best, listen to Systems of Romance, which has John Foxx leading the band. Apart from being a much cooler, less melodramatically overwraught vocalist, Foxx presents much more interesting themes than Midge Ure. Ure sings about entire movements of new european youth and cold war intrigue (he seems to want to be Graham Greene or something) while Foxx sings about personal impressions (a sleepy conversation, the taste of snow being like tin, the change of the seasons). It's for this reason that I feel John Foxx's approach on 'Systems' has aged much better than Ure's failed attempt at grandiosity. Think of Midge Ure as one of these twerpy British New Romantics, and John Foxx as a more reserved, impressionistic singer/lyricist. Finally, Foxx is a lot less slick sounding than Ure in his vocal delivery.
Along with Visage, Flock of Seagulls, Human League, and most Gary Numan, Ultravox were at the vanguard of a style of 80's synth rock that just sounds horribly dated now, having aged very badly. Ironic that on a lower budget and with less advanced equipment, Ultravox were able to put out a stellar recording that combined punk energy and machine like synths in Systems of Romance, only to later churn out half a dozen albums or so of pseudo european new romantic drivel for the rest of their career. It might have been the rage ion '81, but today it's fuel for SNL skits.
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A great haunt
Listening to this album, you are quickly whisked into an ethereal dreamscape, full of haunting, atmospheric synth and layered guitars to match. This is easily Ultravox' most haunting cd, and it contains the most underrated track by the group, Rage In Eden. Nobody could blend synth and guitars like Ultravox. Too bad modern music lacks the same flavor. At some point somebody decided that synth was not the way to go in rock. They didn't bother asking me. Oh, well. At least we have the old stuff.
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. You can see a complete list of all Ultravox discography, or go back to the Ultravox tabs
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