Ultravox - Vienna (1980)

European Import

Note: this release was originally purchased as a UK import LP, later replaced by the 2 CD 2018 Remastered Definitive Edition containing a bonus disc with 11 bonus tracks.

The group's fourth studio album, but the group's first release with Midge Ure as a member. Ure was able to focus the band's efforts and provide a template for an overly-polished synth rock sound. It yielded commercial results in the group's native UK, but only one track saw any US chart action (Sleepwalk, #24 dance). There's plenty of stylish gloom but also memorable melodies and great beats, somehow balancing atmosphere with accessibility. If I want to lean into hyperbole, I could say the album laid the groundwork for the New Romantic movement, showing that synths weren't just cold, futuristic, novelty tools, they could also be commercially successful. I've put off buying a CD version of this album and I have absolutely no idea why. It's a nostalgic trip back to the early '80s for me as the album remains a fascinating document of a time when overwrought synthpop musicians became convinced that indifference equaled cool sophistication. At the time, adolescent me attempted (unsuccessfully) to join them in that attitude. Good times.

Press of the time:

• Billboard: "futuristic, electronic based songs, several with a hard rock edge."
• Record World: "Ultravox has been making pop music longer than most other groups in the genre"
• CashBox: "Ultravox may do for electronic music what Jimi Hendrix did with the electric guitar."
• Smash Hits (8 out of 10): "Synthesizer music with backbone and muscle."
• Rolling Stone (★★): "overblown arrangements, familiar and banal electronic effects."
• Trouser Press: "Ultravox is attempting to reconcile synthesizer lessons with more accessible forms - a move that should bring them the larger audience they deserve."
• Robert Christgau (C): "dance music for the locked pelvis"
• New Musical Express: "an album of gaudy, sometimes magnificent, but mostly hollow edifices"
• Record Mirror (+++½): "electronic rock songs which are beautifully executed but never inspiring."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #164
• CashBox: #154
• Rolling Stone: #59

Tracks: The album contained four UK singles and all charted there: Vienna (#2), All Stood Still (#8), Sleepwalk (#29), and Passing Strangers (#57). I like those four and also the instrumental lead track, Astradyne. However, I've always been captivated by Mr. X, a haunting noir piece with definite Neu!/Kraftwerk influences plus some bizarre spoken word, provided by the group's drummer/drum machine programmer, Warren Cann, and a disjunct solo on electric violin from Billie Currie. It's all very strange, and was especially affecting to a 16 year-old boy growing up along the rural Texas coast in the early 1980s (i.e., one of my general height, weight, and build). The silliness of the text is overshadowed by the serious, minor key synth pads. I'm not sure I've ever liked this thing yet I can't stop listening to it.

The skippable filler tracks are New Europeans and Western Promise.

Bonus "Further Listening" disc: The usual suspects. B-sides, a couple of live cuts from August 1980, rehearsal recordings, demos, and an extended cut of All Stood Still which I already had on the Extended CD. The only track of any interest to me is Herr X, a German version of Mr. X that was the b-side of the Vienna 12" single. I would say "for completists only" but a completist would own the 6 disc "Deluxe Edition" issued in 2020.

The WKRP crew stand in contemplation
of the krautrock influences on this album.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I'm certain my first Ultravox album purchase was Quartet sometime in 1982, but I picked up Vienna soon after. It was my first UK import purchase and remember how different the flimsy album packaging felt in my hands compared to what I was accustomed to buying in the US. I loved the differences and began seeking imports whenever possible (and affordable).

Previously revisited for the blog:
Extended: A Collection of 12" Remixes (1998)
The Collection (1985)
Quartet (1982)
Rage in Eden (1981)

Ultravox - Rage in Eden (1981)

You might think it would be difficult to follow-up the wonderful Vienna single and album, and you'd be right. If you like Midge Ure-era Ultravox, there's something here for you, but for the most part, the material is weaker than on Vienna or Quartet. Sophomore slump, maybe? Rage In Eden wasn't Ultravox's second album, but it was their second with Ure. Vienna wasn't exactly a cheerful album, but it wasn't so morbid as to have a track titled I Remember (Death In The Afternoon). Smash Hits gave the album a rating of 5 out of 10 (see below) and that sounds about right.

Track 2, We Stand Alone, contains the phrase "this gigolo and gigolette" several times in its lyrics and while I'm certain I heard the song when I was in high school, I can't imagine why I didn't work the word "gigolette" into as many conversations and term papers as I possibly could back then.

Bonus points for the Peter Saville artwork on the cover.

Press of the time:

• Billboard: "polished progressive rock, thumping disco and flamboyant new romanticism"
• CashBox: "gorgeously produced dance club delight"
• Record World: "a beat and production that will have rock dance clubs playing every cut"
• Smash Hits (5 out of 10): "too bland to satisfy"
• Trouser Press: "A very good record, not a great one"
• High Fidelity: "Ultravox concocts an enticing - albeit distant - brand of textured, shimmering rock."
• RPM Weekly: "a powerful rock message that unfortunately will have a limited audience."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #144
• CashBox: #123
• Rolling Stone: #49

Tracks: They definitely chose the best cuts to release as singles: The Thin Wall, which peaked on the British singles chart at #14 and The Voice, which peaked at #16. Also good are We Stand Alone and Accent On Youth/The Ascent; avoid Your Name Has Slipped My Mind Again by ending the CD after 8 tracks. Other tracks are decent filler with the characteristic Ultravox sound.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. I was aware of the album and a couple of my friends had it, so I heard it in the early '80s. I had Quartet and an import copy of the Vienna album, so I guess I thought I was set as far as Ultravox was concerned. In addition to that vinyl, here's a sweet vintage pinback from my personal collection:

Previously revisited for the blog:
Extended: A Collection of 12" Remixes (1998)
The Collection (1985)
Quartet (1982)

Ultravox - Quartet (1982)

European Import

Note: this release was originally purchased as an LP, later replaced by the 2 CD, 2009 Remastered Definitive Edition containing a bonus disc with 13 bonus tracks.

Today is the fourth anniversary of this blog. 4 years ago, I started this journey with my brief thoughts on Paul Simon's Graceland album. In honor of the four years that have passed, I chose this disc because the title is somewhat related to the number 4 (I had already posted about Toto IV). To be honest, when I started this thing I didn't think it would last this long so I didn't plan ahead to a fourth anniversary. It's the band's sixth album and the group had been a quartet for several years/albums by 1982, so why they picked the title is anybody's guess.

I'm assuming this album was Ultravox's attempt to hit it big in the US and ride the synthpop wave to the top of the charts. To that end, they went all-out, grabbing the Beatles' producer and engineer, George Martin and Geoff Emerick, while having brilliant designer Peter Saville handle the graphics. Alas, US success wasn't in the cards, but it was the group's most successful album on the Billboard Top 200 and contained their most successful US pop single: Reap The Wild Wind peaked at #71. The band never cracked the US Top 40, but made the UK Top 40 seventeen times.

Sure, the album (like most all of Ultravox's work) is heavy-handed, very serious, and angst-driven, but that darkness is probably what appealed to me as a teenager. Critics didn't like it as much as I did, simply because it didn't measure up to the group's 1980 album, Vienna. So while I'm in the minority, I give a slight edge to this album over Vienna. Earlier this year, I placed this album at #26 on my list of top albums of 1982.

I'm of two minds on this 2009 edition. The remastering of the original album sounds fantastic (especially on headphones), but the bonus tracks aren't very good and the liner notes are practically non-existent. For a "definitive" edition, I would have at least expected a lengthy essay/love note to the band from a music journalist (or even a music blogger - I work cheap, guys, call me). I didn't even get lyrics, although they are available here.

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone (★★½): "Quartet isn't a bad record, but coming from the band that gave us Vienna, it's inevitably a disappointment."
• Trouser Press: "Boring and lifeless"
• Smash Hits (8 out of 10): "as good as anything they've ever done."
• Stereo Review: "repetitive, hackneyed riff songs overlaid with portentous versifying"
• Robert Christgau (C): "Midge Ure and associates can't hide behind catchy synthbeats."
• Record Mirror: "they bore me to distraction."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #61
• Billboard Rock: #23
• CashBox: #42
• Rolling Stone: #26

Tracks:  My favorite track is Reap The Wild Wind followed closely by Hymn and Visions in Blue. In the early eighties, side one (tracks 1-4) got significantly more playing time than side two (tracks 5-9) and I still like that quartet of tunes. The weakest track is Cut And Run, so I usually skip that track.

Disc Two features extended versions (which I like, but already had), B-Sides (which are usually B-sides for good reason), and live versions from 1981-82 all mish-mashed in a confusing sequence. When my buddy Jim was in the Navy in the mid-80s, he saw Ultravox live in Munich. When I asked him what he thought of the show, he said, "Loud, leaden, performance. Eurotrash chicks listlessly dancing. Ruined poor Jimmy for New Romantic/techno/Europop. That kind of music didn't lend itself to live performances." That pretty much sums up the live tracks on this CD. The worse track, however, is the B-side Break Your Back which sounds like the drunk cleaning crew of the studio playing around on a drum machine after the band had left for the day. To recap, the second disc is pretty much pointless. (When I asked Jim if there had been an opening act for Ultravox, he responded as only Jim could: "Some German dance music abomination.")

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  After ringing in 1983 with the aforementioned Jim, he asked what song I'd like to hear to kick off the new year. I picked Reap The Wild Wind because it was a current favorite song of mine. After giving that track a spin on his turntable, Jim said he was going to pick a song and put on Tomorrow Never Knows by the Beatles. Good call, Jim. You won that one.

Through this blog, I've become friends with many fellow music lovers over the past four years. I'm grateful for these new friendships. And I hope the good times continues.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Extended: A Collection of 12" Remixes (1998)
The Collection (1985)

Ultravox - The Collection (1985)

"COLLECTION" WEEK (JUNE 4-10, 2012)

Over a 14 year span (1980-1993), this New Wave band reached the Top 40 seventeen times in their native UK. However, they never reached the Top 40 in the US, having only one single breaking the Hot 100 (Reap The Wild Wind peaked at #71 on April 30, 1983). So, while their presence in the US was nearly nonexistent, those of us that were on the periphery of the whole electronic scene in the early '80s eventually discovered this band.

This compilation only covers the years 1980-1985, focusing on the band's most recognizable incarnation, fronted by Midge Ure. However, since those are the years I was listening to this band, that's fine with me. The music is very synth-based and usually in moody minor keys with Ure's haunting voice or Billy Currie's electric violin taking center stage. Curiously, this electronic band used a drum machine only occasionally. While I enjoy Ultravox's music, I usually only like it in small doses - 6 or 7 songs and I'm ready to move on to something else.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: My favorite tracks come from the 1982 Quartet album (Hymn, Reap The Wild Wind, We Came To Dance) and the 1980 album, Vienna (the title track, Sleepwalk, and All Stood Still). Not coincidentally, those are the two Ultravox albums I owned as LPs back in high school. Also good is The Voice and One Small Day. Weaker cuts include Passing Strangers and Lament.

	Year	UK	US
Dancing With Tears In My Eyes	1984	3	108
Hymn	1982	11	-
The Thin Wall	1981	14	-
The Voice	1981	16	-
Vienna	1981	2	-
Passing Strangers	1980	57	-
Sleepwalk	1980	29	-
Reap The Wild Wind	1982	12	71
All Stood Still	1981	8	-
Visions In Blue	1983	15	-
We Came To Dance	1983	18	-
One Small Day	1984	27	-
Love's Great Adventure	1984	12	-
Lament	1984	22	-

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Even though it wasn't released as a single, I wish they had included Mr. X from the Vienna album. That creepy song fascinated me as a 16 year old wannabe Waver. Now it just amuses me.

In high school, I earned spending money by working at Burger King. As I was cleaning the kitchen one night after closing, Reap The Wild Wind came on the radio. Naturally, I sang along. After that, my co-workers called me "Punk Rock." I'm sure they still wouldn't get the difference between Ultravox and punk music, but I still enjoy that story because I remember them calling me that nickname without any sense of irony.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Extended: A Collection of 12" Remixes (1998)

Ultravox - Extended: A Collection of 12" Remixes (1998)

UK import

Because sometimes you just need extended remixes of early '80s electronic New Romantic synthpop. The regular 4 minute album versions just aren't enough, so you yearn for an eight minute special remix. You're in luck.

Admittedly, Ultravox (like its influences Roxy Music and Kraftwerk) is an acquired taste - lots of synths with the occasional electric violin, drum machine, and guitar. These 10 tracks remix singles from the years 1980-86, when Midge Ure was frontman for the group. Ure also co-wrote and produced the charity single Do They Know It's Christmas? and co-organized Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8 with Bob Geldof, but I digress. Ultravox was big in the UK, but not so much here in the US where their highest charting album, 1982's Quartet, peaked at #61 on the album chart.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart:  Did not chart

Tracks: The best remixes are All Stood Still, Reap The Wild Wind, We Came To Dance, and One Small Day. Weaker tracks include Serenade and Lament. The final two tracks, Same Old Story and All Fall Down are from 1986's U-Vox release and don't even sound like Ultravox songs. Same Old Story has horn parts and female backup singers and sounds like something The Blow Monkeys would release. All Fall Down includes performances by the Chieftains and sounds like an Irish drinking song. Better to stop this disc after 8 tracks.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Not sure how I discovered this band, but I'm sure Jim and MTV had something to do with it. I thought that most people at my high school listened only to music by bands like Journey, Rush, AC/DC, and REO Speedwagon (which certainly couldn't have been true), so I took pride in listening to music other that others wouldn't regularly listen to. Yes, I was that guy. Ultravox's music fit the bill. I picked up this CD from the used bin at a Hasting's in Victoria on a rainy day around 2004, so I have memories of this CD attached to that time, too.