Ultravox Album: “U-Vox”

U-Vox is a terrible album. The sound that made Ultravox so compelling is all but gone and replaced with the cheesy pseudo Sting like music that Midge has produced ever since he quit Ultravox with the exception being If I was. This album is an abomination compared to their earlier releases like Quartet, Vienna, Lament and Rage in Eden. This is the beginning of the end for Midge Ure as a songwriter. From now on his music has been more or less schlock. This album should never have been released.

I remember seeing a promotional picture from this era of the band and it had them decked out in Hawaiian shirts. This new image from the the band that brought commercialized depressive synth-pop to the world just didn't take with their fans (including me) at all. Its a mess of songs that shouldn't be all on the same album, but years later I have been revisiting this disk and finding it all far more palatable than when I first tolerated it back in 86. The drumming by Mark B. from Big Country really holds the record together, and some of the melodies just hold on after repeated listenings.

This recording DOES foreshadow the cheezy pseudo-Sting music that Midge Ure would release over the rest of his career. The mysterious veneer that attracted me to the band is simply not there. As a twenty-something this was heresy for me and I lamented the last serious era of my favorite band for years.

Its an oddity, strangely compelling at times. In aggregate, a disaster. But why am I going to put it on right now and listen to it? Who knows? You might have the same strange attraction to this flame-out as I do.

This is Ultravox watered down. With the sacking of their multi-intrumentalist/drummer Warren Cann the band took a departure from strong synth rock and delved into a miasma of schlock. This is the most overdone, overproduced, and underwhelming music the Ure era Ultravox ever produced. And the records that followed were equally abyssmal.

This album has a lot of good song ideas, but the execution is that of Ure's 70's band Slik. It is so syrupy sweet and shallow, despite the heavy topicality of such songs as "All Fall Down", that is warrants nothings but going into a CD shredder upon acquiring. The music has such a depth to it that one could compare it accurately to a kiddie wading pool. With the absence of Cann in the mix the band detours into Midge Ure solodome that true listeners of the 80's era Ultravox vomit a little in their mouths with each playing.

Do you think I am being too harsh about this product? Compare this to anything else released during the Ure era of Ultravox in the 80's and even the NEW live CD of Return to Eden, then you may see/hear exactly where I am coming from. This does not hold up. THis does not age well. This looks rediculous amoung one's CD collection.

The extra tracks do NOT make up for the overall inital release. B-side are equally as tarnished and lacking any real attractive quality. This is nothing like their earlier B-sides like Paths and Angles, I Never Wanted To Begin, or even the highly experimental Break Your Back or Overlook.

If you know someone with a copy, listen to it. If you just cannot live without this addition to your collection, then by all means break down and buy it. Otherwise steer clear of this pink attrocity. It will scar the ears and memories of a true fan. It did me.

I got hooked on Ultravox and Midge Ure after borrowing The Collection from my cousin back in '86 or so. I was an '80s teen and interested in a diverse range of music (mostly British) which grew out of the new wave era: The Police, Men at Work, U2, Big Country, OMD, Duran Duran, etc. Synth sounds were hugely appealing and thus the attraction to Ultravox, although their stuff was not all radio-friendly.

I soon found Midge Ure's solo outing with If I Was on it, as well as some other gems and a cover of a Jethro Tull song. So when I saw the latest album U-Vox in stores back then, I just had to have it. I did find the sound a bit different, probably more mainstream than their earlier stuff, but it was still great. Songs like Same Old Story and The Prize were blaring from the radio back then, and remain as aurally appealing today as then. There is also a great collaboration on one song with the Irish (Scottish?) folk band, The Chieftains.

Ultravox had lost their own drummer, so they scored a coup by getting Big Country's Mark Brzezicki to drum for them. This guy is probably the best drummer in the business after John Bonham.

But the band was starting to come apart. I simply was not interested in Ultravox before Midge Ure and am not interested in it since he left the band. It was like ELO without Jeff Lynne or Chicago without Peter Cetera.

The best tracks on album are: Sweet surrender, All fall down, Time to kill, Moon madness and a Follow your heart (my favorite) This album is not only for Ultravox fans !!! Its great to listen for all time :)