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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Ultravox swansong fails to recapture old glory, 18 Mar 2001
After Live Aid and Midge Ure's solo success with If I Was, you sense that there wasn't much of a combined will in the construction of this album. Down from a quartet to a trio following the departure of Warren Cann, the last Ultravox album proper is an eneven mix of styles and quality. At its best it recalls former glories. All in One Day is a fine string assisted pean to Live Aid in the mould of Visions in Blue, and Dream On is as near as this album gets to the old, moody, synth driven Ultravox of the Rage in Eden period. There's the poetic and thought provoking All Fall Down, which, along with Same Old Story was one of two top 40 singles from the album. It's a collaboration with the Chieftans which is as far from trad Ultravox as it's possible to get but is the album's one real piece of inspiration. U-Vox is dragged down, though, by too many irrelevancies; too many tracks that the band would have been unlikely to use as B-sides in earlier days. Time to Kill and Moon Madness have their moments but are, ultimately, naff. The Prize is a touch dull and, even worse, the album cover is the most garish, migraine inducing piece of artwork you have ever seen. Midge Ure and Chris Cross left the band after this. Billy Currie formed a new version later, but this album marked the official end of a Ultravox.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
U know it's awful, 7 Mar 2005
An all-time low and justly decried by hardcore fans everywhere.
Both Ure and Currie distanced themselves from it, Currie describing it diplomatically as 'unfocused'. The things that made Ultravox exceptional to that point - the chances taken with technology, a genuine creativity and a feeling of going against the grain slightly - were jettisoned here as the ideas ran out along with the goodwill. Drummer and founder member Warren Cann was booted out of the band, his place being taken in the studio by Big Country's Mark Bryzicki (often ridiculed in Smash Hits at the time as 'Mark Unpronounceablename'). He also played on The Cult's acclaimed hit 'She Sells Sanctuary'. Lead single, 'Same Old Story' was truly poor and a herald of what was to come. Brass sections? Naff backing vocals? The Chieftains? Please!! No matter how cheaply you are able to buy this for, it can't be any cheaper and more naff than the stuff on it! The real Ultravox finished with Lament. Buy that instead. Currie is still a genius, by the way...
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
lament over a fallen monument, 22 Dec 2003
In the mid 1980s, Ultravox had a problem. They were far and away the best bank of the synth boom of the early 1980s, but tastes had moved on. Their sound was 'borrowed' by A-Ha while they were between albums. There was a reaction against synths by the mainstram, who viewed the culture and style as being too-right-wing in an era of anti-Thatcherism. So where to go from here to get and keep a following? Of the routes they could have chosed they chose the worst. This album is full of highly produced tosh as they sought to move away from their roots as electronic stylemeisters to become- what? The musical style is not coherent and this seems like little more than a vanity project or a contractual obligation exercise. There are no distinctive songs and no inventiveness here. Instead there is a muddling though with songs in various styles and tempos using horns(!). Genesis this is not and they do not get away with it. Close your eyes and ears and believe that the last album (the last when they were a quartet) was Lament in 1984. Go no further. Nothing good will come of it.
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