Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Give it a try. It will not dissapoint., 5 Oct 2006
From the neon plastic garage wails of "Satday nite" and "Wide boys", to the emotional dehumanisations of "I want to be a machine" and "My sex". Boy were Ultravox! a different creature under the guide of John Foxx in 76 compared to the slick sideburn pomposities of Midge in 1980.
Mind you, it was 'cos of "Vienna" (still a fantastic album, but that's another story) that I got into this album.
Expecting another epic synth rock soundtrip had been my mistake.
No, this album knocked me sideways with a gutsy bomblast of sheer rock noise experimentation. And I have to admit, at first I didn't know what the hell to make of it.
But you know, I went back to it time and time again. And each time I did, I found I was becoming more and more gripped.
The sardonic humour of "Satday night in the city of the dead" opens the way, pogoing its r'n'b backbeat to a pulp.
"Life at rainbows end" is carried along by Foxx's double vocal take, one a stylish croon, the other a distant whisper, great with headphones.
In "Slipaway" a lovely melody should get destroyed by the great slabs of distortion that tumble down upon it, but end up being the bits I look forward too. And in come the moogs, but warmer alongside the raw guitars and drums.
Another great melody comes in the "Dangerous rythmn" that could almost be Roxy attempting reggae.
The albums epics come in the forms of the lonely "I want to be a machine" and a real anthem "The wild the beautiful and the damned", both are brought to their peaks by fantastic fiddle flourishes making the early Ultravox! a kind of early futuristic new wave punk folk hybrid.
Keyboards dominate the ruined cityscape of the quasi-ballad "My sex", which is the song here most likely to please the old new romantics. But the grittier production brings to my mind images similar to say, a grundgier take of the sci-fi "Metropolis".
Some fun with more distortion and tape overload on the catchy "Wide boys" and the almost funky "Lonely hunter".
The story goes that the band got snuck into the Island studio when it was otherwise supposed to be closed and recorded this brilliant album amongst the mops and brooms of the cleaning ladies. With none other than Mr's Brian Eno and Steve Lillywhite in the production seats that's one rock 'n' roll story I will be hellava disappointed with if I find out it's not true.
True or not they still produced my favourite Ultravox album of the lot.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First and best, 17 May 2007
Though they made some great music later, Ultravox!, like many bands, were at their most vital on their debut. Suspended, in 1976, between the bold influences of the likes of Bowie and Roxy on one hand and a vision of new wave and early 1980s pop on the other, they were a band out of time. The first track possesses the no-nonsense attitude that The Stranglers would adopt and captures the edgy mood that pervades the album. This is the music of a band scraping the dirt out of the gutter in Iggy Pop's neighbourhood. Despite futuristic, sophisticated titles, on this album they are down on the street.
The two central tracks are 'I Want To be A Machine' which culminates in a startling violin-fest, and 'The Wild, The Beautiful And The Damned', which is five years ahead of its time. 'Wide Boys' opens with a 'Rebel Rebel' soundalike riff, 'Dangerous Rhythm' features John Foxx aping Bryan Ferry against a catchy reggae-style tune. 'My Sex', with its treated vocal is disarmingly reserved. Ultravox! matured after this, but they didn't make anything as exciting.
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Impossible to define -- A Genuine Curiosity, Well Worth Hearing, 13 Oct 2006
If you come to this album expecting something like the Midge Ure-fronted
Ultravox of Vienna et al, you're in for something of a shock. Ultravox of the late
1970s were a much stranger, and frankly much more interesting outfit.
The music on this, their debut album, is as idiosyncratic as anything that
made it onto vinyl in that era. The list of influences is long: Berlin-era
Bowie and Eno-era Roxy Music are perhaps the most obvious, but more telling
is who they influenced. The fascination with Futurism is there ("I want to be
a machine"), the melodrama, androgyny and other-sexuality from goth
("my sex", "the wild the beatiful and the damned"), and there is a definite
punk flavour to the whole proceedings. Yet it would be wrong to pigeonhole
them in any of these categories. The sound really was unique, and I suspect
they didn't gain much of a following because it was just a little too different
for most listeners.
The album hasn't dated badly, except perhaps the cover (I can't help thinking
that a few of the band look like they know they'll regret it in a few years!), and
the lyrics are a little pretentiously overblown and sixth form-ish at times ("I'll bring
you truckloads of flowers/ from all the world that you stole from me/ I'll spin a
coin in a madhouse/ while I watch you drowning"). For me, though this is part
of the fun.
Overall, this really is an unusual and enjoyable album, as long as you can forgive
the odd flights of fancy. It's also interesting
to hear how they develop from this into the "Systems of Romance" ultravox, where
you can definitely hear lead singer John Foxx about to produce "Metamatic", and
where you can see the mittle-European fascination that spawned "Vienna". If you want to hear
something different from the era of The Clash and The Damned, it's well worth worth a visit.
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