Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Ultravox - Quartet - 1982

Admittedly, this isn't one of my favorites by Ultravox.  Admittedly, I'm only posting this as I continue to offer the full discography of their work (as I am doing with a lot of other artists, too.)  Admittedly, you will see this happen more and more often, as I am beginning to see the bottom of the well of my musical exposure from the last four decades.  So it is,,,,

It's not so much that the album's a bad album.  It's pretty good.  It just never really grabbed me.  It's difficult to make it all the way through the album without changing the disc/mp3. But, maybe it's just me.  I never knew of them when I was younger, and never heard of them until Youtube and Discogs.  So, with no real memories from when it was released, I didn't get any sort of imprint from it. Also, I think their keyboard player wasn't very inventive.  The tones sound redundant and somewhat annoying.  And their sound typifies the stereotypical 80s New Wave sound that everyone hates to love, or loves to hate.  I don't know, it's good, but it's not that good.  Am I making myself clear?  Can anyone else out there articulate what I'm trying to say?

This does have the rare and hard to find b-side called Break Your Back.  I had to rip it from Youtube to get it, though.  Always a fan of their cover art, it was hard to find flawless material to use for this.  The back frame still doesn't look too good, and you can see jpeg artifacts all over it.  I tried my best.

I guess I like Reap the Wild Wind.  But, We Came To Dance is dumb.

6 comments:

  1. I have to admit, I like "We Came To Dance," but my favorite track on this album is "Hymn." I've loved it ever since the first time I heard it, back when the album came out. And "Reap the Wild Wind" .... oh, don't get me started on that song. I hadn't gotten the album yet the first time I saw the video on MTV, and I just fell in love with it at first watch/listen. Though I'll always consider "Vienna" to be their finest work, I think this album is a close second. And even though I like the first three albums with John Foxx on vocals, I don't think the band really found their sound until Midge Ure took over as vocalist.

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  2. The single of "We Came To Dance" also had the totally bitchin' B side "Overlook" on it. I had the clear vinyl 7". Boo ya!

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    1. I'm going to have an "Update Week" where I correct all these errors I've made. This is like the fourth "deluxe" edition I've screwed up, now....

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    2. ? What did you screw up? You got Overlook on there.

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    3. Ah, I do. This is the first time I've compiled this album, honestly, and i didn't double check after you said that. I completely "overlooked" it!

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