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Rating: A few clicks of the mouse, pressing three or four keys on the computer, and we create music compilations. From home. Maybe in pajamas. Endless compilations, hundreds of songs, many of which we will never listen to. That's how it works TODAY.
Yesterday, actually the day before yesterday, it wasn't like that. We would leave the house, anxiously hoping that our trusted record store owner hadn't already run out. And when THAT album was there, we would take home a round thing, which meant 8 or 9 tracks. 40-45 minutes of the artist. On good days, 40-45 minutes of emotions. Extract the album from the sleeve... and do it gently to avoid scratching it... and then place the needle on the vinyl... a magical, exciting ritual. The curiosity to listen to the first notes of side A and understand if those thousands of lire were well spent.
When I placed the needle on the vinyl of "Quartet" in late autumn 1982, I actually didn't even know what to expect from Ultravox. I knew something, but not enough.
It was a revelation, a violent and sudden adolescent love, irrational and domineering as only such loves can be. Only later, in becoming passionate about their music, did I delve into their discography, purchasing their previous albums. And I discovered that what I would have undoubtedly cataloged as a 5-star (maybe even higher) today is a 3-star.
It's not just a matter of changing tastes, nor merely greater musical and alas temporal maturity. It's a matter of emotions, punches in the stomach. In this sense, to remain in the "Ure" period, the previous "Vienna" and "Rage In Eden" are the top: surprises at every note, every sound, every sigh. And even the subsequent "Lament", more rock-influenced but also with balanced and never intrusive Celtic influences, deserves full marks. Conversely, I don't even consider "U-Vox", the last sad work before the 1987 breakup: I only consider it as the (off-key) swan song.
The sense of pleasantness of "Quartet" remains intact, even decades later, no doubt. Well-crafted electronic pop-rock, and NOT just techno-pop. Midge Ure in good shape, talented musicians, pleasant and catchy melodies (sometimes too much so), arrangements in line with the tastes of the period. Precisely. Here's the limit of Quartet. Those who prefer the early period (that of John Foxx, a romantic and hallucinated front-man, innovative and decadent) can hardly tolerate "Quartet", too commercial. But, for that matter, it's also boldly compared to other music of the period (to the early and underrated Spandau Ballet, and that's fine, but also to the groups and small bands of the era that climbed the charts with a single successful 45, easy refrain and some sprinkles of electronics).
Here, instead, we are talking about a band that has admirably combined pop, brit-rock, electronics, romantic violins (a bit of their trademark) but also distorted guitars, cold and obsessive rhythms but also brilliantly "easy" melodies. In a word, we are talking about a great band.
I'll avoid the track-by-track of the album. In my opinion, the best-achieved pieces, as often happens, are not the most famous ones (starting with Reap The Wild Wind, for example, which I find somewhat banal). But Hymn is still evocative and thrilling, and the very fast Mine For Life will take on heavy hues live.
Cut And Run, among the lesser-known tracks, is characterized by an interlude sung by Midge at high notes, while the chorus is modulated low, anguished, and deliberately breathless.
But the punch in the stomach - indeed, speaking of emotions - comes at the beginning of side B: Visions In Blue, nocturnal and dreamlike at first, then unfolds piercing and obsessive on a fantastic electronic backdrop.
That's it, the needle of my old turntable (strictly belt-driven) has practically worn out the vinyl of that track. And only later did I realize that what seemed like a perfect album was "only" a very good LP, far from the immediately preceding "5 stars" and the subsequent "Lament".
Finally, Quartet, never reviewed here and for this reason I chose it for my first Debaser review, is a work well representative of the era. But the little Scotsman Midge Ure, Chris Cross, Warren Cann, and above all the brilliant Billy Currie actually knew how to do even better: that is, albums that, conversely, made history.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Reap the Wild Wind (03:50)
Reap the wild wind (x4)
A finger points to show a scene (take my hand, take my hand)
Another face where mine had been (take my hand, take my hand)
Another footstep where I once walked (take my hand)
Take it all
(Chorus)
You take my hand and give me your friendship
I'll take my take my time and send you my slow reply
Give me an inch and I'll make the best of it
Take all you want and leave all the rest to die
Reap the wild wind
A footprint haunts an empty floor (take my hand, take my hand)
A fading coat that I once wore (take my hand, take my hand)
Oh, A desolation where I one lived
I have seen in times gone by
I have felt a different shadow on the wall
A stranglehold on a certain feeling
(Chorus)
Reap the wild wind (x2)
(Chorus)
Reap the wild wind
02 Serenade (05:07)
Serenade, in rhythm and swing.
Serenade, the gift that we bring.
Serenade, youth runs wild with the beat in their hearts.
Dance a wild dance, be torn apart.
Voices ringing in their heads.
Their crashing hands in time.
In sequence and in rhyme.
The chant of a thousand-fold.
The song of a million strong.
Echoes their perfect praise.
(Chorus)
From the mouths of babes and fools.
Hunted melodies.
With gracefulness and ease.
Compose their gifted words.
Orchestrate their moves.
Echo the perfect praise.
Serenade.
(Chorus)
Prophets tell the tale.
The legend and the lies.
The fable and the rhymes.
The chant of a thousand-fold.
The song of a billion strong.
Echoes the perfect praise.
Serenade!
(Chorus)
In rhythm and swing.
The gift that we bring.
Youth runs wild with the beat in their hearts.
Dance the wild dance, be torn apart.
Serenade, in rhythm and swing. ( Repeat 5 times and fade. )
Serenade, the gift that we bring.
04 Hymn (05:49)
Give us this day all that you showed me.
The power and the glory 'til thy kingdom come.
Chorus:
Give us this day all that you showed me,
The power and the glory 'til thy kingdom come.
Give me all the storybook told me,
The faith and the glory 'til thy kingdom comes.
And they said that in our time,
All that's good will fall from grace.
Even saints would turn their face,
In our time.
And they told us that in our days,
Different words said in different ways,
Have other meaning from he who says,
In our time.
(Chorus)
And they said that in our time,
We would reap from their legacy,
We would learn from what they had seen,
In our time.
And they told us that in our days,
We would know what was high on high,
We would follow and not defy,
In our time.
(Chorus)
Faithless in faith.
We must behold the things we see.
(Chorus - Repeat 4 times and fade)
05 Visions in Blue (04:42)
Face in the window in the night
Caught for a second by the light
Ashes of memories still aglow
''Only for you''
Portraits and pictures you once saw
Visions in blue
Read while the letters still remain
Sip from the wine of youth again
Oaths made in silence still return
''Only for you''
Cast like a shroud you're clutching on
Visions in blue
Catch aimless smiles from passers by
Blistered and broken in reply
Breath seems to mist the hazy view
''Only for you''
Tears coat your lifeless eyes with dew
Visions in blue
Visions in blue
Ashes of memories still aglow
Portraits and pictures you once saw
Ashes of memories still aglow
Portraits and pictures you once saw
Ashes of memories still aglow
Portraits and pictures you once saw
Face in the window in the night
Caught for a second by the light
Ashes of memories still aglow
''Only for you''
Portraits and pictures you once saw
Visions in blue
09 The Song (We Go) (03:57)
Welcome to..
Welcome to..
Welcome to the song.
Hear the words of the syncopated rhythms.
Welcome to the song.
And when it calls you, time to move on.
We go!
(Chorus)
Feel the strength of a hundred thousand heartbeats,
Cry welcome to the song.
And as it lifts you, time to move on.
We go!
(Chorus)
Drawn from the inside,
Time to move on.
We go!
We go!
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