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Rating:
Third and last album with John Foxx at the helm of this band that has made experimentation and innovation its strength. The name is already without the exclamation mark (I correct those who insist that they lost it with the advent of Ure), consequently Foxx and company are leaving behind that punk flair from their beginnings to make way for a more "romantic," sophisticated, melodic rock, and in the instrumental parts, the sound that will characterize the second half of their career with Midge Ure as frontman and vocalist, as well as guitarist, begins to form.
The guitarist, yes, him, in this album the sound of the new Ultravox guitarist is fundamental, who will leave the group after Foxx's departure, Robin Simon, who, according to Foxx himself, was a pioneer in his style and influenced the following decade a lot. The amount of harmonization and creativity he puts into enveloping the sound of Foxx and Currie's synths is monstrously immense, his touch is never trivial but always essential, innovative in the sound and use of effect pedals with a very modern taste for distortion. For this reason, I recommend to anyone who plays the guitar to listen to this album, particularly Robin Simon's guitar.
"Slow Motion" opens the album, the synth starts from afar and then impacts along with the other instruments in languid distortion plays (Simon is a genius here), Foxx sings with his usual melodicism that distinguishes him, and the sound is perhaps the most innovative ever, at least up to that point. Hardly has it started when you find yourself on another journey; "Can't Stay Long" is martial but polished to the extreme, Simon follows Currie in his "classical" passages, and Foxx's singing is more lyrical than ever, almost as if he's singing from another planet. In this track, Currie's melodic imprint is evident while Simon's solo is lunar.
"Someone's Else's Clothes" is the third episode, the punk rhythm re-emerges, but it is a bluff. After a few carefree choruses, the track delves into Foxx's electronic labyrinths, and it's always Simon's guitar that follows suit as if wanting to do an endless solo. Worth mentioning is the rhythmic section of Chris Cross on bass and Warren Cann on drums, impeccable and as martial as ever in "Blue Light," with an infernal bass line by Cross.
"Some of Them" reminds us that we are in '78, but by now it's an ironic punk, almost aware of its polishing and cosmic sounds that envelop their tracks. No band has ever been able to fuse everything so homogeneously, and so here comes "Quiet Man," in my opinion, a masterpiece of new wave. Simon is abrasive, Cross sinister, Warren Cann martial, Currie and Foxx play with their synths, all behind a pleasantly dandy rhythm.
Here the album veers toward completely electronic horizons for the episode of "Dislocation," a track simply too ahead of its time, hypnotic in its glacial melody. After that, we set off more slowly, coincidentally with "Maximum Acceleration," always clear in their sound blending. Here it's Simon who takes the lead, while Foxx even enjoys whistling, a sign of his innate melodicism.
"When You Walk Through Me" with a syncopated rhythm progresses with the time that Foxx sets through his "alienated" singing, and at the end, the synths vaguely recall some Floydian episode from "A Saucerful of Secrets." "Just for a Moment" closes the album; everything fades to make way for Foxx's awareness, the awareness and willingness to explore the most extreme electronic minimalism and "sing" over it as only he knows how, because Foxx's singing recalls the human alienation towards the "machine," the future, but this is neither fear nor hatred. In his lyrics and music, Foxx lets the machine dominate him.
Beautiful album, rich in new sounds even for new wave, inferior to the first two only in terms of innovation, but it is here that the innovation brought by Ultravox with the first two albums is best experienced.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Slow Motion (03:32)
No reply
I'm trying hard to somehow frame a reply
Pictures, I've got pictures, and I run them in my head
When I can't sleep at night
Looking out at the white world and the moon
I feel a soft exchange taking place
Merging with the people on the brains (?)
Whirling my face in conversation
Slow motion
Slow motion
Hush, can you feel the trees so far away?
Hush, can you feel the breeze of another day?
When we held each other close in the night
While we wheeled away in our own light
Stepping sideways into our own time
Such a simple way
Slow motion
Slow motion
And we held each other close in the night
While we wheeled away in our own light
And some of us from another time
And drifted away
Slow motion
Slow motion
03 Someone Else's Clothes (04:28)
Check out some memories I don't recognise
Another country and another life
Oh-oh-oh oh-oh-oh
I find I'm strolling on a distant shore
To meet someone I've never seen before
Oh-oh-oh oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh oh-oh-oh oh
Chorus:
I'm wearing someone else's clothes again
Walking in the streets I know again
Back in the old familiar glow again
I'm wearing someone else's clothes
Painting quiet pictures in my ear
We're driving past without a wish to steer
Oh-oh-oh oh-oh-oh
Driving underneath the deep blue sea
I'm always surfacing in summer sheets
Oh-oh-oh oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh oh-oh-oh oh
(Chorus)
(Chorus)
Transfer me into a Saturday crowd
Or merge me back into a factory town
Oh-oh-oh oh-oh-oh
I'm opened up for such a splendid move
I'm making ??? with someone, I don't know who
Oh-oh-oh oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh oh-oh-oh oh
(Chorus)
06 Quiet Men (04:11)
Waiting, we were waiting
As the traffic moved through all our hearts and our heads
But things were different then
For the quiet men
Shifting, things were shifting
Through the walls and hall, there were no walls at all
For the quiet friends
Of the quiet men
Oh, the quiet men
Oh, the quiet men
Springtime, there was sunshine
Through the window panes, down all the English lanes
Where they walked again
The quiet men
Talking, they were talking
Of the times to come, and all the time that's gone
And they smiled again
The quiet men
Oh, the quiet men
Oh, the quiet men
Listening, they were listening
As the season changed and all the reasons changed
And people came and went
By the quiet men
Walking, they were walking
Through the rainy days, looking at all the faces
But no-one ever noticed them
The quiet men
Oh
Oh, the quiet men
Oh, the quiet men
Oh, the quiet men
Oh, the quiet men
09 When You Walk Through Me (04:18)
It's warm tonight
It rained tonight
The windows are all open wide
Can't see the clock to check the time
Nothing is moving
When you walk through me
I turn around
To switch the scene
The room dives like a submarine
I cross the carpet trying to leave
Sometimes I can do it
When you walk through me
Chorus:
When you walk through me
I almost lose me
It's so confusing
When you walk through me
When you walk through me
Locations change
The angles change
Even the streets get rearranged
While I'm swimming out
Someone waves across a crowded room
I take the train
Or shine a shoe
A dark horizon comes to view
I get lost in the crossword clues
Or check the time again
(Chorus)
It's warm tonight
It rained tonight
The windows are all open wide
Can't see the clock to check the time
Nothing is moving
When you walk through me
(Chorus)
10 Just for a Moment (03:10)
Talking in the window as the light fades
I heard my voice break just for a moment
Talking by the window as the light fades
I felt the floor change into an ocean
We'll never leave here, never
Let's stay in here forever
And when the streets are quiet
We'll walk out in the silence
Listening to the movement that the night makes
I let the room fade just for a moment
Sitting in the shadows that the leaves make
I felt the floor change into an ocean
We'll never leave here, never
Let's stay in here forever
And when the streets are quiet
We'll walk out in the silence
Listening to the music the machines make
I let my heart break just for a moment
Listening to the music the machines make
I felt the floor change into an ocean
We'll never leave here never
Let's stay in here for ever
And when the streets are quiet
We'll walk out in the silence
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