Ultravox
Systems of Romance

THE REVIEW

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.