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Rating: An exclamation point can sometimes really make a difference.
It is this sign that distinguishes the two vital periods of a group among the most influential of the entire new-wave scene.
John Foxx formed them in 1976 and after 3 albums left to pursue an intriguing solo career.
This collection includes the best from these three albums, indeed released under the Island label. Subsequently, the group would continue to produce excellent albums, but the sound changed, losing the subliminal neurosis of the beginnings. Ultravox! were characterized by an exceptionally successful mix of decadent glam-rock, neurotic and sick punk, and alienating electronics. Their arrangements were occasionally really surreal.
It can undoubtedly be stated that, although they were born when punk was emitting its first resounding cries, they were actually already in the post-punk era. This says a lot about the quality of the group, which, although sufficiently famous, still doesn't quite receive what it should today. For foresight, genius, and "zeitgeist," they can only be compared to the great Wire of Colin Newman.
A track like "Dangerous Rhythm", for example, from their first self-titled work, gathers various influences, deforming them under an anguished lens, with a sense of fear of the future that perhaps Ultravox! played with first. A semi-danceable muddy rhythm gets entangled between Foxx's very ""Roxy Music"" singing and minimal guitar punctuations. Everything leads to an irresistible chorus with a catchy melody. The collection also contains the B-side of this single, the aseptic "My Sex" another little gem of minimalism, with an almost orchestral synth haze, while Foxx's voice recites in such a detached tone as not to let even a drop of emotion show.
The next track "I Want to Be A Machine" is the first extraordinary masterpiece of the record. A song both warm and icy at the same time, steeped in poignant romanticism, oppressed by a tragic doomsday atmosphere. An acoustic guitar starts quietly to underscore Foxx's neurotic tone, more desperate than ever; gradually, the spirals of Currie's precious violin emerge until this crescendo is abruptly interrupted by a bass explosion. The drum enters obsessively, overlooked by the crying of the violin, which in the finale, when everything seems over, gives way to chilling contortions, accompanied by stunning percussive tribalisms, until Foxx's peremptory voice declares the end of this claustrophobic mental nightmare.
The other masterpiece is from the second album, "AH! AH! AH!", and it is the melancholic "Hiroshima Mon Amour", the quintessence of their romanticism. It unfolds on a melodic synth carpet with a deviant march, from which Foxx's epic voice rises emotionally, occasionally interrupted by a warm and alluring sax, which makes the piece even more tearful.
How can one escape the unforgettable chorus of "The Wild, The Beautiful, & The Damned"?
Neither should the faster episodes be forgotten, like the explosive energy of "Young Savage", an intelligent and convulsive punk, or the rockabilly pantomime of "Rock Wrok".
"The Man Who Dies Every Day" seems like a cover of what the new Ultravox will be, revisited by the old Ultravox!, as well as "Slow Motion". However, there is a noticeable drop in inspiration present on "Systems Of Romance", yet, this continues the discussion begun by its two illustrious predecessors.
Considering that this collection is found in stores for 5 euros, in case you still haven't understood what it is about, reread the review and evaluate the quality-price ratio for yourself.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Dangerous Rhythm (04:18)
Dangerous rhythm
Dangerous rhythm
Dangerous rhythm in the air
Stranger to stranger
We're both dressed for danger
Something is generating here
Oh, take off your halo
For the all-night inferno
Something is happening in the air
It's not like anything I've ever known before
And I don't care
Dangerous rhythm
Dangerous rhythm
Dangerous rhythm in the air
Surging and merging
Urgent and urging
Soft as a footstep on the stair
The red light is on now
My gravity's gone and how
I can feel something in the air
It's not like anything I've ever known before
And I don't care
Dangerous rhythm
Dangerous rhythm
Dangerous rhythm in the air
Dangerous rhythm
Dangerous rhythm
Dangerous rhythm in the air
Dangerous rhythm
Dangerous rhythm
Dangerous rhythm in the air
02 My Sex (03:06)
My sex
Waits for me
Like a mongrel waits
Downwind on a tightrope leash
My sex
Is a fragile acrobat
Sometimes I'm a novocaine shot
Sometimes I'm an Automat
My sex
Is often solo
Sometimes it short circuits then
Sometimes it's a golden glow
My sex
Is invested in
Suburban photographs
Skyscraper shadows on a car crash overpass
My sex
Is savage, tender
It wears no future faces
Owns just random gender
My sex
Has a wanting wardrobe
I still explore
Of all the bodies I knew
And those I want to know
My sex
Is a spark of electro-flesh
Leased from the tick of time
And geared for synchromesh
My sex
Is an image lost in faded films
A neon outline on a high-rise overspill
My sex
My sex
03 I Want to Be a Machine (07:25)
I found the bones of all your ghosts
Locked in the wishing well
While birdsong gourmets dragged empty nets
I slumbered in my shell
In Mitternacht, die Mensch-Maschine kissed me on my eyes
I rose and left the fire-ladies
Glowing lonely in the night
With all the pornographers
Burning torches beneath the sea
I want to be a machine
I want to be a machine
I want to be a machine
I stole a cathode face from newscasts
And a crumbling fugue of songs
From the reservoir of video souls
In the lakes beneath my tongue
In flesh of ash and silent movies
I walked at boulevards again
A nebula of unfinished creatures
From the lifetimes of my friends
My, how your innocence has depraved me
I want to be a machine
I want to be a machine
I want to be a machine
Broadcast me, scrambled clean
Or free me from this flesh
Let the armchair cannibals take their fill
In every cell across wilderness
We'll trip such a strangled tango
We'll waltz a wonderland affair
Let's run to meet the tides tomorrow
Leave all emotion dying there in the star cold
Beyond all of your dreams
I want to be a machine
I want to be a machine
I want to be a machine
Ah!
06 Young Savage (03:01)
The Jekyll-Hyde of you
I can't survive the tide of you
The vicious style of love, the whining
Pits and pendulums of lying
I don't see how you survive in
Hard-line worlds you're advertising
Sneaky features, facing, waiting
City sex is so frustrating
Chorus:
Young savage
Young savage
She's like a steel wall
Speaks like a dance hall
Young savage
Young savage
Anything goes where no-one knows your name
The mirror love of vixens
Gets over the mask of victims
Money rents you insulation
Tenderness, asphyxiation
Someone else's flesh to borrow
Sling it from your bed tomorrow
? sorrow
Look behind the face it's hollow
(Chorus)
(Chorus)
The broken heart of you
Who stole, who stole a part of you
Changing blossoms into piss
And taking bites from every kiss
The past is dead, tomorrow's too far
All the chemicals that bar us
Coloured hair, cheap tattoos
That tell you all their points of view
(Chorus)
Condemned to be a stranger
Subway dweller, dead-end danger
Peeking through the dust of friends
Who never gave, they'd only lend
Every sneer is thrown away
With practised gestures of disdain
The outlaw stance is so pedantic
Hate the world, it's so romantic
(Chorus)
07 Slip Away (04:19)
Enter me gently, I break in the light
Cover my eyes, with the rags of my life
Was I dreaming
Or did you say
The frontiers are falling
It's time to be slipping away
Let's slip away
Let's slip away
All things fall from me, the bonds and the veils
All things blow by me, my sorrows have sails
Was I dreaming
Or did you say
The empires are fading
It's time to be slipping away
Let's slip away
Let's slip away
What am I to do
Don't leave me
What is there to say, I really...
We're just wasting time
Let the night takes its place
Colour my eyes with the dusk of this wonderful day
Let's slip away
Let's slip away
Letters from lovers are lining my grate
Some came too early and some came too late
Were you speaking
Or did I say
The frontiers have fallen
It's time to be slipping away
As you call me
My hands they fall open
My mouth it is frozen
The chrysalis tumbles
I'm falling
Slow motion
Dissolve
09 Hiroshima Mon Amour (05:13)
Somehow we drifted off too far
Communicate like distant stars
Splintered voices down the 'phone
The sunlit dust, the smell of roses drifts, oh no
Someone waits behind the door
Hiroshima mon amour
Riding inter-city trains
Dressed in European grey
Riding out to echo beach
A million memories in the trees and sands, oh no
How can I ever let them go?
Hiroshima mon amour
Meet beneath the autumn lake
Where only echoes penetrate
Walk through polaroids of the past
Features fused like shattered glass, the sun's so low
Turns our silhouettes to gold
Hiroshima mon amour
10 Distant Smile (05:27)
Sometimes I find I drift away
Behind a distant smile
Light years ago I think someone spoke
Quizzical glances behind cigarette smoke
She drew the curtains at the end of the day
And then we laughed because the room sailed away
Fancy glitter in the summer arcades
Then autumn leaves fall by a winter lane
Piano echoes and the perfume still lingers
But you fell through my fingers like sand
With a distant smile
A distant smile
A distant smile
Somehow I always seem to be
Adrift in other times with a distant smile
(???) the sound of the streets
The city's glittering like diamonds in heat
Our secret destination, touch down in the haze
As the cameraman pans away
Hey look, it's a long lost horizon
Private oceans you can surface a sunrise in
Hearts well ? dodging logic
But nevertheless still permanently surprised
Behind a distant smile
A distant smile
A distant smile
Somehow I always seem to be
Adrift in other times behind a distant smile
You will see (?)
12 While I'm Still Alive (03:18)
Playing the game
With the chips on my shoulder
Checking in the mirror
As my coffee cup gets colder
Stagger and swagger
Combing my hair
If tomorrow's not there
Then at least today's all mine
Chorus:
While I'm still alive
While I'm still alive
While I'm still alive
Strutting my stuff
I'm blagging the damage
From coupling with headlines
I was suckled on salvage
The fighting's exciting
The age is dramatic
I'm crackling with static
Just jiving to survive
(Chorus)
Take a stroll down the side roads, I know you want to
A shock in the dark can be good for your heart, oh yeah
(Chorus)
Scuffling along
On the crest of a wave
Laughing and grafting
Or jerking and working
Striking a match
Where life is a gas
I need the flash
To make it all worthwhile
(Chorus)
13 Slow Motion (03:29)
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
14 Quiet Men (04:09)
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
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