Ultravox - Systems of Romance

Exclusive Japanese limited edition digitally remastered reissue of their 1978 album, packaged in a miniature LP sleeve. Features two bonus tracks: Cross Fade and Quiet Man (Full Version). This was the final album by the original line-up before Midge Ure took over as vocalist and steered the band to world-wide chart success. Island. 2006. Album Description

The Apex of New Wave Romanticism

Systems of Romance is aptly titled: the sleek but creamy veneer of Conny Plank's brilliant production perfectly complements the ethos of John Foxx's alienated technician posturings and Billy Currie's melodramatic but insanely gorgeous synthesizer/violin soundscapes. Fusing lyrical elements from French new wave cinema (particularly Godard and Resnais) with space cadet era Bowie and a music indebted to, though not derived from, Eno, early Roxy Music and Neu, Systems of Romance quite literally introduced a fresh, new approach to music back in 1978. Amazingly, it's dated very little, if at all. The opening track "Slow Motion" is a pulse-pounding number that reminds one of what Kraftwerk might've sounded like had they had a guitarist and a rhythm section. The evocative "I Can't Stay Long" is a showcase for Foxx's icy vocals and is one of the album's best tracks. Of course, there's the classic minimalist synth-pop of "The Quiet Men" and the entrancing "Dislocation." Then there's the hauntingly beautiful "Just for a Moment"--as poignant a post-nuclear holocaust song as you'll ever hear. Quite frankly, there's not a poor track anywhere on Systems of Romance. And for anyone desirous of understanding the origins of much of today's music, they should avail themselves not only of Systems of Romance but some of the other artists mentioned above. November 1, 2007

A landmark recording

I was captivated by this album in the late 1970s. Some of the songs continue to impress me today. I think that this album represents the most consistent, coherent and succinct musical, emotional, intellectual and stylistic statement on recording of Ultravox under John Foxx. Midge Ure took the band in a quite different direction around two years later.

The things I like most about "Systems of Romance" are the imaginative and expressive lyrics for the songs and the endeavour to present the songs from different and unconventional (for the time) angles. For instance, the acoustic drums were recorded through fuzz boxes in places. The electric violin and guitars were subject to "treatments" through synthesizers, too. What we hear is a "Punk Rock" sound in transition or metamorphosis - "evolving", if you like.

Some have said that the songs on this album represent alienation and the use of synthesizers makes the music cold in some way. I strongly disagree. I feel that "Systems of Romance" presents us with some very personal and, indeed, beautiful poetry from John Foxx. The songs present us with feelings of yearning, desire, regret and, sometimes, wild flights of the imagination. The synthesizers and piano actually warm up the sound and make it much more "cushy", colourful and luxurious than the previous Ultravox albums. "Just for a moment" could be considered the "Genesis point" of the whole concept of "New Romantics", however, that does rather trivialise this beautiful and unconventional song.

The album, "Systems of Romance", ended John Foxx's work with Ultravox, but he continued the ideas, themes and styles of this album on his own solo album, "The Garden", several years later.

John Foxx performed and, perhaps, still performs, some of the songs from Systems of Romance in concert. I have live recordings of some of them and they do suggest how Ultravox may have sounded if John Foxx had stayed with the group. In retrospect, "Vienna" was good, "Rage In Eden" was inspired in places and every subsequent Ultravox album was less and less interesting. A pity, really. March 22, 2007

Stylish Alienation, Synthesized for Your Enjoyment

It was November of '78, punk was dead as proclaimed by Mr. Lydon, and Joy Division's fame in the US was still several years away. Entering the scene was Ultravox with this, their third album, which received airplay on a recently revived KROQ in Pasadena. As a college sophomore working late nights, I listened to many hours of Chuck Randall ("The Midnight Lobotomist") on KROQ. On one such occasion I happened to hear the track "Quiet Men" from this album, and I was so taken with the sparse sound of synthesizers and soaring guitars that I went out the next day and bought the LP. Listening to the album start to finish was a riveting experience. On this album, the raw rage of punk has been replaced by the cold alienation of synthesizers and detached vocals. Even now, nearly 30 years later, the music has a stark power that serves it well.
From the start of Side 1 (now moot with the CD) "Slow Motion" begins the experience with a detached, spacey chorus. "Someone Else's Clothes" is a paranoiac fantasy sung with borderline hysteria by John Foxx, the creative genius behind Systems of Romance (he left after this album and the subsequent Midge Ure-fronted albums never managed to achieve one tenth of the power of this post-punk masterpiece). It is on Side 2 (tracks 6-10) where this album really works its magic. "Quiet Men" is a hypnotic gem, "Dislocation" puts into words the cold disorientation of alienation, "Maximum Acceleration" is possibly the most "drugged out" song of the era (in the words of one of my friends), "When You Walk Through Me" is the blueprint that Gary Numan would follow a few years later to commercial success and "Just for a Moment" is a plaintive coda, slipping into regret and loss while bringing the album to a close.
The album is a seamless whole with very few weak moments and remains an underappreciated masterpiece from its time. John Foxx likewise is today virtually unknown despite making several quintessential New Wave albums. Along with "Unknown Pleasures" this album brilliantely describes the bleak landscape of alienation in late '70s Great Britain and is a must purchase for anyone who is listening to Interpol, Franz Ferdinand or The Editors today. February 7, 2007

memories

Simply a classic. Had to get it on CD as a necessity to a collection. This was the type of synth rock we used to wish was on MTV. "Dislocation" and "Just For A Moment" are two of the best songs ever written and recorded. If you are an old Tubeway Army fan like me you will love this CD. January 4, 2007

The Birth of Eighties Music

On this seminal 1978 record, Ultravox and producer Conny Plank ingeniously cut soaring guitar lines across electronic currents, creating a detached, stylish, expansive sound that just about everyone else would mimic until Nirvana released "Nevermind." "Systems of Romance" is basically the Rosetta Stone of new wave, putting everything Bowie tried to achieve with the Eno trilogy and the subsequent contributions of groups like Wire, Joy Division, and Tubeway Army into perspective. Its songs are strong and stunning enough, both lyrically and musically, to convey originality and wonder even today. September 6, 2006

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