Ultravox - Rage in Eden

2008 digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of the trendsetting Electronic/Art Rock band's 1981 release, the second of their albums to feature Midge Ure on lead vocals and guitar. Includes a bonus CD featuring relevant B-sides, live tracks, rarities and previously unreleased tracks. Though not as successful as their prior release, Vienna, Rage In Eden was a brilliant step forward for the band, sounding unlike anything else on the market at the time. It would be another year or two before the music scene caught up with Ultravox...but by then, the band had already moved on! Features the singles 'The Voice', 'The Thin Wall' and more. EMI. Album Description

Accent on youth

Back then....crossing borders, new roads and inventions, originality...Yes the eighties !!! I own this album both on vinyl as CD, however this special edition not ( yet ).
This album could be launched as brand new right now,all you young musiclovers wouldn't know the difference. Ofcourse the production is a bit backdated. But only for the trained ear. Keep in mind that Ultravox is at the base of the alternative rock we know today. Together with some other greats such as; Gary Numan, Talking Heads, The Cure and the Clash. Before any other rocklover gets stepped on her/his toes....I'm not forgetting the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin AC/DC and whatnot.
What can i say....you're lucky to be treated with all the extra's. October 26, 2008

A Darker album from Ultravox, beauty in haunting truth.

"recorded in [unhappy circumstances]" (i forget the exact quote) the tension shows in this technically good but darker album. _Accent on Youth_ exudes emotional pain and desire, it is such a great anthem, but as a few have noted, it is not something to partake of often. it is something best listened to only a few times a year, perhaos like the japanese gourmand who tempts fate with the delicasy of Fugu.

Ultravox and synth-pop fans, this is a good thing to have. Others, it might be wasted on. September 28, 2008

a short shelf life

Ultravox is like that container of cottage cheese on the dairy shelf at your favorite supermarket. It tastes great for a time until it reaches the expiration date and then you just have to throw it out. I enjoyed this and many other recordings of the Midge Ure-era when they were new and fresh, but listening to them now makes me wonder if they sounded dated and hopelessly out of place even before the decade of the 80's came to its final conclusion. This music came out at a time of great excess and a live for the moment attitude. Few bands in my mind have been able to trancend this highly disposable era and unfortunately, Ultravox is not one of them. Is there a foul odor emanating from your CD/record collection? March 1, 2008

the best synth album of the 80s

This is my favorite synthesizer album of the 80s, and one of my favorite albums of the entire New Wave. It's dark, chilly, haunting, exciting, and, yes, probably does have some of the most pretentious lyrics ever pressed to vinyl. I listen to it on CD these days, and I still hear new sounds, new rhythms, that I didn't hear on the LP I bought in 1982.
October 22, 2007

What ages well? Not this--pompous, dated, and embarassing

If you are a fan of this band and listened to them back in the early 80's, you can skip this review, b/c you will certainly disagree. If not however, I would skip this, and all later albums by Ultravox. The reason? They sound dated and pompous, with the music sounding like thin 80's synth, the kind SNL made fun of on 'Sprockets' ("Now, vee dance..."). Imagine robotic breakdancers and you get the point. I recently listened to Vienna, Rage in Eden, Quartet, and Lament again for the first time again since the mid 80's, and they have not aged well at all. Part of the problem for me is that Midge Ure, both as a vocalist and as a songwriter, tries and fails to operatic and grandiose, tackling themes that aim to be profound (check out the laughably bad "The Voice" on this album for an example), and it brings the songs way down, making them sound unsuccessful attempts at depth.

To my ear, even the sound on these albums is thin, easily classifiable as "80's synth rock". This is a real shame, considering their 1978 album Systems of Romance is a superb fusion of punk/new wave energy combined with electronic/synth sounds, and with much better/more inventive guitar playing courtesy of Robin Simon and a more robust production job from Conny Plank, who thinned out the sound on Vienna and Rage In Eden for some inexplicable reason.

Music is of course subjective, and a large part of why I dislike this and most other Ultravox albums is due to Midge Ure, who is just embarassing. If you are interested in hearing Ultravox at their best, listen to Systems of Romance, which has John Foxx leading the band. Apart from being a much cooler, less melodramatically overwraught vocalist, Foxx presents much more interesting themes than Midge Ure. Ure sings about entire movements of new european youth and cold war intrigue (he seems to want to be Graham Greene or something) while Foxx sings about personal impressions (a sleepy conversation, the taste of snow being like tin, the change of the seasons). It's for this reason that I feel John Foxx's approach on 'Systems' has aged much better than Ure's failed attempt at grandiosity. Think of Midge Ure as one of these twerpy British New Romantics, and John Foxx as a more reserved, impressionistic singer/lyricist. Finally, Foxx is a lot less slick sounding than Ure in his vocal delivery.

Along with Visage, Flock of Seagulls, Human League, and most Gary Numan, Ultravox were at the vanguard of a style of 80's synth rock that just sounds horribly dated now, having aged very badly. Ironic that on a lower budget and with less advanced equipment, Ultravox were able to put out a stellar recording that combined punk energy and machine like synths in Systems of Romance, only to later churn out half a dozen albums or so of pseudo european new romantic drivel for the rest of their career. It might have been the rage ion '81, but today it's fuel for SNL skits.

August 1, 2007

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