Ultravox - Vienna

2008 digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of the trendsetting Electronic/Art Rock band's 1980 release, the first 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. Replacing original frontman John Foxx with Midge was a bold and brilliant move made even sweeter by Ure's emotional vocal performances and his knack for a good tune. It didn't hurt that the band finally achieved their deserved success with this release. Includes the singles 'Passing Strangers', 'Sleepwalk', 'Vienna' and more. EMI. Album Description

Entertaining and Original!!!

With the debut of Midge Ure, Ultravox goes to a different style. Midge's voice sounds more pop than the original lead singer John Foxx. The instruments are more refined that the previous albums. You can play this CD over and over and not get tired of it. John Foxx's solo works are amazingly wonderfull, not to be missed!!! October 19, 1999

QUALITY NEW WAVE, NOT THAT BOW-WOW-WOW CRAP!

After frequenting many so-called eighties clubs in the bay area, it is disconcerting to realize all the quality music of the new-wave genre has largley gone unnoticed in the dance floors. This album is a prime example of such an overlooking. They prefer to spin vaucous nonsense like "You Spin Me Right Round, Baby" and Bananarama and the like at clubs these days, when they forget the grandeur of music such as this. Ultravox's Vienna is a masterpiece of the new wave era, so completley utilizing the sterile yet emotively haunting atmosphere of early synth pop. I am a big fan of the John Foxx era output, but this album is somehow much stronger than "Rage in Eden" and "Quartet" combined. I would equal this album with the previous three in quality. "Astradyne" has an elegant kraut-rock/prog feel to it, while Mr. X is eerie, forboding pop that makes Gary Numan seem docile. If you are lucky enough to find the Ultravox! albums: (self titled), Ha! Ha! Ha! and Systems of Romance, get them immediatley, then buy this album. Other comparable new wave albums that are equal in scope and beauty to those are Japan's "Gentlemen take Polaroids" and Tuxedomoon's "Desire". August 20, 1999

After The Foxx

The first post-John Foxx Ultravox release finds the band hung over from the former lead singer's post-New Romantic influence: whereas "Systems Of Romance" defined the electro-lush contingent, "Vienna" (the album) strains to break newer ground and only partially succeeds. Missed is departed visiting guitarist Robin Simon; new singer/guitarist Midge Ure, fresh from the not dissimilar Rich Kids, veers the band toward a more conventional and more than slightly bombastic rock sound. The exceptions are the instrumental "Astradyne" wherein Billie Currie saws and soars over a heavy, steady rhythm and "Mr. X," an attempt at space-spy-film noir which cops Foxx's "Touch And Go" (or the other way around). Also effective is "Vienna" (the song), which manages to stay just this side of pretentious in a genre most willing to pretend. "The feeling is gone," declaims Ure in the title track, and it is hard to disagree after the intensity of "Ha! Ha! Ha!" and the wash of! "Systems." Not a bad album by any means, but not the Ultravox of yore, either. (And why the altered, song order?) October 16, 1998

Way ahead of it's time

This is a great album. Get it! June 30, 1998

Don't beleive the critics

After rediscovering this album just recently, I have found the music on it to be a collection of fantasy and sci fi. Sure, they tend to be very mechanistic with their drum beats, but if you listen the words you will see that the variety and depth of their music exists greatly in what they are trying to say. Plus, they have some fun while they are at it. June 12, 1998

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