INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES
Slash JUNE 1977 - by Claude Bessy
ULTRAVOX: ULTRAVOX!
Satday Night In The City Of The Dead / Life At Rainbow's End (For All The Tax Exiles On Main Street / Slip Away / I Want To Be A Machine / Wide Boys / Dangerous Rhythm / The Lonely Hunter / The Wild, The Beautiful And The Damned / My Sex
Good cover, especially inside. May be too slick and trendy, but effective.
First song (Satday Night) good. Fast, urgent. Works. Gives hope... then Life At Rainbow's End. Hmmm... singer sounds like The Quick... that's terrible... also drums too flashy, rolling and showing off... hope diminishes. By Slip Away annoyance starts. Cute pop ditty with voice even more wimpy. Nice progression for a while... but all too pseudo-heavy. Let me go. Countless breaks of pace, like early Roxy but no magic. Song ends like shit, "I wanna be a machine"... good title... could be a killer with a name like that... but no, the worst happens: Voice imitation Bowie, acoustic guitar behind... can't take it. Unbearable. Off with it.
Side Two starts okay, a bitt Mott, mean even. Then goes in circles with useless theatrics and special effects. Tries too hard. Dangerous Rhythm is quite safe, that damn wispy voice negates whatever catchy hook they had there. Longest sentence so far. Thanks. The Lonely Hunter... stupid title... vague '50-ish vocals first... quickly turns to English vaudeville diction... help... lead guitar particularly obnoxious... yawn. Last attempt called My Sex. Experimental they become, what the fuck?! Not that bad, actually, poetry ramblings... aims at sophistico crowd. John Cale not impressed I'm sure... when he does it it's disturbing, here only vaguely interesting. Is this it? Yeah, they are finished.
Eno produced that. Bad move there. Whole thing fizzles out 'cause too many directions, imitations, influences... technical competence and good looks don't help much if originality and passion are not there... Ultravox (why not Frigidaire or Norelco?) fails to excite or just puzzle... riding on thin edge of pretentious bloated crap... almost there... real careful, guys, could be good (Satday Night great possible single?) but now almost laughable... a total change of direction needed... relax, don't try so hard... OVER.
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