Quartet

by Ultravox

Overview

With the successes of Vienna and its follow-up, Rage in Eden, Ultravox's position in the music scene was unassailable, further fortified by frontman Midge Ure's foray into solo-dom with the summer 1982 hit cover of the Walker Brothers' "No Regrets." The band's "Reap the Wild Wind" followed it up the U.K. chart that fall, a taster for the band's sixth album. And what a portentous taste it was. While "Wind" buffeted and whooshed once again around nostalgia for a past never lived, "Hymn" (its melody lifted from "Mourning Star" by Ure's last band, the Zones) wrestled with faith in a faithless age and prayed its way up the chart later that fall, while the dirge "Visions in Blue" saw the spring caught in its icy grip. But it was the fourth song spun off the album, "We Came to Dance," that best defined the overall themes of the set. Having helped create a movement renowned for its fashion victims and superficiality, Ultravox recoiled from the Frankenstein they'd birthed. "The Song (We Go)" may have been a cry of welcome, but both "Dance" and "Serenade" make clear the music scene's terrifying capacity to unleash both Dionysian abandon and militaristic conformity. "When the Scream Subsides" further fuels the album's existential angst, which reaches its emotional nadir on the suicidal "Cut and Run." With their toe-tapping rhythms, billowing synths, and rousing melodies, one is often tempted to ignore the darkness of Ultravox's themes, but with Quartet, the band deliberately made that nigh on impossible. ~ Dave Thompson

Product Details

Release Date:	07/21/2023
Label:	Chrysalis Records
UPC:	0810098501378
Rank:	34297

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Reap The Wild Wind
2. Serenade
3. Mine For Life
4. Hymn
5. Visions In Blue
6. When The Scream Subsides
7. We Came To Dance
8. Cut And Run
9. The Sing (We Go)

Disc 2

10. Reap the Wild Wind [Single Version]
11. Hosanna (In Excelsis Deo)
12. Hymn [Single Version]
13. Monument
14. The Thin Wall [Live at Hammersmith Odeon]
15. Oct. 1981
16. Visions In Blue [Single Version]
17. Break Your Back
18. Reap The Wild Wind [Live at the Hammersmith Odeon Dec. 1982]

Disc 3

19. We Came To Dance [Single Version]
20. Overlook [Short Version]
21. Reap The Wild Wind [Live at Hammersmith 1982]
22. When The Scream Subsides [Live at Hammersmith 1982]
23. The Thin Wall [Live at Hammersmith 1982]
24. New Europeans [Live at Hammersmith 1982]
25. We Stand Alone [Live at Hammersmith 1982]
26. I Remember (Death In The Afternoon) [Live at Hammersmith 1982]
27. Visions In Blue [Live at Hammersmith 1982]

Disc 4

28. Mr. X [Live at Hammersmith 1982]
29. Sleepwalk [Live at Hammersmith 1982]
30. The Voice [Live at Hammersmith 1982]
31. Vienna [Live at Hammersmith 1982]
32. Astradyne [Live at Hammersmith 1982]
33. All Stood Still [Live at Hammersmith 1982]
34. Passing Strangers [Live at Hammersmith 1982]
35. Mine For Life [Live at Hammersmith 1982]
36. Hymn [Live at Hammersmith 1982]

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Ultravox   Primary Artist
Midge Ure   Guitar,Vocals,Synthesizer
Billy Currie   Violin,Keyboards,Synthesizer
Chris Cross   Bass,Vocals,Synthesizer
Daniel Mitchell   Vocals (Background)
Warren Cann   Drums,Percussion
Colin King   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Bob Parr   Engineer
Geoff Emerick   Engineer
John Hudson   Mixing,Engineer,Mixing Engineer,Sound Production
Ron Pendragon   Engineer
Mark Freegard   Engineer
Midge Ure   Composer
George Martin   Producer
Billy Currie   Composer
Ultravox   Engineer,Producer,Mixing Engineer
Jon Jacobs   Assistant,Assistant Engineer
Bill Philipot   Coloring
Murray Dvorkin   Engineer
Chris Cross   Composer
Daniel Mitchell   Instrumentation
Paul Lindsay   Engineer
Warren Cann   Composer
Colin King   Instrumentation
Ken Kennedy   Drawing,Illustrations