Island Years [Import]

Ultravox | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 20, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Polygram UK
• ASIN: B0000255OT
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #170,585 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #93 in Music > Indie Music > Alternative Rock > New Wave

Track Listings

1. Dangerous Rhythm

2. My Sex

3. I Want to Be a Machine

4. The Wild, the Beautiful and the Damned

5. Life at Rainbow's End (For All the Tax Exiles on Main Street)

6. Young Savage

7. Slip Away

8. Rock Wrok

9. Hiroshima Mon Amour

10. Distant Smile

11. The Man Who Dies Everyday

12. While I'm Still Alive

13. Slow Motion

14. Quiet Men

15. Cross Fade

16. Just for a Moment

Editorial Reviews

16 track retrospective of their early years with John Foxx instead of Midge Ure. Includes 'Young Savage', 'Slow Motion' and 'Quiet Man'. All tracks are from 1977 & 1978. 1999 release. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars They could have been contenders, September 5, 2000

By 

B. Lynch "the_onewhoknows" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Island Years (Audio CD)

Will John Foxx ever rejoin Ultravox? I certainly hope so!

ULTRAVOX first appeared in the midst of Britain's punk scene in 1977. But it was clear from the cover art of their debut LP, that there was something a bit different about this band.

For one thing, they seemed to project an image of style and upscale tastes, unlike most punk and new wave acts at teh time (who seemed to be interested in showing how trashy and low-life they could be).

In the tradition of David Bowie, and later, Gary Numan, the initial Ultravox band looked very androgynous, and projected an ambiguous sexuality--probably gay [their recordings were produced by Brian Eno, after all], but one could not be certain.

At any rate, the music here has aged rather well. Most of it is taken from 'Ultravox!' and 'HaHaHa', with only a few from 'Systems of Romance'. While it does include 'Slow Motion', a hit song in Boston, parts of New york, and a few other cities with highly sophisticated music commuities, along with 'The Wild The Beautiful and the Damned', and 'Quiet Men', it does not include gems like 'Maximum Acceleration' or 'Saturday Night in the City of The Dead'. For those, you need to go to the original Island CD's, now only available as UK imports.

While CD's released after John Foxx's departure had some well-received European singles, they lost their compelling visual focus, and became just another minor pop act.

I would have given this CD 5 stars if it had been remastered to capture the full dynamic range and bass energy of the master tapes. Unfortunately, in what has become a depressing tradition, Island records has chosen to release this recording using exactly the same (rather thin, dynamically flat) mix they had for the LP's. Given the current economics of the music business, there is simply no excuse for record companies to continue to reissue music with inferior, low-tech sound quality (particularly a high-tech/techno band like Ultravox). Given the penny pinching philosophy extant at most record companies, it's little wonder that so many people aren't buying.

If you can find copies, I recommend that you get ULTRAVOX!, HA HA HA, or SYSTEMS OF ROMANCE. Until then, this CD is going to have to suffice.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Want More!, May 12, 2000

By 

Jimmy Rico (San Marcos, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Island Years (Audio CD)

My introduction to Ultravox was with the album Vienna which I thought was great! Heavy synth with heavy guitar. I bought a few more Midge Ure fronted Ultravox albums after that but then one day at the record shop, I saw an Ultravox! album fronted by John Foxx called "Three Into One". I bought it.

WHOA! This stuff blew all those other albums away in a heartbeat. It collected songs from the groups first three albums fronted by Foxx. I never viewed the Midge Ure fronted Ultravox in such high regard again although I still like them.

This collection contains all the great songs from "Three Into One" but throws in a few more songs from the first album and 3 songs I've never heard before. This incarnation of Ultravox! is hard to classify musically but that's a good thing. My favorite song, "I Want To Be A Machine" sounds like a fusion of David Bowie and Nick Cave while other songs have a reggae/punk/techno sound.

I've been searching for their second album "Ha Ha Ha" for years now without any success. Maybe I'll find it soon. Wish me luck.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you can't get hold of the individual albums...get this., October 11, 2001

By 

A. G. Bailey "Dadge" (Birmingham, - United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Island Years (Audio CD)

I find punk sometimes a little hard to listen to (and Ultravox's first two albums were real art-school punk, not the manufactured Sex-Pistols-type), and a lot of these songs are no exception. But any album which includes classic tracks like "Hiroshima Mon Amour", "Rockwrok", "My Sex" and (best of all) "The Man Who Dies Every Day" deserves five stars. This album is a compilation and the three separate albums the tracks are taken from were released on CD by Island a few years ago....