4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Somehow we drifted off too far..., August 7, 2007
This review is from: Three Into One (Audio CD)
The editorial review (above) seems to have misidentified this album, which is in fact a digest of the first three albums ('77-'79) by English electropop pioneers Ultravox. The CD offers a well-balanced summary of the early phase of the band's career, when it was fronted by singer John Foxx and was altogether a different beast from its later (and more commercially successful) Midge Ure-fronted incarnation.
Those familiar with Ure's uber-smooth and overwrought Ultravox might be surprised by the somewhat aleatory and chaotic feel of the band under Foxx. The main influences here are Krautrock, early punk, and Eno-period Roxy Music, and while Foxx may not be as operatic as Ure, nor the band as tight and sleek as it was later to become, the product (while admittedly derivative) is far more vital and satisfying than it ever was after Foxx's departure. "Young Savage" is razor-sharp camp (imagine the Buzzcocks fronted by Gary Numan); "Slow Motion" and "Hiroshima Mon Amour" suggest Japan in their less selfconscious moments.
Those interested in such current acts as Ladytron and Interpol will do well to investigate this seminal, but largely unrecognized, influence on modern electro.
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