Ultravox Making New Album, Brilliant

Ultravox is back at work on a new studio album, Brilliant, which is due to be released May 28th.

This official behind-the-scenes look at the making of Brilliant doesn’t offer a much insight into the band or their working methods. But, it does give you a tiny preview of the album. which synthpop fans will probably agree, sounds Brilliant.

Ultravox Lineup:

  • Warren Cann – Drums, Electronic Percussion
  • Chris Cross โ€“ Bass, Keyboards
  • Billy Currie โ€“ Keyboards, Violin
  • Midge Ure – Lead Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards

Tracks:

1. “Live Again”
2. “Flow”
3. “Brilliant”
4. “The Change”
5. “Rise”
6. “Remembering”
7. “Hello”
8. “This One”
9. “Fall”
10. “Let It Lie”
11. “Satellite”
12. “Contact”

15 thoughts on “Ultravox Making New Album, Brilliant

  1. I have a dissenting view on stuff like this, old guys getting together, like David Lee Roth and Van Halen getting back together. I’ll understand if people don’t like this comment and thumbs down but it seems like something worth saying.

    The music BUSINESS really is a zero-sum game. There are only so many dollars that people have and that they will spend on music.

    Every dollar that fat old millionaires suck out of the music business to pad their already fat accounts is a dollar that some starving talented desperately poor young person will not get.

    I know fans love their old heroes, but at some point shouldn’t these old people just go retire and let the struggling young people have their time?

    1. Sounds a little bitter.

      Do you really think that its the responsibility of proven artists to get out of the way for unproven ones?

      How about you make talented musicians get out of the way, too, so no-talents can get some attention?

    2. I appreciate where you are coming from, and I think that is a very valid view for some things… like when a baby boomer retires with a paid off house and fat investments, but then takes a paying job “just to have something to do”. That is indeed taking money away from someone else who is trying to make things work. The retiree could instead volunteer their time, take up a hobby, etc. But with art… it’s art. I bought the old Van Halen albums, and I won’t buy the new ones. I didn’t buy the old Ultravox albums and i won’t buy the new one. And I don’t buy music from struggling young people unless it’s actually worth buying. It’s the consumer’s choice, not the artist’s, so it’s a different game.

      And on that note, I find it absurd that so many people who make music today feel entitled to get paid for it just because they make it. You should make it because you love to make it, and if you can turn a profit along the way, great. There are more excellent broke musicians than there are excellent rich musicians. Don’t ever confuse process with paycheck, or success with talent.

      1. xtopher>I bought the old Van Halen albums, and I wonโ€™t buy the new ones

        That’s all true, but I was trying to make a comment about the music BUSINESS as a whole, not just the pop consumer market.

        What I mean is, the bankers who put up money for tours and the the club owners who book acts and the corporations who allocate resources for promotions is a generally zero-sum game (along with the consumer spending side, taken as a whole). So if the business-types are devoting resources to fat old millionaires it comes from the same pool of resources that young acts draw from. So, regardless of whether you or I as individuals buy the new Van Halen stuff, the funding to create the new Van Halen stuff was used to create Van Halen stuff and not, say, some cool new group that an A&R person discovered.

        But I agree with everything you said. No one is entitled to funding and artists should do things because they want to, or have to. However, there is a giant business machine around us all, the entertainment business machine, and I was trying to make a comment about the consequences of fat old millionaires in that business machine, as I understand it.

    3. Despite their reasons to work on a new studio album I have much respect for those “fat old millionaires” that they feel young enough not to sit in an armchair watching stupid TV shows day in day out like many others do in their age. Finally they don’t keep the young people away from making their own music. So what’s the problem?

  2. I had to press dislike, because if a band is good, and ultravox were/are , I mean, Vienna is timeless and has excellent synths on it, then “for their fans”, it’s amazing to do a comeback

    And maybe, just maybe, new generation might be introduced to a band that preceeded and helped inspire some of todays music!

    Comparing ultravox to has been rockers is not a sensible option methinks

  3. I can’t wait for their new album, “Brilliant.” I’ve loved Ultravox since the beginning, and I was so impressed when they released the “Return To Eden” live album.

    I can’t even believe the comment above regarding older musicians moving out of the way for the younger generation. F*** the younger generation! Most of this generation’s music is bubble-gum crap anyway.

    1. Agreed 75%

      Most modern electronica is shite, not only that, everyone copies each other, but there are exceptions

      However, we will admit that the 80s music was good as everyone was looking for new sounds

      Now every bastard wants to wobble lol

  4. I would offer that Ultravox was never really all that great to begin with. I preferred Billy’s work with Gary Numan or Visage. Even the John Foxx era had more misses than hits in the songwriting department. THAT being said, I think that John Foxx has matured as a artist and created some worthwhile music recently. This is about as interesting as the Eagles reunion. They may have reasons for doing this, but as someone who listened to them the first time around, I don’t think I have reason or time enough to tag along…

  5. Now you’ve done it synthtopia – I’m going to be haunted by nightmares of a dubstep Ultravox album!

    Because, even if they don’t do it themselves, the youtube and soundcloud remixes are inevitable… come to think of it, they’re probably already there… ๐Ÿ˜ฎ

  6. I just hope it won’t be “too loud”, but the last bit of the video proves me it will be too loud and distorted to hell. I hate that. I simply cannot listen to the music that lacks dynamics, transients, excitement. Terrible. ๐Ÿ™ I often think “I would like and pay to have the pre-mastering edition of this”.

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