Vienna is a timeless classic that belongs in every record collection, and it is without doubt one of the best synth pop records ever. However, this album became a phenomenal milestone because of the unforgettable (innovating) synth pop tracks like Passionate Reply or Private Lives. Vienna was a world hit and the LP was a bestseller. Perhaps you heard this song a thousand times, but it’s still brilliant. Western Promise has paranoid electronic sounds, until Vienna starts. X was recorded in German ( Herr X) as a B-side for the German release of the single Vienna. The song evokes strange, even anxious feelings. X in which traditional synth pop is perfectly linked to the Kraftwerk sound. Vienna dominated the LP, but there is also a track like Mr. The timeless sounds of Ultravox perfectly fitted the Cold War, even though some morons thought they were fascists. Midge Ure didn’t wear a neon coloured suit, but a simple white raincoat that made him look more as an ice cold German than a hip Brit. Their texts were for some controversial, and they were miles away from the New Romantics scene that was dominated by pretty boys like Simon LeBon. And in some way, that’s weird as Ultravox was more than just charts synth pop. It took a while, but soon Midge Ure would become one of the many 80s icons. On New Europeans we hear for the first time the new Ultravox-voice. He did it before with DAF, and on the previous Ultravox lp Systems Of Romance too. In the instrumental opener Astradyne you hear references to Tangerine Dream, and it is certainly no coincidence that the producer was Krautrock legend Conny Plank. It is a great mistake to think that Vienna is the album with that one big hit, because their icy synthpop is a lot more than that. One thing was clear though: the new Ultravox sound was unique.

It took a while before the audience appreciated the specific style of Midge Ure, although a lot of synth pop fans already knew him from Visage. Meanwhile, Robin Simon left the band, and on the first album with the new line-up you could hardly hear a guitar. The raw post-punk that was a trademark of the first three Ultravox records was completely gone. Like Bryan Ferry dealt with the Emo-era Roxy Music, Midge Ure created a complete new Ultravox that has nothing todo with the former sound of the John Foxx periode. Today it’s hard to imagine, but in the early 80's many Ultravox fans were disappointed when Vienna was released.

Ultravox vienna.