Word: ultravox
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Dreamtime isn't that interesting musically, either. The Stranglers have the synthesized textures and technical polish of Ultravox or the Human League, but they lack those bands' ability to give their songs the pop melodies and hooks that keep listeners from forgetting the songs immediately after hearing them. In other words, most of this music is pleasant and unobtrusive enough to be perfectly in place in a dentist's office...
...album charts but import sales of its debut LP and singles were so strong that the British punk quartet was able to sell out a 12-date tour of 2-3,000 seat halls in February, 1979. English new wave bands 999, Magazine, Gang of Four, Penetration, Ultravox and Sham 69 toured America without the benefit of a Stateside recording contract--acts of unprecedented chutzpah and optimism--and found enthusiastic crowds already familiar with the music packing their club dates. The Gang of Four and 999 subsequently landed domestic label deals...
...tracks, "He's a Liquid" and "Touch an Go," are leftover from Ultravox's final days. Neither one makes much sense as pure electronics either musically or lyrically, but Foxx obvioulsy felt that the "tunes" were too good to lose. He has always been a melody man at heart, and here the power of the chord change rules over the power of the machine. Chalk this up as the disc's only conceptual mistake; they are still stimulating songs...
When he wrote for Ultravox, Foxx tended toward the oblique and metaphorical. His compositions, like "Lonely Hunter" from the first album or "The Man Who Dies Every Day" from Ha! Ha! Ha!, often became obscure and laughably existential. On Metamatic, none of the images insult the intelligence, with the exception of "He's a Liquid." The words on this album are fragments pieced together from a collective past. A line like "Some time ago a figure strolled along the esplanade" from "A Blurred Girl" evokes a certain misty, mushy image in each of us, and linked together, these recollections form...
...Today, Ultravox languishes under the guidance of Midge Ure, imported from Thin Lizzy. John Foxx, though, was thrown out at just the right time. Numan has made him an honorary godfather figure, and Foxx plays the role well. Just when most of us thought he had gone the way of all of the honest idealists trapped in a music business they didn't create, Foxx redesigned himself for the 1980s and triumphed...