Album Review: Ultravox - Brilliant

Twenty-eight years is a bloody long time between drinks, yet Ultravox have fallen off the wagon, coming together to release new album, Brilliant. It's an incredibly brave move, something most of their fanbase would never have dreamt would or could ever happen. That said, much has come to pass in that time, and although Brilliant has some inspired moments, the album ultimately comes off as a poor imitation.

Seeing the band reunite with Midge Ure makes it clear where Brilliant is aiming. When Ultravox was formed, then with singer John Foxx, they were an exciting, experimental synth punk band before anyone knew what that even meant. Yet around 1979, when Foxx was out and Ure brought in, Ultravox moved into the slipstream of the New Wave Romantics tsunami, gaining massive popularity on the back of some enthusiastic yet mostly perfunctory electro pop. Brilliant is a blatant snatch at that past glory, and with the grand, stadium-filling bombast of opening track, Live, it looks like they may achieve that.

But when the melodramatic familiarity of the title track rolls around, things rapidly begin sliding downhill. Instead of sounding refreshing and reinvigorated, Brilliant comes across like a B-sides and rarities package hastily put together by an unscrupulous record company after one of the members has died in a horrific plane crash. The synths sound pre-recorded, the production is overtly overwrought, and when the piano tinkles on Remembering, the temptation to gag violently is hard to fight off.

Although the epic pop of Lie and affecting ballad, Contact, provide a pleasant reminder why Ultravox were a cherished '80s pop act, Brilliant on the whole proves to be anything but.