One of the albums to benefit directly from the surge in record shop visits in late 1984, as people piled in to purchase Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?, was Ultravox’s The Collection: a genuinely long-awaited greatest hits compilation. A celebration – and sadly, a career-staller – it was a perfect distillation of their highly commercial new romanticism.
Of all the high-concept, high-drama swishing around in early 80s pop, there was always something extremely grandiose about Ultravox, especially at the singles end of their output.
Warren Cann, Chris Cross and Billy Currie had honed their craft with John Foxx before Midge Ure joined in 1980 – trained not only in boy band Slik and prototype new wave act Rich Kids, but also Thin Lizzy, he was a whole new proposition for Ultravox.
As a result, each release sashayed in with an inbuilt theatricality, with Ure as on-point as his sidies. Vienna still does that bold, breathtaking thing it always did, as do the smart robotics of Sleepwalk, Passing Strangers and All Stood Still.
The original Collection is now augmented with in-era B-sides – noir shorts compared to the blockbusters of their flips – and updated hits (Same Old Story is so 1986 – horn section? Check; female BVs? Check). The 2012 reunion tracks do what all reformed groups are supposed to do and sound as though they could have come off earlier, much-loved albums.
Steven Wilson, among others, reimagines some of the songs into the 12” mixes that never were. This is incredibly effective on The Thin Wall, the beautifully obtuse lead single from Rage In Eden. As a student of the 80s, Wilson knows exactly what he’s doing: these are loving extensions rather than mere filler.
The deluxe box is rounded out with all the relevant videos and BBC appearances; it’s a veritable audio-visual banquet. The meticulous attention to detail that has run through all the Ultravox reissues continues, and this one really is essential.
The Collection is on sale now via Chrysalis.
