Put The Needle On The Record - Week #55

Put The Needle On The Record Week #55 Ultravox - Systems Of Romance

For this weeks feature we go back to September 1978 and the Ultravox album "Systems Of Romance".

This was the bands third album and the last to feature John Foxx as the lead singer and is an album I discovered by accident a year after it was released. Simon Bates was interviewing Gary Numan and Gary chose a few tracks to be played on the show, one was Kraftwerk's "Neon Lights" and there was a track off this album, I can't remember what track was played but I know I really liked it and the next day I purchased this and the Kraftwerk album "The Man Machine" on the strength of the tracks that I heard on the radio, definitely purchased from HMV on Market Street in Manchester. When I got home I played the album and was blown away by it and I certainly undwerstand why Gary Numan was so heavily influenced bt it on the Tubeway Army album "Replicas", as with Numan's album, "Systems Of Romance" fused synthesizers with guitar, it is one of my all time favourite albums and playing it as I write this feature I still love it to bits, how the band were dropped from their label after the poor performance of the album in the charts is something I am staggered at, it is a brilliant album.

Interestingly John Foxx recorded a track called "Systems Of Romance" for his album "The Garden"!

It is one of those albums on which I like every track, standouts are "Quiet Men", "Dislocation", "Maximum Acceleration", "Just For A Moment" and Slow Motion". The album was co-produced by German producer Conny Plank, who went on to produce the Ultravox album "Vienna".

Two singles were released off the album, "Quiet Men" and "Slow Motion" neither of which made the UK Singles chart, however, "Slow Motion" was re-released as a single in 1981 and peaked at number 33 in the UK Singles Chart, the B-Side was the album track "Dislocation".

Amazingly the album failed to chart in the UK, which is criminal!!

Track Listing

Slow Motion
I Can't Stay Long
Someone Else's Clothes
Blue Light
Some Of Them
Quiet Men
Dislocation
Maximum Acceleration
When You Walk Through Me
Just For A Moment

If you have this album in your collection, dig it out and give it a spin!