Ultravox - Brilliant
Dull and pompous record from the no-longer-relevant Ure and co
Does the world really need another album, the first in 26 years, from the ‘classic’ Midge Ure-era Ultravox – a group of negligible lasting impact on music even at their mid-80s arena synth-pop zenith? The Trade Descriptions Act-violating Brilliant is another of those new old records for diehard fans to apologise for while quietly ignoring the fact that such a half-arsed exercise in nostalgia merely craps on their cherished memories.
It’s the sound of a band who either couldn’t make their music seem relevant or couldn’t be bothered to: a desolately uninteresting lunar landscape of portentous piano melodies and wheezy antiquated synth sounds, booming drums, bombastic guitars and Ure’s clenched vocals swathed in ridiculous echo, echo, echo, as if their dull pompousness requires repeating, repeating, repeating.