Brilliant (album)

Brilliant
Ultravox studio album
Publication (s)	May 25, 2012
Label (s)	EMI Records
Genre (s)	Rock , new wave , synth pop
Title (number)	12
occupation	Vocals / guitar / keyboard: Midge Ure Piano / violin / keyboard: Billy Currie Bass / Keyboard: Chris Cross Drums: Warren Cann
production	Stephen Lipson
Studio (s)	The Lakehouse, Montreal Sarm Studios, Battery Studios, London Environment Studio, Bath Studio City Sound, Los Angeles
chronology Ingenuity (1994) Brilliant -
Single release April 17, 2012 Brilliant (radio single)

Brilliant is the eleventh studio album by the British band Ultravox . It contains newly produced material for the first time in more than 25 years after the comeback of the commercially successful cast of Midge Ure , Billy Currie , Chris Cross and Warren Cann in the 1980s . The last jointly recorded album Lament was released in 1984, two years later U-Vox appeared with Mark Brzezicki instead of Cann on drums. Under the same band name, Ingenuity came out in 1994, the last studio album to date, in which Currie and four other musicians were involved.

History of origin

On the occasion of the second concert series Return to Eden , Ultravox was contacted by Universal Music Germany in spring 2010 . The negotiations about the production of a new studio album were initially shaped by the search for suitable framework conditions. Eventually, Midge Ure, Billy Currie and Chris Cross went to Ure's private vacation home in the Laurentine Mountains, northwest of Montreal . With the help of notebooks and keyboards, several small recording studios were set up in which the three musicians could independently refine the ideas they had developed together. Warren Cann's involvement in songwriting remained limited due to work commitments in his Los Angeles home . The recordings in Canada began in September 2010 and initially lasted until the official announcement of the album in January 2011. The contract with Universal Music, which was announced at the same time, was later broken up due to musical and artistic differences of opinion.

The band decided to finish the album anyway and received support from the record label EMI Records . Ure, Currie and Cross moved to their own UK studios, while the drum parts were recorded by Cann in Los Angeles. The production was done by Grammy Awards winner Stephen Lipson at Sarm Studios in London and Tom Weir at Studio City Sound in Los Angeles. Lipson had worked with numerous bands and artists from the 1980s such as Frankie Goes to Hollywood , Propaganda , Grace Jones and Annie Lennox . Studio recordings in England and the United States were completed in late 2011. More than a year after the initial announcement, the official release date was announced on March 29, 2012.

Brilliant is a bitter sweet comment on pop culture. It's about the other side of fame and success, a song about the bright young things that ignore the consequences of fame with the ensuing burn out rate. In a way it should read Brilliant with a question mark.

“ Brilliant is a bittersweet comment on pop culture. It's about the flip side of fame and success, a song about the young hopeful hoppers who ignore the consequences of fame and the rate of fade that results from them. In a way, you have to put a question mark on Brilliant . "

- Midge Ure in an interview with Stereoboard.com , April 5, 2012

Cover design

The album cover, designed by the record label in-house, was presented on April 24, 2012. The design is kept in dark gray tones and shows a scroll in the form of a question mark made of thick marbled material. On the inside of the roll there is a black lettering with the band name “ULTRAVOX”, whereby the horizontal line of the letter “A” has been replaced by a thinner, slightly transverse line. The punching out of the word "BRILLIANT" on the opposite side of the roll lets the album title appear again below the band name through incidence of light. While the "A" was falsified in the same way, the second "I" is upside down and resembles an exclamation mark.

instrumentation

In addition to “classic” rock instruments such as drums , electric guitar and electric bass, Ultravox mainly used digital sounds based on Virtual Studio Technology (VST). Used came Apple MacBook Pro as a hardware and a variety of virtual instruments - for example, Nexus Company reFX - and the software sequencer Logic Pro . Billy Currie's analog synthesizer ARP Odyssey can also be heard in four songs ( Flow , Change , Rise and Hello ), which has become a sonic trademark of the band on previous albums such as Systems of Romance and Vienna . Currie also plays the electric violin in some pieces .

The Melodyne software was used for subsequent changes to polyphonic recordings to support the compositional work . Midge Ure confirmed additional corrections in intonation in an interview . It remains unclear whether the product also played a role in the mastering of the album.

During the live performances, as on the previous Return to Eden tours, the GForce ImpOSCar2, Minimonsta, Oddity and Virtual String Machine (VSM) plug-ins were used to emulate the synthesizers from the 1980s, including Oberheim OB-X and Moog Minimoog , ARP Odyssey, ELKA Rhapsody 610 and Yamaha SS-30 . The equipment also included a Yamaha CP-300 stage piano and MIDI remote controllers of the Novation ReMOTE 49 SL, CME UF7 and Roland A-800 Pro types . Drummer Warren Cann used a Yamaha DTXtreme for the percussion .

Track list

1. Live - 4:11
2. Flow - 4:24
3. Brilliant - 4:22
4. Change - 4:30
5. Rise - 4:04
6. Remembering - 3:43
7. Hello - 5:40
8. One - 4:43
9. Case - 4:07
10. Lie - 4:35
11. Satellite - 3:58
12. Contact - 4:31

Publications and chart successes

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Brilliant   DE 27 06/11/2012 (2 weeks)   AT 59 06/08/2012 (1 week)   CH 67 06/10/2012 (1 week)   UK 21st 06/09/2012 (1 week)

The album was released on May 25, 2012 in Germany. The title track Brilliant was released as a radio single for the purpose of sales promotion and played for the first time on April 17, 2012 on Ken Bruce on BBC Radio 2 . In the run-up to the release, excerpts of the songs were presented on the official microsite as well as on online music services and in Internet forums .

With 6100 records sold, the album entered the UK album charts at number 21. This gave the band the best ranking since the 1986 U-Vox . In Germany, the album was ranked 27th in the first week and remained in the rating the following week. The album reached further chart placements in Austria with 59th place, in Switzerland with 67th place and in Belgium (182nd / 185th), Italy (84th), Poland (28th), Scotland (13th), Sweden (36th). ) and the Czech Republic (42nd).

On September 24, 2012, an EP with the single Live and three additional tracks was released on several online music services:

1. Live (Single Edit)
2. 7/8 (studio instrumental)
3. We Stand Alone (Live Return to Eden Part II 2010 )
4. Astradyne (Live Return to Eden Part II 2010 )

A vinyl edition of Brilliant was also released in mid-October 2012 .

tour

Ultravox at Hammersmith Apollo , London , September 27, 2012

Ultravox in Berlin's C-Halle (formerly Columbiahalle ), October 25, 2012

In autumn 2012 a tour with 14 concerts took place in Great Britain. The concerts initially consisted of two sets without an opening act with material from Brilliant and previous albums. The series of events started on September 21, 2012 at Bristol Colston Hall and ended on October 8, 2012 in Gateshead . The recording in London's Hammersmith Apollo on September 27, 2012 with 24 of the 27 tracks played is available as a double CD or MP3 download from Live Here Now . Further concert dates in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and other European countries followed in the period from October 10th to November 8th, 2012. The two setlists were combined, shortened and sorted differently for some performances.

A making-of DVD Brilliant Beginnings documenting the creation of the album was added to the tour book.

reception

According to the online magazine laut.de , the band makes a “surprisingly fresh and fresh impression”. In contrast to other artists, who managed to achieve an authentic combination of old and new only with some compromises, the “mix of old Ultravox DNA and contemporary sound elements” works. Although none of the twelve songs provide “sublime moments” - like the well-known singles from earlier albums that helped the band to immortality - Ultravox managed to “credibly transport the spirit of their genre into modern times”.

Stephan Schelle writes for the music circus magazine that the band is “impressively able to produce intelligently made New Wave / Electropop that also sounds timeless”. The album stands out due to its "beautifully crafted songs" and "catchy melodies" and is finally referred to as a "terrific work".

Stefan Reinke from the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung also states that the album “sends the listener on an emotional journey into the past from the very first note and yet is always up to date”. The electric piano, the spherical synthesizers, the restrained drums, the juicy bass, the sparse but precise guitars and of course Midge Ure's voice just sound the way they have to to sound like Ultravox. The enjoyment of Ultravox takes place first and foremost in the stomach, not in the head. An album "for the permanent loop".

The program magazine Hörzu honors the comeback with 4 out of 5 points and underlines the recognition value of the characteristic Ultravox sound. The "old work" redeems the "promise largely" derived from the "full-bodied title".

Jus Forrest from The Electricity Club attests that the album has a contemporary sound, despite the four musicians' long creative break, without giving up the specific sound patterns from the 1980s as the band's trademark. Ultravox manages again to capture the “magical atmosphere reminiscent of old black and white films”. The band is entering "familiar territory", but at the same time making a "confident step forward in the direction of modernist optimization". The result is not only brilliant , but also a brilliant new beginning.

Martin Townsend of the Daily Express awards 4 out of 5 points and certifies the band an "overwhelmingly lively sound". The epic “Sturm und Drang” (this established German phrase is also quoted in the English original) from earlier times is present on the album. Even if purists could complain about a lack of sophistication, it is difficult not to be enchanted by the "wonderfully old-fashioned melodrama".

In contrast, Martyn Young from musicOMH states in his critical evaluation with 2.5 out of 5 points that the album does not do justice to its title and that it sounds “extremely outdated” and “uninspired”. It is characterized by “boring and morose piano ballads” in “overloaded and pompous songs” with “hardly memorable melodies” and “outdated synthesizer sounds” that give way to “more interesting sounding moments” only in the second half of the album. Precisely because the album only satisfies the old fan base, it does not go beyond a "nostalgic view".

Jon O'Brien from Allmusic places the album in the middle with 2.5 out of 5 points and criticizes in particular that the band does not reveal any stylistic development compared to the Vienna era after the long creative break . The first tracks show well-known stadium rock and dark synth pop, but as the season progresses, Brilliant “quickly loses momentum” and offers “cumbersome, progressive ballads in a row”. In view of the "immeasurably monotonous fare" it is difficult for the listener to hold out until the end.

Web links

• Brilliant at Allmusic (English)
• Interview with Midge Ure and Warren Cann in Studio City, California on YouTube , November 19, 2011
• Interview with Midge Ure at Bodystyler ElectroZine, May 25, 2012

Individual evidence

1. ^ New Album & Tour Press Release. Ultravox official website, March 29, 2012, accessed March 29, 2012 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Jon Stickler: Ultravox Talk About New Studio Album 'Brilliant' & Unveil Artwork. Stereoboard.com, May 3, 2012, accessed May 17, 2012 . 
3. ↑ Warren Cann was not mentioned as a songwriter on the CD.
4. ↑ New Ultravox album confirmed, plus forthcoming live EP. Ultravox official website, January 20, 2011, accessed March 29, 2012 . 
5. ↑ Why it's not goodnight Vienna as Ultravox come back. Yorkshire Post, June 15, 2012, accessed June 16, 2012 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b} Jon Stickler: Ultravox Talk About New Album 'Brilliant' & Unveil Behind-The-Scenes Studio Video - Watch Now. Stereoboard.com, April 5, 2012, accessed April 5, 2012 . 
7. ↑ "Brilliant" cover revealed. (No longer available online.) EMI Music Germany, April 24, 2012, archived from the original on May 25, 2012 ; Retrieved April 25, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Jus Forrest, Chi Ming Lai: An Interview with Ultravox's Billy Currie. The Electricity Club, May 22, 2012, accessed October 7, 2012 . 
9. ↑ Fredrik Svensson: Midge Ure - Ultravox: Visions of brilliance. Release Musik & Media, June 27, 2012, accessed October 7, 2012 . 
10. ↑ Midge Ure - If I Was. Celemony Software, accessed October 8, 2012 . 
11. ↑ Chi Ming Lai: Ultravox Rise of the Soft Synth. The Electricity Club, October 4, 2012, accessed October 7, 2012 . 
12. ↑ Yamaha Podcast - January 2009. S&T Audio Dolphin Music, December 31, 2008, accessed October 7, 2012 . 
13. ↑ Mark Forster: British Drum Icon - Warren Cann. MikeDolbear.com, accessed October 7, 2012 . 
14. ↑ charts.de: Ultravox - Brilliant in the German album charts
15. ↑ austriancharts.at: Ultravox - Brilliant in the Austrian charts
16. ↑ hitparade.ch: Ultravox - Brilliant in the Swiss hit parade
17. ↑ officialcharts.com: - Brilliant in the UK charts
18. ^ Alan Jones: Official Charts Analysis: Gary Barlow LP sells 40k. Music Week: Intent Media, June 3, 2012, accessed June 4, 2012 . 
19. ↑ Tour pre-sale details & link. Ultravox official website, May 15, 2012, accessed May 17, 2012 . 
20. ^ Jon Stickler, Ultravox Unveil Further Plans For 'Brilliant' Tour. Stereoboard.com, August 31, 2012, accessed September 1, 2012 . 
21. ↑ European tour dates - more info. Ultravox official website, May 28, 2012, accessed May 29, 2012 . 
22. ↑ Kai Butterweck: Look here, Duran Duran & Co: That's how it's done! LOUD, accessed May 27, 2012 . 
23. ^ Stephan Schelle: Ultravox - Brilliant. Music circus magazine, accessed June 1, 2012 . 
24. ↑ Stefan Reinke: Ultravox go straight to the stomach. In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung , June 4, 2012
25. ↑ New Releases - Music CDs. In: Listen . No. 23/2012, June 1, 2012, p. 121.
26. ↑ Jus Forrest: Ultravox Brilliant. The Electricity Club, May 26, 2012, accessed May 26, 2012 . 
27. ↑ Martin Townsend: CD Review - Brilliant. Daily Express, May 27, 2012, accessed May 27, 2012 . 
28. ↑ Martyn Young: Ultravox - Brilliant. OMH, May 28, 2012, accessed February 7, 2016 .