♪ ♫ “I've heard them once before, I know that feeling...” ♬♪

July 16, 2024 12:46 AM

The Voice, by Ultravox, peaked at #16 in the UK, #27 in Ireland and #29 in New Zealand; an alternate video was partially filmed in a slanted room. Much more Ultravox in a 2018 post.
posted by Wordshore (16 comments total)

young, dumb, and full of poems!

That's no way to go through life.
posted by Literaryhero at 1:04 AM on July 16 [4 favorites]

Dancing With Tears in My Eyes

The high school years, in a single song
posted by chavenet at 1:36 AM on July 16 [2 favorites]

BTW, Chris Cross died in March.
posted by chavenet at 1:38 AM on July 16 [3 favorites]

Haha this comment was meant for the previous post. Whoops!
posted by Literaryhero at 2:44 AM on July 16

Can't see the name Ultravox without thinking of Lee Mack's daughter.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 3:58 AM on July 16 [2 favorites]

For this American Gen Xer, this song is completely unknown to me. It's interesting what songs become popular overseas and what doesn't, probably for random reasons.
posted by zardoz at 6:05 AM on July 16

I was a fan of Midge Ure around Live Aid times. But Vienna is their only song I remember.
posted by Glinn at 7:13 AM on July 16

Your periodic reminder that Vienna stopped at #2 on the British Charts because of Shadap You Face!
posted by wittgenstein at 7:18 AM on July 16 [2 favorites]

Vienna is their only song I remember

This means nothing to me.
posted by flabdablet at 8:44 AM on July 16 [13 favorites]

Midge Ure is touring the US right now and if I watch this I'm gonna end up buying tickets, I know it.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 9:13 AM on July 16 [1 favorite]

Into Ultravox since their second album but this song doesn't register. Kinda lost interest after Vienna (and Visage). Interesting video... is it any reference to Dune?
posted by Rash at 9:44 AM on July 16

The first two Ultravox albums (when they were "Ultravox!" with an exclamation point) are favorites of mine and stylistically different from their later work. They're much more late-70s postpunk, though moving towards their later sound.
posted by zombiedance at 9:44 AM on July 16 [1 favorite]

Oh the memories as a young new wave kid seeing first Ultravox, then Midge Ure in the 80s and 90s. They were able to create so much more atmosphere and sound stage with their synth pop than really anyone I can think of.
posted by ShakeyJake at 9:46 AM on July 16 [1 favorite]

Midge Ure is touring the US right now and if I watch this I'm gonna end up buying tickets, I know it.

Do it! He always puts on a great show, whether pared down or will a full band.
posted by paper scissors sock at 12:12 PM on July 16

Ultravox had some interesting music videos, e.g. The Thin Wall that starts with a scene reminiscent of one with Catherine Deneuve in Roman Polanski's Repulsion.
posted by needled at 2:00 PM on July 16

It’s incredibly easy for a song to get stuck in my head just at the mere mention of it and so that’s what just happened now with Vienna. I haven’t heard the song in years but it’s playing non-stop in my head just from reading this thread. But the curious thing is that since I was born after this song came out, my memory of it is almost entirely from incessant replays of those Time Life “This is the eighties!” CD collection infomercials, so what’s actually playing in my head is a mashup of Vienna and They Can Never Tear Us Apart!
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:44 PM on July 16