UNCUT REVIEW OF THE SHAPE OF THINGS
7/10
The original alienated synthesist, still exploring the analogue . . .
Before finding success with vocalist Midge Ure, Ultravox were led by the Chorley-born John Foxx, whose pale, alien appearance and passion for synthesisers proved a little exotic for a general public still absorbing the shock of punk. The zeitgeist, of course, caught up with Foxx although he still remains on the fringes. Unfairly, perhaps. The Shape Of Things, a collaboration with London synth collector Benge, couches his dolorous laments amid a retrofuturist show of bubbling electronics. It works well enough that when ‘Falling Away’ pastes on some broiling guitar feedback it sounds almost superfluous.’