Back in 1979 I had a copy of Ultravox's Systems of Romance. That was after Gary Numan had cited the band as an influence. Yes, that's right, I had a Gary Numan period, too — all evidence of which was expunged from my collection within a year of it being acquired, as I moved on to new pastures, but I confess it did happen.
Ultravox didn't drop off my radar quite as precipitously (though that record is long lost). Firstly you couldn't get away from the newly-Midged version of the band and their iffy-whiffy Vienna. But it was Tommy Vance who carried an unlikely torch for John Foxx's solo career, championing him from time to tome on the Friday Rock Show in the same way that he did with Japan.
So the first few tracks on this compilation are familiar to me. I think Foxx became a cult figure, but, if so, I think it must have been cult as in could-have-been-a-mainstream-success-but-wasn't rather than as in niche/refined-taste. Lots of the songs sound like they could have slotted between Duran Duran and Japan in the charts, but I guess Foxx couldn't or wouldn't play the Smash Hits game as well as they did and bring in the pre-pubescents.
Things get a little more interesting with his nineties return to music after a decade away, but that may just be because Foxx had absorbed a bit of the hard-edged minimalism of dance music.
A few years ago, I toyed with the idea of buying Systems of Romance on CD, based on a nearly 30-year-old memory. A while later I streamed it for free, and was glad I'd declined the purchase… though I'm doing so again as I write this, and it doesn't sound so bad. I notice they recycled one of the keyboard lines in Maximum Acceleration for Vienna.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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