John Foxx’s Metamatic (Amazon.com, Amazon UK) was one of my favorite albums of the early 80s. I had been a fan of Ultravox, but, unfortunately, only got a chance to see them live after Foxx had left the band. I saw them in New York, with Midge Ure on the Vienna tour, and wished I had seen the band in their prime.
Metamatic was Foxx’s first solo album, and, while some of it sounds a bit dated today – the drum machines, the synthesizers – it still holds up well as a great set of songs. There’s a wide variety of tones here, from Plaza to Underpass, from Metal Beat, with its weird syncopated rhythms, and No One Driving, probably my favorite song on the album. A second album of extras includes Glimmer, a great instrumental B-side to No One Driving, and some other B-sides and some alternate versions.
This is a great snapshot of John Foxx’s first post-Ultravox project, and it stands out as some of his best music. I love it as much now as I did 36 years ago…
(The title of this post, Click Click Drone, is the refrain from Underpass.)
Loved that album! Still know the lyrics as well!
Loved that album! Still know the lyrics as well!
I was cool enough to like Ultravox in the early 1980s, but not cool enough to recognize that they had already seen their prime, nor cool enough to know about this great album by Foxx. I “discovered” it just a few years ago, when I “discovered” streaming. Time to go back and give it another spin. Thanks for the reminder.
Yea, it was the first three albums that were the best. The later Ultravox, after Foxx left, was totally different. I did like Vienna a bit, but after that I couldn’t care about what they did.
FWIW, those first three albums are being rereleased in a box set, with a bunch of rarities. Here’s a link to Amazon UK; it’s not listed on Amazon US yet:
http://amzn.to/1TAi3oN
I was cool enough to like Ultravox in the early 1980s, but not cool enough to recognize that they had already seen their prime, nor cool enough to know about this great album by Foxx. I “discovered” it just a few years ago, when I “discovered” streaming. Time to go back and give it another spin. Thanks for the reminder.
Yea, it was the first three albums that were the best. The later Ultravox, after Foxx left, was totally different. I did like Vienna a bit, but after that I couldn’t care about what they did.
FWIW, those first three albums are being rereleased in a box set, with a bunch of rarities. Here’s a link to Amazon UK; it’s not listed on Amazon US yet:
http://amzn.to/1TAi3oN