YMMV / Ultravox

• Broken Base:
  • Debates still rage about whether the original John Foxx-led records or the Midge Ure-led records are better. While the former gets praised the most artistically, and was a major influence on electronic musicians like Gary Numan, the latter was significantly more successful.
  • Ure-era fans are decidedly split on the quality of Brill!ant; to some, it's a much-needed return to form after the catastrophic results of the 1986-1994 albums, while others see it as nothing more than U-Vox 2.0.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The In Name Only 90's incarnations of Ultravox, thanks to their radically different sound and lineups, neither of which are well-received to this day.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The video for "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" has a nuclear power plant accident causing an explosion two years before the Chernobyl accident in 1986.
• Narm: The Ure-led period is littered with examples:
  • "Vienna" is very melodramatic, what with Midge's hammy vocals & the pretentious instrumentation. It's unsurprising some consider it either one of the 80's worst singles or it's best.
  • "The Voice" has some rather silly lyrics ("the look and the sound of the...voice?") and the "oohh-oohhh" backing vocals in the chorus are a bit much, even those used to the band's overblown style.
  • "Dancing With Tears In Eyes", despite being about a nuclear meltdown, is often mocked due to it's title alone, as well as Midge becoming a huge slab of pork during the chorus.
  • Midge's singing voice in general is either wonderfully textured although high-pitched, or whiny, hammy, and over-the-top, making each track hilarious.
• Seasonal Rot: Broken Base aside, fans of the John Foxx era, fans of the Midge Ure era, and fans of both eras all agree that the band's output suffered a severe drop in quality with U-Vox, from which they never seemed to recover. The band split up two years after releasing U-Vox, only to reform in The '90s with a totally new lineup, save for the inclusion of Billy Currie. This, combined with the band's abandonment of Ultravox's signature New Wave Music sound in favor of pop-rock and the poor critical and fan reception of their musical output led this incarnation to unsurprisingly be regarded as Ultravox In Name Only. Currie then replaced the entire lineup again in 1994, but this didn't help matters either, forcing Ultravox to disband a second time in 1996. The Ure-era lineup managed to reunite in 2008 to much acclaim, but their 2012 album Brill!ant was highly polarizing, not helped by the fact that it ended up truly being Ultravox's last.
• Signature Song: Depending on how you know them, "Vienna" or "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes".
• Suspiciously Similar Song: "Mr. X" sounds a lot like Kraftwerk. It also shares its melody with former lead singer John Foxx's solo song "Touch and Go".
• Tough Act to Follow: Vienna was a huge hit. While promoting the follow-up Rage in Eden, one of the band was asked how well he thought it would do. He replied "It probably won't be as successful, because not many records are."

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