Chartography - Ultravox/Midge Ure/Visage/John Foxx

In the newest UK official album Top 100 there's a new entry at #48 - a deluxe reissue of the LP "Rage in Eden" by Ultravox. Midweek chart showed an even better result - #16! I'm sure we all agree that's more than respectable for the album that only recently celebrated its 41th anniversary. That also gives me a chance to present the chart collection of my favourite musicians. Ultravox are perhaps the most underrated band of their era, constantly trashed or overlooked by the press and "tastemakers" and yet they are among the very influential, perhaps the most influential of the bunch, be it music, cover design, videos etc, creating templates, setting the bars and so on. It's really quite hard to overstate their importance to the music of the last 50 years or so.

And they even managed to become pretty successful commercially almost all around the world. Their main undoing was not being able to conquer the all-important US market - much lesser bands are much better known and celebrated for having a string, or even one or two hits there. Still, their legend lives on and resonates with generations of listeners - first the 2020 reissue of "Vienna" entered the UK Top 50, now "Rage in Eden", their most artistic and experimental album. That's quite a feat.

I also included in this file chart information about the satellite acts. First for their frontmen, John Foxx and Midge Ure. The former himself created at least one highly influential album ("Metamatic"), which is now rightly praised as a milestone in the development of electronic music, while the latter had an illustrious carrier that yielded him several international hits and a growing respect with both colleagues and the public. Also, there's an info on Visage, an act of, if not equal, then clear and distinct importance and influence itself, despite sharing members with Ultravox. Of course here is the case of one huge hit trumping everything else, but their first two albums are widely held in high regard and their reissues still meet with waves of appreciation. Even their reappearance in early 2010s as a touring and recording act drew attention and received quite a bit of praise.

All in all, a very creative bunch of guys that did more than their fair share to change the music as we knew it, for better and for worse, but undoubtedly with all the best intentions in the world! Let's see how they fared in their day and beyond.

Ultravox & Co.

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Nb. Discographies: Ultravox, Midge Ure, Visage, John Foxx

Chartography - Vangelis

Sad news of Vangelis's passing. One of the most esteemed and long-standing figures of electronic music, creator of some of its best pieces, with carrier spanning close to six decades, at several points he had tremendous commercial success in every part of the world. To honour his memory I'd like to offer an overview of his (sometimes quite stunning) chart action.

Vangelis

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Nb. Discography

Chartography - Tears for Fears

Tears for Fears have reunited and released their new album "The Tipping Point" recently. Now there's a success story that in theory was highly unlikely, if not impossible - two aloof young lads singing mightily depressing songs about childhood traumas, neuroses, death. And yet millions of records sold all over the world, triumph in the, possibly, hardest market in the world to break - the USA, legendary status and numberless tributes. There must be a lesson or moral here, but let's not go there now. Instead let's have a look at their chart victories and marvel at the sight of them:

Tears for Fears

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Nb. Discography

Chartography - Propaganda

Seeing how there's a new album out by frontwomen of the German synth band Propaganda - under the title xPropaganda, let's see how they fared chartwise originally. This band is something of a footnote in music history of the 1980s, being overshadowed by their ZTT labelmates - Frankie Goes to Hollywood and (The) Art of Noise, but is arguably the must musical of the whole bunch, with their debut album "A secret wish" held in high regard to this day and re-released numerous times over the decades. Interestingly, for a seeming "flash in the pan" they had quite a bit of success in their time, impressing over countries and continents with varied, even clashing tastes. I wish the frontladies luck with their new venture and invite dear readers to check their past glories.

Propaganda

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Nb. Discography

Chartography - OMD

Not only Soft Cell are aiming for a restart. The last year saw a new compilation release from OMD in preparation for their new album in 2022. Looks like just the time to check how they did over more than four (!!!) decades of their carrier. Overall they did marvelously, remaining a presence in the international charts for an enviable stretch of time. To add to that their status as pioneers of popular electronic music - and we have an outstanding band deservedly hailed among the most important of their era. Personally I had a bit of a hard time getting into their body of work (beyond hits, that is), mainly because of the vocals, but things progressed eventually☺ Nowadays they are highly regarded and respected and perhaps their stature is at its all-time peak. So, a good time to check the lengths and breadths they went

OMD

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Nb. Discography