Russian reviews about the "Move Me" album

Source: Yuri Saprykin - www.afisha.ru
Translation: Vladimir Kruglov

This balding man who reminds me of Kevin Spacey is one of the most surprising vocalists in the history of popmusic. The inspired dramatic voice that had decorated albums of the new romantic group Ultravox, belongs to this balding man. A voice of an unearthly origin. A voice from angelic spheres. And still the man is getting bald.
It is so unfair.
The condition of Midge Ure's hair is not his biggest problem (eventually, he can use some laser technology...). You can spit on the magic of figures as long as you wish, but all the best that Midge Ure made was done within 10 years; from 1980 to 1989. Some brilliant works with Ultravox, and a strong solo-album.
Then there comes 1990 - and, it seems, his ideas have run out. Largely uninteresting lyrics, unintelligible flirt with Celtic music. Only the voice is still the same: angelic.
From time to time it is pleasant to listen to Midge Ure's latest album. With a decade of failures behind him he recollects the days of his power and glory and intentionally uses some operatic-romantic tricks from the Ultravox arsenal. If he had released the song "Let Me Go" as a cut lost since 1982 it could have generated quite a lot of noise.
From time to time listening experience is awkward. Because he does not only quotes himself from the best years, but also uses parts from Bowie, and Mercury, and Thom Yorke, and everyone you can think of. In the song "Strong" he calmly steals some bits from Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" - in the ideal world he could've been beaten with candlesticks for such things.
Probably, he now prefers to listen to music from other's more than to make his own thing. By the way, the majority of the Earth inhabitants think and do likewise.


Source: www.hifimusic.ru
Translation: Vladimir Kruglov

What a masterpiece! The album is so good it seems there was nothing before it at all and you're listening to the music for the first time in a life. Each track sparkles with achievements - that of a vocalist, of a guitarist, of a drummer and (finally) a quartet of backing vocalists, which manage to sound like a huge chorus.
But more often you pay a tribute to all musicians as a whole and begin feverishly to look through the liner notes in search of a name of the creator. But there is no creator-producer. More correctly, it is Midge Ure himself and, probably, somebody called Mitchell.
The studio is ordinary. Of London origin. The line-up is standard. Almost without guests. The composition with the strange name "Absolution Sometime" delights you with some improbable bass lines (how many strings are there in the poor instrument?) and string sections - I can practically see overlong bow moving back and forth the instrument, as the camisole flutter and a flexible hand with fringed cuffs widely moves.
It's the not the former vocalist of the former bad group Ultravox, it's Paganini, it's Bach, it's Beethoven, and a collective image of a rock rebel. The pace subordinates you and raises you above the ground. At last, the seventh track unfolds arrangement relationship with... the group Garbage and their theme "The World Is Not Enough" – it's interesting too.
The end of the program and 'stop' of the player is like a sentence, but a happy owner always can repeat the history again and again by putting the disk on the 'repeat' mode, and let the target transistors burn!