Vienna by Ultravox

Vienna, Ultravox's fourth album, came out on Chrysalis on 11 July 1980, and it's a band reborn. John Foxx and Robin Simon were gone, Midge Ure had stepped in on vocals and guitar, and with Billy Currie on keyboards and viola, Chris Cross on bass and Warren Cann on drums, the lineup people remember was in place. Conny Plank produced again and mixed it at his studio near Cologne, and there's a cool, clinical European sheen on everything.

It ranges widely: "Astradyne" is a long instrumental of vast, stately synthesizers, and "Mr. X" is a stark Kraftwerk pastiche with Cann taking a rare lead vocal. Sales started slowly, even after "Sleepwalk" and "Passing Strangers", until the title track, a brooding, grandiose ballad, went out as a single in January 1981 and broke the band worldwide. The album reached number 3 in Britain.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.