Orchestrated

A beautiful album which has given me goosebumps. Midge's voice as great as ever, mixed with a fantastic orchestra and beautiful arrangements. A good mix of Ultravox and solo hits, an absolute must have in the Midge Ure collection.

So I was faffing in the kitchen when I heard a song that made me just stop and listen. Had I heard it before? In some distant corner of my mind I could recall it. Maybe not. Anyway...next day I heard it again. I was just mesmerised by the beautiful arrangement.I did a bit of research and found it comes from this album of re-mastered songs, and on the strength of this song, Breathe, I bought it and was listening to it all within seconds.I was not disappointed!The songs have a brand new life and are accompanied by a beautiful selection of orchestral instruments. I have to say I am particularly fond of the strings. Also Midge Ure's voice is as incredible as ever and has a depth to it that only maturity (carefully chosen word) can give.I love this and need to listen to it loudly.

This is a truly fabulous reworking of classic Ultravox and Midge Ure hits which lifts them into another dimension. 'Hymn' is absolutely glorious, slowed down and transformed into a song of epic proportions. Midge's voice on 'Dancing with tears in my eyes' reaches new emotional depths that I've never heard before and will literally leave you in tears. For me, 'Breathe' is so much better in the new orchestral arrangement and Midge is in superb form. 'Death in the afternoon' is possibly my favourite track on the album and wouldn't be out of place as the theme song to the next Bond movie.Hopefully there will be an 'Orchestrated 2' and I'd love to see songs like 'Visions in Blue' and 'That Certain Smile' on it! In the meantime, just go and buy this album and experience an hour of musical ecstasy.

This is an obvious and right move for Midge Ure to re-present some of his most successful compositions in a new form.His selection of pieces are well chosen.Dancing With Tears In My Eyes,Ordinary Man,Death In The Afternoon and Fragile are just sublime.With significant input by Ty Unwin,a superb result that is an essential experience for Midge Ure followers.With any luck,he will hopefully be inspired to do a follow up album of further re-workings.Excellent throughout although the middle section of original piano and violin could and should have been done better.I was expecting a more outstanding interpretation than the finished product.Despite this minor criticism,Midge Ure `s vocals on every piece is brilliant.

EPIC

An interesting idea in putting classic Ultravox tracks to classical music.Several songs (Dancing with tears in my eyes for example) have a serious change in tempo from the synthesiser release, while others (Man of two worlds) remain remarkably close to the original.My one complaint would be that in several songs (I remember being the main one) could have done with a much stronger orchestral part. Within Temptation have shown that Orchestrated arrangements can fit with some heavy music and I would have liked to have seen the same done here, but the tracks are often muted or too mellow.

Excellent. Takes you on a complex and rich journey across a selection of Midge Ure and Ultravox's big hits and some re-imaginations of some of his best album tracks of the last 35 years or so. Big orchestral crescendos, some slowed down tempos, and richly layered instrument combinations of a full symphony orchestra, sometimes with drums and guitar, and more sparsely with electronics. Listen out for brilliant versions of "Death In the Afternoon" (It sets off Boris the canary here singing too!) and two of my favourite highlights from the album are "The Voice" and "Fragile". I dare you not to get goosebumps and lose yourself in the atmosphere. Midge's vocals on "The Voice" are extraordinarily powerful - a reminder that he's not just 'still got it' but has developed as a vocalist and musician. Can't recommend this album highly enough.

Wow !Only on track 2 but had to review it,didn't know what to expect, but being orchestral it's like an updated version of the old hits ?If you were a fan of Midge Ure/Ultravoxi'm sure you won't be disappointed.Gonna get back on Amazon and get some of the old stuff :-)