Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx In Mysterious Ways 2008 re-master

John Foxx refers to a new song he has written called And Of The Sky during an interview for IN THE CITY fanzine around February 1984.
I believe it may also be mentioned in Issue 2 of the Service which was published around the same time.

This is (presumably) the song that is to appear on the new IMW release.

I would have to put this album back on my shelf, and possibly along with Shifting City, and admittedly both have one or two tracks I really like on them, but “I never have a need or desire” to go back and play any tracks on IMW.


For me, one became unexpectedly the end of a period of listening to John’s music, and the other is even more unexpectedly the beginning of a period of eventually returning to his music. There was a gap of space and time in-between, and both of these albums are at the edge of that crushing wormhole through time that connects the two places.


As for IMW, I haven’t played it since 85, ignored the previous CD release, and felt no need to have access to a copy to listen to, (still have the original vinyl).


That said, there are two tracks I really do like on the album, ‘Stars On Fire’ and ‘What Kind Of A Girl’ these hint at an intriguing avenue of arty pop that John should possibly have explored more, with their fairytale quality, and Wurlitzer organ sounding synths. ‘Enter The Angel’ and ‘In Mysterious Ways’ would also have been more unique if they’d had that quality in the production about them as well.


‘Morning Glory’ just bores me, ‘Enter The Angel II’ feels like it’s leading to a huge climax… then nothing! and the chorus of ‘This Side Of Paradise’ spoils an otherwise good song


Tracks I never want to hear again: ‘Stepping Softly’ the worst track on the album, (country and western, or retired people sitting in a pub around a blazing fire?), this followed by ‘Lose All Sense Of Time’, groan, and ‘Shine On’, nope, it pains me to hear 30 seconds of these now on itunes as I type this!

Seriously though, I have a huge respect for John’s art and the exciting directions he can often take, but the production of these IMW tracks was never going to work for me as a fan at the time. These tracks don’t make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I hear the opening notes, not like the power of so much, much else of his work, with that idiosyncratic John Foxx effect.


That said, I’m looking forward to checking out ‘And The Sky’ and ‘Magic’ on CD2, and the alternate versions of other tracks. I will not be playing CD1, with the exception of ‘Spin Away’

For me and, by the sound of it,many others this was John's most disappointing of his four Virgin albums and maybe of his whole career. There are a number of good songs let down by very lacklustre arrangements.The album lacks an overall feel and direction.We have electropop,mid 80s Simple Minds style rock and Van Morrison esque songs.Nevertheless I will buy this again for the rarities.

I have to say I think you are missing the point of 'Spin Away' especially if you play it on its own out of context. The whole reason for including it in place of This Side of Paradise is because it fits in better with the surrounding material.

I read in a post from Steve somewhere that the idea behind these extra discs is to make whole albums that flow as one piece of material, and the tracklisting has been carefully arranged to achieve this...

He's done more than one less interesting/safer albums since

Yes, that is certainly true. However, the less interesting/safer recordings he's made with Louis Gordon seem to me like uncompleted, rough demos instead of glossy, over-embellished final product, so maybe I'm a wee bit more forgiving of them because of their lack of fussiness. Even if I don't like them particularly well they still work on an acceptable background-noise, buzzing-in-the-ears kind of way for me and I can sort of tune them out, whereas "IMW" actively annoys the daylights out of me and makes me want to jump from my chair and throw it across the room!

Just so you know, the remastered album is now available for pre-order on Amazon...

John Foxx - In Mysterious Ways 2008 Edition

I really liked IMW at the time it was released and still think that there are some really good tracks on it. The only ones I didn't care for were Shine on and Stepping softly. It is a shame that Hanging in the air wasn't on the second disc as I really enjoy this track. And on that subject, it would be great for all the radio1 and 2 sessions to be given a proper release.

I'm amazed that quite a lot of people dislike IMW for me it is one of John's best albums, superb songs and production. A well crafted album. For me it is difficult to split "Metamatic" and "IMW" as my favourite John Foxx album.

Gary
Gary hunter Myspace Page

I definitely recall a review at the time which was either in the NME, or Sounds, I really can’t remember which one, but I know I read it, as did a friend of mine who lived in Leicester, and from memory, the review said that:
"John Foxx’s career had been on ‘pause’ since Systems Of Romance, until now finally with his new album, In Mysterious Ways",

As you can imagine for me this was either impossible to really believe, or the most fantastic news ever.
Was the reviewer living on an island from ’78 to ’85, or what?
No mention of Metamatic, The Garden, or GS? had John really come up with the greatest album of his career at that point.

At the time of that review I already had the ‘Stars On Fire’ single, which I really liked, giddy, dizzy, and uplifting with its own kind of melodic elegance, it really fitted where I was living at the time, in Blackpool, with the piers and amusements, arcade noises and lights, (although I soon moved to Sheffield just after IMW’s release), and I’ve always associated John’s music with the environment I’m living in.

After that review, my friend and I each bought a copy on the day it was available, (he had the Garden in his album collection).
He wrote me a letter, as he was so flaming mad about wasting his money on IMW, this terrible album, and blamed me for persuading him to do so. Well, he must have been very disappointed, as we’ve never spoken since for over 20 years!

Okay, I exaggerate, we’ve never spoken for other reasons, I’d never say IMW was that bad! but If all the other tracks I really disliked on IMW had instead followed the beautiful waltzing path of Stars On Fire, and What Kind Of A Girl, then I’d probably still be raving now about this album.


It only goes to show the Jekyll and Hyde directions that Johns music ultimately took between ’80 and ’85, but its definitely credit at least to his willingness to push and pull his art inside and out, and it makes me wonder just how long he will continue to stay with Louis in his present electro mode.


…no, no, No!, I cant do it, don’t make me… not all of CD1, please, maybe a few tracks, the ones I do like… its never normally this difficult being a JF fan