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

Thanks K.

I guess one can consider me a purist in the sense that I do not believe any John Foxx (or Gary Numan for that matter) cd should have any female backing vocals at all.

I kind of liked some of Numan's mid-80s albums with female backing vocals, because it was a pleasant change to hear someone who could actually sing on one of his records. And I say that as someone who owns a dozen or so of his albums.

For that matter, I remember being absolutely horrified when I finally heard "Brother and Sister" by Midge Ure and Kate Bush. I thought Midge was just fine as a singer, and I've loved Kate Bush for thirty years or so now, but I'll be damned if that isn't utterly unlistenable.

And yet I'm okay with Eddi's vocals. Maybe because I thought John's own backing vocals on parts of TGS were a bit much....

To be With You

This song (which I perhaps dubbed an 'early' version in the IMW re-master thread. I stand by that. ) is a revelation. Who dared to suggest it 'plods'? I found it uplifting, emotional, challenging, refreshing, awakening, different - all kinds of things.

I'd could go on, but I need to gather my thoughts first and try to make some coherent sense.

At the moment I am struggling to find ANY similarities between this and the version on Metamatic. The lyrics are as different as the music, the structure, the mood - its a different song altogether!!

It has always fascinated me to watch John's material evolve (even individual tracks - He's A Liquid, for example) but I'm curious as to how something like this can be re-written so drastically and yet keep its title?? Did he just 'forget'...?

Eno once said "The trouble with people, especially people who write, is that they always assume the meaning of a song is contained in its lyric" (or something similar). I'm guilty of this. There seems to be a fundamental change of meaning here tho regardless of the lyric. So why the same title?

The same could be said, for instance, of 'X-Ray Vision'. Are there many other examples of artists that do this??

Be warned - I am an even bigger fan of IMW now than I was before.

Disc 2 is just amazing. Bursting with ideas and power and, and... It just works SO well. I will concede that 'Magic' is - unusual - (I'll come back to that...) but the alternative versions of 'Enter The Angel' and 'Shine On' in particular are a triumph.

I said recently that while TGS was John's best shot at a commercial sound and Virgin's last stand with funding, by the time it came to IMW both artist and label threw their arms in the and said "F*ck it then - do what you like!".
The result was In Mysterious Ways.

So we can expect some long reviews for a change then.

Never 'expect' anything. Therein lies the path to disappointment :p

Your short reviews were not that bad.

How did i know you would notice that M.

I wouldn’t say that I’m horrified when I hear Eddi on Enter the Angel, but after several play’s I do get a bit bored hearing her at the end and find it just a tad unlistenable and I really want her to finish a bit sooner, so please John, if you’ve considered it at all, no future encore’s with this song, particularly if you are going to make poor Louis approximate Eddi’s part, no man should suffer that indignity

I’m very firmly in that camp, as I feel it goes against the grain of the landscape they’ve mapped out on so much of their work. If the female voice is there as a texture that’s one thing, but if any other voice is there just as a backing singer then I start to question what I’m hearing as that voice sometimes starts to feel out of place running alongside the real voice of the artist, and all respect to Louis, but I’ve often felt the same with his vocal presence if it starts to register too much with me.

When you compare the earlier version of Angel on CD2 to the released version on CD1 then I can completely accept that the song really needed something to lift it up ‘into the heavens’, but why did John not attempt to expand his Human Host choral effects with his own voice or her's rather than just get Sadenia to belt out those vocals. I don’t think there’s anything esoteric about her voice at all on the song, she’s strong and enthusiastic but it’s all too ordinary for me within the context of a Foxx work, I guess maybe Liz Fraser didn’t answer John ‘s phone call at the time, too busy working on Treasure I suppose!


Edit:

I think I said that

It’s head over heel’s better that the Metamatic Remaster version, no argument there. I still stand by what I feel about it, and those adjectives don’t spring to mind for me at all It’s interesting enougth and listenable, just feels stretched out a bit thinly for my ears.

Love the organ and the drumming, okay lyrics too, and it’s one of the track’s I like to hear on CD2.
It would have been a plus point for me if it had been on the original album release instead of Stepping Softly, which I still wish had jumped on it’s pony and ridden out of town…