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

Its the last one M and i remembered, and i think it even featured at copyright Birdsong sign.

Yesterday afternoon I was walking around town and it threatened to rain again so I sat inside St Giles Cathedral, (how very apt), and for almost an hour I listened to CD1, which is of course the original album set of IMW, all of it, yes all 10 tracks, including Spin Away, and some of those tracks I have not heard in their entirety since I last listened fully in ’86.


In Mysterious Ways, why John, why?


Why John in ’85 did you sneak this relationship wrecking ‘confessional’ up on me? Did I ever abandon you, even in ’83 when you altered course yet again, I still stayed for the ride, and I trusted you at the wheel …

In 1980 you changed my life with your blunt but strangely soothing words of ‘cenotaph’ ‘sunlit concrete’ ‘echo paths’ and ‘reservoir’, and I wanted to ‘drive by 1958’ and experience whatever mystery it pertained to.

Then In ’81 you unexpectedly brought me even more beauty in the drama of endless skies and sweeping landscapes, and you made me want to ‘burn away in light and silver’ and live forever in your modernist, metaphorical vision of perfection.


But in ’85, I think you forgot that I was out there, your admiring fan, as I waited expectantly each year for your return. You had grown rapidly as an artistic adventurer, fighting your way over a fantastic landscape of musical discovery, and by then you were probably a King, living safely in a Palace of creative possibilities, no doubt with life’s rich rewards, and you no longer had any need of my love


With a little help from itunes, and In the word’s of Van ‘the Man’ Morrison, (the Obi Wan Kenobi to your Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader on IMW), and taken from Van’s 1991 ‘Hymns to the Silence’ CD, where all the song titles there seem so fitting to what I need to say, after 23 years, John, still today with IMW, “I’m not feeling it anymore”.

I wanted electro, but you gave me Celtic soul, maybe you felt in your life “Some peace of mind” inside, but you just left me feeling cold, and outside.
Why with this album did your perfect pattern’s of keyboard’s, drum machines, and cut and paste lyrics have to become “So complicated” in attitude for me, and you probably thought that you were being so simple, so pure in your self expression. Surely you knew that "I can't stop loving you" , I bought all your previous albums, so you must have known, but you left me feeling like the “Village idiot” amongst the friends with whom I would always champion you, from Metamatic onwards, and yes, also through the Golden Section.


I twisted someone’s arm to drive me to another town to see you in ’83, wildly exclaiming that it would be all ‘neon lights and moody sounds’, but half-way through the Golden Section gig she turned to me and said “it’s all a bit ‘boy next door’ isn’t it?” I hid my embarrassment, for you were my hero. I looked away as “my voice just tumbled on a long delay”, and as you probably continued to sing “Endlessly, endlessly…” I probably blocked out my friends comment’s with visions of “skyscraper shadows on a carcrash overpass” chasing through my head.
“Why must I always explain?” your genius to those who have never felt your music make their heart race, or their mind spin in awe, like I have


Will listening to CD2 of the IMW 2008 remaster make me want to let you “Take me back” to that place where we parted in ’85? (for such a long time, and seemingly forever), or will I still find more “Hymns to the silence” that was left after you faded away out of my life, when you chose not to sing anymore for me the beautiful and strange song’s I’d loved you for.

When you rescued me from my teenage misery in 1980, you spoke to my soul, from out of nowhere I heard you singing on a radio for the first time, “Click-click drone, Click-click drone, Click-click…”

Oooh - thanks for the reminder. I quite forgot! :p
*heads off to apply same to Glimmer review *

You missed the one I wrote in May for Laurie Anderson ... :p

Core-memory. Brilliant!!
I haven't revisited this yet - I'm still wandering around in The Garden

Ohhh!!, that was brave Martin. Ready to face the extended tigers yet?

Finally got around to listening to this.

I waited all these years for this only to find that I cant say its my cup of tea at first ever listening.

What I have found though is that CD2 appeals to me more than the Album itself.

I will have to give it all a few more listens though.

There are a few tracks on CD1 I like but not many.

Brian

For me the best thing about this remaster, is in fact the re-order of the album tracklist. Its not that ive never liked the album, but it is even better this time round. Need to listen to cd2 a few more times though. This was the remaster least looked forward too of the three, but so far its all great. Roll on 'Shifting City etc.

I think, for me, the thing with "In Mysterious Ways" is, that back when it was released and for some years after (I didn't hear it until about 1988, I don't think),
it was just a prime example of post-punk new-wave analogue-synth-based music totally losing the plot.
Admittedly, John did so more tastefully and gracefully than many of his contemporaries. But much of this record still completely sucks.
I don't know what was to blame - digital synths recording and "advances" in technology? Cocaine? Thatcher? Utter cluelessness? But it was hell!

However, I can listen back now with a certain equanimity, because we know now that John survived and got it together again and has returned making Good Stuff again.
I just enjoy the bits that work (for me: Morning Glory, and the goofy lovesickness of Stars on Fire), and just chortle/wince at the naff bits. But I don't feel threatened or depressed by them any more - they're in the past and we beat them!

Did you mean this image? which I completely chanced upon in the ‘Still can’t get over this’ thread whilst randomly perusing the Metamatic site late last night:




Fantastic review RadioBeach, I read it only after I’d listened ‘cold’ to CD1, (and before I’d played CD2), and I really agree with your extremely funny reading of IMW, spot on, I hope more members are also inspired to post their thought’s on the ‘majesty’, or otherwise of IMW
You sure said it well when it comes to Spin Away, and there’s more that I want to post regarding CD1, but over the last couple of days I’ve been giving CD2 a workout, admittedly I’ve heard a couple of these tracks before, albeit a long time ago, though nothing could have prepared me for this:


On the subject of 'Magic' and that interestingly patterned jumper above, maybe John was auditioning for a part in the 'still yet to be written' Harry Potter series of films...


CD2, IMW:

This really does feel like an uneven bag, certainly not a cohesive album in any sense I think, but still an interesting experience, with one or two things here I really liked. First off, I need to ask a stupid question, as it may have been posted onsite already, but is ‘Hiding in plain sight’, actually ‘Stairway’, from the ‘Enter the angel’ single?

I love ‘HIPS’ it’s my favourite track on side two (and that’s not difficult to choose from ). Okay, I know that both it, and ‘And the sky’ are clearly sub Simple Minds, and most likely inspired by the fantastic New Gold Dream album, also I can clearly see Jim singing “waterfront” repeatedly in my mind when I hear John singing “someone, someone, shine’s on”, and also Jim's: “someone, somewhere, in summertime” on the alternative version 'Shine On'.
I think really that I’d rather settle for this Celtic guitar thrash, to John’s appropriation of Celtic jazz soul and the synthesized gloss on some of the CD1 tracks.



‘City of light’ is Bowie meets the B52’s, all very silly and in the words of Bill Nelson, “disposable”.
‘Lumen de lumine’ was always a bit turgid, but John has far reversed that atmosphere since with many of his beautiful and uplifting CO tracks.

Although I’m glad that the female vocal is missing from ‘Enter the Angel’ alternative version, (I never liked that woman’s shouting), even I have to hold my hands up in horror and say that the heart has been ripped out of the angel on this one.

‘To be with you’ is a bit plodding, there’s a sweet organ and drumming on it, reminiscent of ‘Star’s’ or ‘What kind of girl’ just a shame its wasted here.

And as for ‘Magic’? …no, I Really don’t think so

Are you aware that this is in fact the voice of the very wonderful Eddi Reader?

No. I'd completely forgotten the singers name, and just doing a bit of looking I see that she won a Brit award in '94, Best Female Singer. Fairground' was never 'my pint of lager', well, being a Glaswegian myself by birth I hope she'll forgive me for my choice of adjective , but I still don't like her vocal on the Angel