Consumer Guide Album

Ultravox: Ultravox! [Island, 1977]
"I want to be a machine" is their slogan, and with Eno producing one would hope for the best. But only on "My Sex" do they go all the way; more often these tough-surfaced post-Velvets songs identify with "the wild, the beautiful, and the damned." Eno helps them sound like a machine regardless, but unlike Eno they don't seem to enjoy it much. Which calls their humanity into question. B