Hope For Us Aging Alternatives

I calculated everything
Looked at it every way
Considered all the angles
The chance of any break
Accounted all the elements
Every possible mistake
Accomodated every change
But not the Interplay

Considered every consequence
Checked all the times and dates
Calculated everything
But not
The Interplay...

Once upon a late 1970s, a British post-punk band formed around John Foxx. They played moody synthesizers, deeply textured atmospheres, and shock of shocks, you could dance to it. This band was called "Ultravox", but as they started to succeed, their founder found that his art was slipping away from him. So he left, the band replaced him with Midge Ure, and then they became wildly successful.

Foxx himself did all right after that, but pretty much confined to the U.K. His album "Metamatic" showed the contrast between what Ultravox was doing and what he wanted to do, and the song "Underpass" got some radio play in Britain.

He labored that way for a few decades. Think about that. [EtA:] He spent much of the 1990s working in graphic design, to enough success that he's taught it at university.

A couple of years ago, he met up with Benge, a.k.a. "the Maths". Benge collects synthesizers, and has working ones from five decades. John Foxx teamed with him, and hit a new stride. They cowrote a huge number of songs, put ten of them on the album "Interplay", and toured around Britain and Europe. This album mostly has radio-friendly songs which leave little hooks in your brain that you wind up humming all day.

Then they released "The Shape of Things" last month. 16 tracks, but many of them are shorter instrumentals which set a mood, and then let it echo in your head. The songs themselves are darker, with some notable exceptions. For example, "Vapour Trails" is a love song about a new relationship going so fast, and the ecstasy of it that leaves wisps in its wake.

That song is also an exception for another reason: most of the work is much moodier, and deals with the concerns and feelings of an older man.

Someone my age, in fact. [EtA:] No, actually, he's more than ten years older than I. I'm even more impressed.

John Foxx is re-launching his career and finding new success by being who he is now, not who he was then.