Album Review: Midge Ure – Man of Two Worlds

Midge Ure is quite a character in the musical world. With a CV that includes important work in Thin Lizzy, Ultravox and Visage, he also co-wrote “Do They Know It’s Christmas.” But let’s not hold the latter against him. A highly accomplished and successful (critically and commercially) songwriter and producer, Scotland-born Ure is also an expressive keyboardist. His latest release is an ambitious double-album (or paired set of albums, if you like) A Man of Two Worlds.

World One: Music falls somewhere between ambient and pop-classical. The eight tunes are full of nuance, melancholy without being weepy, expressive without being soppy. Bits of cello flit in and out of the songs, with crystalline piano melodies unfolding like drops of rain on a Northern windowpane. Or something like that. Sometimes the subtlety threatens to overwhelm, as it were, with the melodic quotient fading away, leaving primarily aural texture. But what lovely texture it is. I’m pretty sure I hear a Chamberlin in there somewhere, which would make sense. There’s every reason to suspect that these eight impressionistic instrumentals each mean something, but what exactly that might be is appropriately enough left to the individual listener.

World Two: Songs is, of course, a very different matter. Full-band (as it were) arrangements with lyrics and vocals are the order of the day, and the melodies are as memorable as World One’s pieces are subtle. Throughout the eight tunes, Ure delivers the kind of timeless music that earned him fame. The songs are very much of a piece with his work with Ultravox and Visage, yet the songs in no way sound or feel dated in any way. Ure has a way with chord changes that conveys emotion, and he’s in fine voice throughout as well. Listeners should forgive themselves if they choke up when hearing emotionally-charged tunes like the opener “Just Words” and the ever-so-slightly-retro single “The Man Who Stole Your Soul.” Brilliant stuff.