Quartet (Ultravox album)
Quartet is the sixth studio album by the British new wave band Ultravox. The album peaked at no.6 on the UK Albums Chart and was certified Gold by the BPI in December 1982 for 100,000 copies sold. It also peaked at #13 in Germany, and at #61 in the United States. Background After three albums produced by Conny Plank, Ultravox dropped their longtime producer. Vocalist/guitarist Midge Ure explained, "It was getting a bit safe. We knew if we recorded with him again it would be great and we'd be really happy. But there would be no excitement." Quartet was produced by George Martin, most notable for his work with The Beatles. The album was recorded 1982 in Air Studios June to July in London, July to August in Montserrat. George Martin chose to take the job because his daughter was an Ultravox fan. He said in 1983 in the Monument video: "They are without a doubt the most musical group I have come across in recent years." The cover artwork was designed by Peter Saville. They had already decided that they didn't want to write the songs in the studio like they did with Rage in Eden so they developed a pattern whereby they’d gone into a rehearsal studio for three weeks and put down ideas. Then they took a week off and listened to the cassettes and pulled out the best bits and thought about lyrics. They did that for three months and found that they had no shortage of ideas, although fitting them together was a problem sometimes, as they kept having to cut out bits they liked. But at the end of that time there were eight complete songs so there were no excuse for not recording. One of the basic philosophies of the band has been that constant change and development was important to their music. So they started thinking about a new producer. When George Martin's name came up it sounded a more strange and bizarre combination than the names who'd been suggested to the band, and, as they’d been looking for something more off-the-wall for this album, they all agreed that he was the man for the job. Billy Currie said about the recording 1982: "We put all the tracks down in four weeks at Air Studios in Oxford Circus, which was quite frantic. I think George Martin did a lot on the vocals but he also influenced us quite a bit on one or two of the musical arrangements. And then when we went over to Montserrat, it was exactly the same mixing desk and speakers, but you have got time to think about it and organise all this energy, because there was a lot of energy on the tracks." Warren Cann said about the recording: "It didn't turn out quite as we'd imagined. Perhaps George was tired or perhaps we were suffering from our own misconceptions, but it was a rather sedate experience and not the liberating sonic voyage we were expecting.