A great music effort overall. Some tracks are really tear squeezing, like Dancing with.. Amazon comments are filled with "goosebumps" comments. Still, for me, string orchestra does not seem a necessary addition to Midge type songs. You would change strings to synths, slow music tempos a little bit further - and you get a perfect trip hop album ( or lounge, if you prefer this term). In some tracks (The voice, Love's great adventure) strings and main tune go in parallel, do not cross at all.
All in all, we heard much better attempts to mix electro with strings. Still, a nice add to Midge's discography.

I think this album is a very good addition to all the existing albums we have. A new interpretation of old songs, and not just old songs with the addition of strings. For me it's an exciting experience to hear them with their new arrangements. And it's a fascinating fact that Ty Unwin is a huge Urevox fan. Not a bad aspect to produce these songs in a new outfit.

I would tend to agree but the mastering is not brilliant & there are a couple of tracks in particular that are brickwalled (Hymn & DWTIME). It would be good to hear a sensitive master of the album wither as a download or vinyl release.

Finally had a chance to sit down and listen to this, and sad to say, I find it a big disappointment. Everything works perfectly well, but for the most part, the songs sound much like the originals, just with synths replaced by strings, and the piano replaced by... well, actually by identical piano lines. Vienna even has the same electronic drums, and the middle eight of Lament has the marimba-synth replaced by, surprise, an actual marimba. It all seems rather pointless. Drums, guitars and electronics should have been banned altogether, and anything that sounded like the original version should have been done differently.

It's a perfectly acceptable listen, but if you're going to do an orchestral album of old songs, use the orchestra creatively to make them sound different.

Sorry to be negative, but I don't think this adds anything to the songs.

Well, we can’t discuss taste - that’s completely individual. But I have to say I really don’t understand when you say it too simular to the originals - for me it’s completely re-arranged in a very interessting way. Again, taste we cant discuss - just surprised you don’t hear the re-arrangements. For me it was a very positive surprise. To be honest, I was getting a little tired of all this acustic and feared what an orchestra would do to “ the holy grail” - bit I liked it, really! Fragile makes my eyes in tears, so strong lyrics and the orchestra just add something - “You might as well have asked me not to breath...” such strong lyric

Orchestrated is a fantastic album and personally I love the fact that electronics are merged with synthesized sounds (a bit like what BT did on "Electronic Opus").

The only thing missing is Billy. He should have been in charge of the string arrangements. Of course, not sure if he was asked and did not want to be part of anything Ultravox anymore, but having his part replaced particularly on Vienna with an electric guitar is very odd.

Cheers
Thomas

2LP clear vinyl version, signed available from midge's site:
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http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/m...ng/#more-139040

Midge Ure‘s Orchestrated album features ‘reimagined’ orchestrated versions of Ultravox hits and solo classics. It was issued on CD late last year to a warm reception and is now available on vinyl for the first time, initially exclusively through the official Midge Ure shop as a limited SIGNED clear vinyl pressing!

It’s not clear at this stage whether the vinyl will feature a download code or not, but a signed double vinyl + standard CD bundle is available for a fairly reasonable £30.

The release date for this signed clear vinyl pressing is 8 June 2018. It is exclusive to the Official Midge Ure Shop.

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