This is the best day in AGES.

Is there going to be a single coming out before the album release date?

Brilliant! Can't wait

I am very excited by the news but have to say that it is a terrible title. Sounds like an album by wham or take that not our Ultravox. Boys you have had a shocker. very very dissapointed.

Brilliant!! I can't wait for that! The latest addition to my Vox collection! Now,hopefully they will come to Edinburgh,but exciting news all the same!!! Yahoo!!!

I really cant understand why people are bitching about the album title. Its just a title FFS. One of the tracks is called 'Brilliant' so why not just shut up moaning and wait until you hear the album before having a bitch. We've waited 28 years for a new album and some people are already moaning.

Maybe the title of the album is only an early April Fools' Day joke?
I can't say that I would be surprised about it!

everybody is entitled to their opinion my friend. Have not been this happy about music for many years(nearly 30 to be exact)but I think the title is embarrassing and should have been something that showcases the beauty of the band and not something that would usually be blazoned on the front of a Pet Shop Boys album. Its just an opinion, relax will you!!!

Yes, everyone is entitled to their opnion. Mine is it really doesn't matter what the album title is. Its the content that matters. It can be called 'The Big Pink Christmas Fairy' for all I care.

Nooooooooooo..... Don't mention the 'P' word

Title says it all really - Lets face it how can this album not be great? Now lets just see what Townsend Records has in store for us...

THe news has brought me back to EV. Can't wait for the new material, can't wait for the tour!

Dex!!! Long time, no EV!!! How are you!?!?!?

M

HEAR HEAR!

Totally with you on that.

It's impossible to tell how apt the title is (of the track) when you've not heard the music/lyrics. I couldn't possibly judge/comment on something I've not heard. I don't think its really for us to comment on what the title SHOULD be portraying. That's down to the artist and their creative drive at that time.

Personally, I'm not so sure I ever really analyse album titles in any great detail - they just seem to fall into place once I hear the record. Also I don't read into it as being their review of their album - just because the word is often used in a lazy fashion to describe something good. It could be a different context - who knows - until you hear the title track.

I'm open on this one - happy to wait, have a listen and see what they've come up with musically.

Yeah, get over it...I'm sure that the music will be awesome!

The tour dates are still in the process of being booked, and will be announced soon.

I like the title, because of its ambiguity. It's a bit naive, tongue-in-cheekish, but who cares? They have proven themselves as fine musicians since Vienna. Let them have fun!

Fast forward a year from now and the word "Brilliant", as well as all the current meanings, will also represent the 2012 album from Ultravox in much the same way as, for example, "Lament" has inherited it's own definition within the psyche of those who are interested.
Album titles are labels and even the most surreal and avant-garde titles become synonymous with the album and the music, rather than being treated as a rational entity in the way that people are looking for meaning in the title "Brilliant". That's not to say that the word won't have a meaning in the context of the album, but without listening to the album there's little point in speculating.
Just my opinion.

Looking forward to hearing and possibly learning my first new Ultravox song in years...

Very true. Can you imagine pitching the band name 'The Beatles' now?

Also, I remember when the name of Lament was announced being mortified because it was the same name as a Cure song. This might sound odd but I was young and surrounded by Cure fans and such 'copying behaviour' was much frowned upon. That all seems so totally ridiculous now.

A lot of bands in the past have spent a fortune on fancy album titles and artwork and the music has been crap.
Pink album accepted, Ultravox have always produced good artwork and titles but the music has always shone through stronger. I doubt "Brilliant" will be any different and although making assumptions is always dangerous I think "Brilliant" could be Classic 80's Ultravox on steroids

Pet Shop Boys named their albums: Ultimate, Concrete and Fundamental.
Depeche Mode released: Exciter and Ultra.
New Order did: Technique.
Tears For Fears were: Elemental.
Or would you rather have: How To Be A Zillionaire, or... Into The Gap, or... Into The Groove, or... This Last Night In Sodom, or even... Let's Dance?

IMO, Brilliant isn't any worse than... eg. Ha!-Ha!-Ha!

Work in progress Ultravox style

Cerise,has this track made it onto Brilliant, and if so what track is it? Or can't you tell us!!!!
Thanks

It's a cool title because it's different and looks and sounds fresh, and it's the band's choice, so it's up to them. I see the word "brilliant" as in brilliant light or something along those lines. Let's wait and hear what the song sounds like and understand it in that context. Let's be patient and grateful, that our Fab 4 are well and truly back...

I'm well Mandy! You? Great to be back on here! Been lurking away on an aviation site forum whilst this site was having a makeover!

There may be a few more new tracks if they record some b-sides for any singles from the album. Hope so.

Brilliant: bright, sparkling; illustrious, striking; highly talented; showy.

What other track title could be used then?
Live Again? Flow? The Change? Rise? Remembering? Hello? This One? Fall? Let It Lie? Satellite? Contact?

Brilliant would seem ideal to me.

As Mike (G'day, mate!) suggests, the title will develop different connotations over time. When you think about it, as an album title, Vienna doesn't necessarily represent the music or themes on that album, yet we couldn't imagine it with any other title now (Torque Point?). Similarly, Quartet and Lament are fairly 'loose' as titles. Rage In Eden is the only one that seems totally unique and representative in my mind and remains a favourite title (along with Systems Of Romance from the Foxx era, of course).

Anyway, I'm certainly looking forward to the long-missed and well and truly overdue Ultravox "brilliance"!

Rodney - when you put it like that..... I think you got it in one! Great post! I agree!

Absolutely

The various statements that people who didn't like the new album's title (of which I'm one) should wait until the album is released before criticising is quite wrong - as are the pejorative terms used in some comments here. Nobody here is saying that musical content isn't more important than the title. If a comparison is to be made between musical content and the title, obviously such comments need to be deferred until then. This is a fairly narrow criteria. This does not prevent people who wish to make comments about the title itself doing so.

If I read previous posts from the 'naysayers' correctly (myself included) none are actually operating within that narrow criteria. What is happening here is that people who have been waiting patiently (we all have been) know and love their Ultravox (we all do) and are making their comments based on past practices with album titles and perceiving that this practice has been discontinued.

For example:-

Vienna - moody, atmospheric song. Generally agreed to be the standout track on the album. Representative title, reinforced by cinematic video ('Third Man' references?) in film noir, and with black and white photography on the album cover.

Rage in Eden - this implies discord when Adam gives Eve the apple of temptation - the human condition? Songs on the album such as 'The Voice' with its religious overtones, 'We stand alone' (humanity's progenitors) the 'Stranger Within' (temptation) and 'Accent on Youth' (redemption) are relevant to this theme. In addition, the somewhat disjointed face on the original album cover suggests inner discordance.

Quartet - Perhaps the most emotive album, could represent a 'coming of age', hinted at by the architectural cover ('this is what we four have built'). The songs on this album are more loosely linked than the previous two. The only connections I can discern are political: 'Hymn' about new IR laws in the UK, and 'We Came to Dance' about represssion of the emergent democratic movement in China. 'When the Scream Subsides' may be thematically related. 'Cut and Run' may be a comment on the free-market ethos.

Lament - Love is the theme. Atmospheric title track about lost love. This is the Apogee (wouldn't that have made an interesting title for the new album!) for Ultravox, to date. A (arguably) more stylistically more diverse and confident album than its predecessors, with side two having a celtic influence - and to which the standing stones on the album cover relate ('Man of Two Worlds) deception ('Heart of the Country') more lost love ('When the Time Comes') and yearning ('A Friend I Call Desire').

I'm not going to comment on U-Vox, except to say that an abbreviated title in shocking pink translates to an abbreviated line-up with, well, you get the picture!

It can be seen that there are linkages between album titles and content. I'd like to make it crystal clear that all previous albums had some scope for interpretation - they are not simple and direct. They are oblique and understated - unlike the new title. This is why I'm commenting on the new album's title. It's just an observation, nothing more.

In my opinion (as I've stated elsewhere on this forum) what's important for this new album is not the album title, nor the content (I'm sure the boys will do a great job) but the mastering of the album (AKA 'the loudness wars').

I'm raising these issues not because I'm impatient, not because I'm grandstanding, but because I care about this band and it's music. I also care about this forum. I've called it a labour of love, and I'll do what I can to continue to make it an interesting, informed and happy place, where we can all be civil, even if agreeing to disagree with each other.

Great post, Giulio.