Rage in Eden is the fifth studio album by British new wave band Ultravox, released on 11 September 1981 through Chrysalis Records. The album reached #4 in the UK album charts and was certified Gold by the BPI for sales in excess of 100,000 copies.
Content
The album continues the electronic new wave style the band had developed on their previous two albums Systems of Romance and Vienna, but has a more complex and introspective sound. The album includes several lengthy tracks and the last three tracks are interconnected to one long sequence. The lyrics to the songs feature obscure and surreal imagery. The chorus of the title track "Rage in Eden" is the chorus of "I Remember (Death in the Afternoon)" played backwards.[4]
Background
Like the band's previous two albums, Rage in Eden was co-produced by Conny Plank. It was recorded at his studio in Cologne, West Germany. It took Ultravox three months to record the album, and unlike the Vienna album, the members had not written any material before they went into the studio.
Cann said about the recording 2009: "We used the success to give us the opportunity. We knew it was a great position to be in – to have a hit record behind us giving us a bit of clout, so we decided to really stick our necks out and do something we always wanted to do, which was to not be well prepared before we went in the studio, but use the studio fully as an instrument to make ‘Rage In Eden’. "One day we were working on 'Death in the Afternoon' and during the course of doing something backwards, we heard some backing vocals for the chorus in reverse. Backwards it sounded fantastic, like another language or a chant or whatever. It gave us an idea - we copied the backwards sound to a fresh reel of multitrack running the right way. From there we built up the song 'Rage in Eden'.[5]
The abstract album artwork was designed by Peter Saville, known for his collaborations with New Order. All re-issues of the album since 1981, however, have different artwork, due to licensing problems concerning the original cover.
The remastered definitive edition, released on 22 September 2008, features a second disc containing rare and previously unreleased material. In addition to this, the original front cover artwork has been reinstated. The licensing of the original artwork currently only extends as far as the initial run of the physical release of the album (set at ten thousand copies worldwide). Future editions feature the same artwork as used on the previous CD re-issue.
Midge Ure said about the album: "I think 'Rage in Eden' was always one of my favourite albums. There's a starkness about it, an austre, mystical distance, a coldness to it but a coldness that kind of works."[6]
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