A Glorious Noise: Breathe Live - Midge Ure

As a solo artist or with any one of his numerous bands, Midge Ure has always been a brilliant live performance. This is clearly demonstrated on this CD, recorded in 1998 during his tour of Germany. Since he was promoting his then-current album, Breathe, the majority of the songs (eight of the 15) are from that release. They play very well live, and in some cases better than the studio versions ("Guns and Arrows" is a good example), mainly because the studio versions were too slick, whereas live there is a definite energy that is caught on this CD. Of course Ure does dip into his Ultravox catalog and does the expected (i.e, "Vienna"), but also produces some surprises, such as "Hymn." Although they do not stand up to the originals, the performances here are tight and nicely arranged. He even comes up with his live take on a Visage standard ("Fade to Grey"). Again, he has not made the song better here, but it does stand up well with the other material. Overall, a good CD full of great songs performed well. Ure fans will enjoy this collection. It is interesting to note that this is his first release on his own Environment record label, where he is able to release previously unreleased material. ~ Aaron Badgley, All Music Guide