Ultravox ‘The Voice’ Spanish 7″ single (Chrysalis, CHS-2559, 1981)

Nothing especially exotic when it comes to the musical content of this 45, fine as it is nevertheless – very much Ultravox mark II at the high water mark of their splendidly noir pomp. The A and B sides match the UK release, the former being an edited version of the LP cut, the latter one of Ultravox’s mark II’s best ever B sides, IMHO, with Warren Cann on lead vocals. No, the chief attraction of this 45 is the cover, which broke with the tradition of most territories equivalent releases by ditching the (admittedly very good) Peter Saville (or Estudio Saville, as his nom de plume would have it on this outing) design – instead, the cover features one of photographer Brian Griffin‘s sumptuous shots from the ‘Rage In Era’ period, Ultravox in a timeless retro style in front of a vanishing point horizon. It did at least keep a similar in vein ‘brush script’ style typeface for the titles, the A side of which is also translated as ‘La Voz’ for this release. There does also seem to be another Spanish 7″ edition that features the regular picture sleeve design, it may be a promo only affair though? This is the one for me though.

Ultravox, 'The Voice' ('La Voz') Spanish 7 inch single front cover design
^ Ultravox, ‘The Voice’ (‘La Voz’) Spanish 7 inch single front cover design

Ultravox, 'The Voice' ('La Voz') Spanish 7 inch single label design side A
^ Ultravox, ‘The Voice’ (‘La Voz’) Spanish 7 inch single label design side A
Ultravox, 'The Voice' ('La Voz') Spanish 7 inch single back cover design
^ Ultravox, ‘The Voice’ (‘La Voz’) Spanish 7 inch single back cover design
Ultravox, 'The Voice' ('La Voz') Spanish 7 inch single label design side B
^ Ultravox, ‘The Voice’ (‘La Voz’) Spanish 7 inch single label design side B

One Reply to “Ultravox ‘The Voice’ Spanish 7″ single (Chrysalis, CHS-2559, 1981)”

  1. Well, that’s proof positive that Japan and Germany didn’t get all of the interesting sleeve variations! I would not mind owning one of these bad boys and here I thought I was all over on collecting Ultravox. But you’re certainly right about the B-side! It was their acme as those went. I prefer it to much of the “Rage In Eden” album and that’s saying a lot!

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