In Mysterious Ways

This LP, also available on CD, is a collection of love songs by John Foxx, released in late 1985. Completely missing from this recording is all association with what Foxx was known for, be it Punk Rock, Art Rock, English-style Krautrock, Electropop or New Wave. Yet, this is very much a Foxx record.

The lyrics are of discovery and rediscovery and there is lots of vibrato-laden organ playing on this record. There are acoustic guitars, mid-1980s home studio-sounding rhythm machines, live drums and glimpses of Cathedral Oceans in a few places particularly the Enter The Angel reprise.

Morning Glory is a long, two-chord meditation with a Van Morrison delivery. This Side Of Paradise has a late-seventies Ultravox feel. The Foxx talk sounds almost like Bob Dylan on Stars On Fire, a minor hit. Lose All Sense Of Time is slightly like Lou Reed and Robin Simon's guitar additions make it Foxx-filtered. Enter The Angel has female backing vocalists and the effect is Girl Group mid-sixties. Female vocalists are also heard on the almost Country ballad, Stepping Softly. There's some familiar territory here but it's not anything else Foxx had done previously.

The cover art is in the collage style he had been presenting to his public since the early Ultravox! days.