''Ha!-Ha!-Ha!'' is the second album by British pop group Ultravox, at that time known as "Ultravox!", with an exclamation mark, as a nod to

Neu! Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plan ...

. Although the group would later achieve fame and commercial success with lead singer Midge Ure the band was, in 1977, led by singer/songwriter

John Foxx John Foxx (born Dennis Leigh; 26 September 1948) is an English singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer. He was the original lead singer of the new wave band Ultravox, before leaving to embark on a ...

who was accompanied by guitarist

Stevie Shears Stevie Shears (born 1954/1955) is an English musician known for playing in the rock bands Tiger Lily and Ultravox! (later Ultravox), as well as being part of the bands Faith Global and Cowboys International. Biography Tiger Lily and Ultravox ...

, drummer

Warren Cann Warren Reginald Cann (born 20 May 1950 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) is a Canadian drummer, drum machine programmer and songwriter, best known as a founding member of the British new wave band Ultravox, for which he was one of the ma ...

, bassist

Chris Cross Chris Cross (born Christopher Thomas Allen, 14 July 1952, Tottenham, London) is an English musician, best known as the bass guitarist in the new wave band Ultravox. Biography Early years Cross went to Belmont Secondary Modern School, ...

and keyboard/violist Billy Currie.

Release

''Ha!-Ha!-Ha!'' was released on 14 October 1977, and was accompanied by lead single "ROckwrok" backed with " Hiroshima Mon Amour", which was released eleven days earlier. Neither reached the pop charts, although Island Records continued to have faith in the band. As a consequence of the album's confusing typography – it is variously known as ''Ha!-Ha!-Ha!'', ''Ha! Ha! Ha!'' and ''-ha!-ha!-ha!'', the group decided to abandon their exclamation mark for subsequent releases.

Description

Whilst the group's first album had been a product of the

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

/ Roxy Music-esque side of

glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on diver ...

, their second was considerably more informed by the burgeoning

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

movement, although it also marked the group's first widespread adoption of synthesisers and electronic production techniques. Money from the first album was used to improve the band's equipment, and funded the purchase of an ARP Odyssey and, most notably, a Roland TR-77 drum machine, which appeared on the album's final track, " Hiroshima Mon Amour". This song was the most indicative of the group's later synth-pop direction, and remains both a fan and critical favourite. It was performed on the group's 1978 ''

Old Grey Whistle Test ''The Old Grey Whistle Test'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''Whistle Test'' or ''OGWT'') is a British television music show. The show was devised by BBC producer Rowan Ayers, commissioned by David Attenborough and aired on BBC2 from 1971 to 1988. ...

'' appearance and was covered by The Church on their 1999 covers album A Box of Birds and also by Jan Linton. "ROckWrok" was the lead single. An unusually sensual paean to unrestrained sexuality, the song featured a chorus which began "come on, let's tangle in the dark/fuck like a dog, bite like a shark" and lyrics such as "the whole wide world fits hip to hip" – despite which, it apparently achieved airplay on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

on account of Foxx's garbled vocal delivery and the song's punky guitars. Other songs included "Fear in the Western World", which was also a punk number, with socially conscious references to contemporary global hot spots including

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

and Ireland. "While I'm Still Alive", although subsequently regarded by the band as the album's weakest title, was particularly reminiscent of Sex Pistols, and specifically the vocal phrasing of John Lydon. "Fear in the Western World" also ended with a short burst of feedback – edited from a much longer take, in the manner of the Beatles' " Helter Skelter" – which segued into the quiet piano opening of "Distant Smile", which eventually developed into a conventional rock number, albeit using a similar vocal-synth fade as Pink Floyd's contemporaneous "

Sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...

". "Artificial Life" was reminiscent of Roxy Music's " In Every Dream Home A Heartache", with lyrics that examined suburban

teenage Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...

life and tribes. "Hiroshima Mon Amour", featured the saxophone playing of C.C. from the band Gloria Mundi, and includes the Roland TR-77 drum machine working a modified bossa-nova preset by drummer Warren Cann, and foreshadowed the music both John Foxx and Ultravox were to make later, apart. In 2012, in an interview with peek-a-boo magazine, John Foxx agreed to say that it was the first synthpop/new-wave song in rock history: "I think no one else had done a song like that before", he said. This was the last album featuring original guitarist

, who left the band early 1978, after the forthcoming ''Ha!-Ha!-Ha!'' tour.

Track listing

Personnel

;Ultravox! *

– drums, vocals, rhythm machine on "Hiroshima Mon Amour" *

– bass, vocals * Billy Currie – violas, keyboards, synthesiser *

– vocals, guitar on "Hiroshima Mon Amour" *

– guitar ;Additional personnel *C.C. (from Gloria Mundi) – saxophone on "Hiroshima Mon Amour"

References

{{Authority control 1977 albums Ultravox albums Island Records albums Albums produced by Steve Lillywhite