Ha! Ha! Ha! is the second album by British pop groupUltravox, at that time known as "Ultravox!", with an exclamation mark, as a nod toNeu!. Although the group would later achieve fame and commercial success with lead singerMidge Ure the band was, in 1977, led by singer/songwriterJohn Foxx who was accompanied by guitaristStevie Shears, drummerWarren Cann, bassistChris Cross and keyboard/violistBilly Currie.
Ha! Ha! Ha! was released on 14 October 1977, and was accompanied by lead single "ROckWrok" backed with "Hiroshima Mon Amour", which was released a week earlier. Neither reached the pop charts, althoughIsland Records continued to have faith in the band. As a consequence of the album's confusing typography – it is variously known asHa!-Ha!-Ha!,-ha!-ha!-ha! andHa! Ha! Ha! (which is the actual title), the group decided to abandon their exclamation mark for subsequent releases.[4]
Whilst the group's first album had been a product of theDavid Bowie/Roxy Music-esque side ofglam rock, their second was considerably more informed by the burgeoningpunk 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 anARP Odyssey and, most notably, aRoland Rhythm 77 (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.[5][6]It was performed on the group's 1978Old Grey Whistle Test appearance and was covered bythe Church on their 1999 covers albumA Box of Birds and also byJan 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 onBBC Radio 1 on account of Foxx's garbled vocal delivery and the song's punky guitars.[7]
Other songs included "Fear in the Western World", which was also a punk number, with socially conscious references to contemporary global hot spots includingSoweto and Ireland. "While I'm Still Alive", although subsequently regarded by the band as the album's weakest title, was particularly reminiscent ofSex Pistols, and specifically the vocalphrasing ofJohn 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 asPink Floyd's contemporaneous "Sheep". "Artificial Life" was reminiscent of Roxy Music's "In Every Dream Home A Heartache", with lyrics that examined suburbanteenage life and tribes. "Hiroshima Mon Amour", featured the saxophone playing of “c.c.” from the band Gloria Mundi, and includes theRoland Rhythm 77 (TR-77)drum machine working a modifiedbossa-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.[8] This was the last album featuring original guitaristStevie Shears, who left the band early 1978, after the forthcomingHa! Ha! Ha! tour.
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