There are musicians who spend half a lifetime turning themselves into their own wax museum, shuffling out the old glories in decent lighting and hoping the crowd still wants the same suit, the same haircut, the same magic trick. Midge Ure has no interest in that kind of taxidermy. The striking thing about his new album, A Man Of Two Worlds, is that it arrives not as a victory lap, but as a restless dispatch from a man who has already done enough to earn permanent residence in pop’s marble hallway. He still sounds curious, still sounds like he wants to put his hands inside the machine and see what fresh noise or beauty might come spilling out.
That matters because Ure’s history is so stacked it could crush a lesser figure flat. Slik, The Rich Kids, Visage, Thin Lizzy, Ultravox, Live Aid – a résumé like that could turn anybody into a self-congratulatory bore. Instead, this record carries the mood of somebody taking stock with clear eyes and a steady hand. The split structure could have come off like a polite concept, some tidy filing-system division between composition and song form, but here it feels lived in.
The first half, World One: Music, lets the melodies walk around without language leaning on them, and that choice gives the album a kind of open air. These instrumentals do not beg for attention; they gather it by moving with patience and poise, letting space do some of the talking.
Then World Two: Songs steps in and the atmosphere changes, not with a thud, but with the pressure of weather rolling over. Ure turns his gaze outward and finds a planet full of broken speech, moral collapse, public fraud, private weariness, and the daily insult of watching power perform stupidity with a straight face.
Just Words lands like a ballad for an age drunk on public deceit, staring hard at the so-called “new normal” where people in power deny, distort, and dead-eye the truth no matter what sits plainly before us. Ure’s inimitable voice quavers through soaring guitars and wounded synths, giving the song a raw, weathered force. It feels like a clear-eyed reckoning dressed in grace. It brings to mind Bowie’s Heathen-era work: time-worn and world-weary, still with an open heart.
“In an ever-volatile world, words carry more power to make the change or make things worse,” he says. “In the Sixties, what was heard was peace and love, and nowadays it seems to be much more about division, hate, and war. Just Words reminds us words will only remain words unless they are acted upon.” That sentiment gives the album its moral center without dragging it into sermon territory.
Listen below:
A Man Of Two Worlds is kept alive in its balance of precision and feeling. The Man Who Stole Your Soul, Shouting At The Moon, and Caught In The Middle confront public and personal fracture with a measured intensity, while Ordinary Man (Precious Moments) and The Pictures You Carry With You carry age, memory, and fatherhood with grace instead of grandstanding. This is a record by a man who has seen the whole carnival, survived the hangover, and still found a reason to sing.
The album will be available on CD, LP formats, and digital download. ( An avid photographer, all photos in the booklet/inner sleeve were taken by Midge Ure himself!
Pre-order the album here.
Midge Ure will be hitting the road throughout May and June, touring in the UK and Australia. Dates are below. Tickets are available here and here.
Live Dates:
- May 8 – Bath, UK – Forum
- May 9 – Liverpool, UK – Philharmonic Hall
- May 11 – Leicester, UK – De Montfort Hall
- May 12 – Birmingham, UK – Symphony Hall
- May 14 – Oxford, UK – New Theatre
- May 15 – Plymouth, UK – Pavilions
- May 18 – Sheffield, UK – City Hall
- May 19-26 Manchester Bridgewater Hall
- May 20 – Aberdeen, UK – Music Hall
- May 22 – Glasgow, UK – SEC Armadillo
- May 24 – Edinburgh, UK – Usher Hall
- May 25 – London, UK – Barbican Hall
- May 26 – Reading, UK – Hexagon
- May 27 – Bournemouth, UK – Pavilion Theatre
- May 29 – Bradford, UK – Live
- May 30 – Nottingham, UK – Royal Concert Hall
- May 31 – Cambridge, UK – Corn Exchange
- Jun 2 – Southend, UK – Cliffs
- Jun 3 – Portsmouth, UK – Guildhall
- Jun 4 – Milton Keynes, UK – Theatre
- Jun 5 – Gateshead, UK – Glasshouse
- Jun 20 – Kiel, GER – Kieler Woche
- Jul 24 – VIenna, AUS – Forever Young
- Jul 25 – Gelsenkirchen, GER – The 80’s Live At Schalke 2026
- Oct 8 – Perth, AU – Astor Theatre
- Oct 10 – Adelaide, AU – The Gov
- Oct 11 – Brisbane, AU – The Tivoli
- Oct 13 – Hobart, AU – Odeon Theatre
- Oct 15 – Sydney, AU – Enmore Theatre
- Oct 16 – Melbourne, AU – Palais Theatre
- Oct 22 – Christchurch, NZ – James Hay Theatre
- Oct 23 – Wellington, NZ – Meow Nui
- Oct 24 – Auckland, NZ – Powerstation
- Nov 20 – York, UK – Barbican
- Nov 21 – Derby, UK – Vaillant Live
- Nov 22 – Hull, UK – Connexin Live
- Nov 23 – Brighton, UK – Dome
- Nov 25 – Cardiff, UK – Depot
- Nov 27 – Watford, UK – Colosseum
- Nov 29 – Coventry, UK – Warwick Arts Centre
- Nov 30 – Guildford, UK – G Live
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