In Mysterious Ways

In Mysterious Ways is a 1985 album by John Foxx, the follow-up to his album The Golden Section, released two years previously. It features some of the highly romantic style similar to 1981's The Garden album, although in many ways lacking the finesse of the earlier record. 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.

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 -style ambient music in places—particularly in the "Enter The Angel" reprise. Although Cathedral Oceans wasn't released until 12 years later, Foxx has stated he started working on the material as early as 1983.

"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. An expanded edition was released in 2001 and a 2CD 'deluxe edition' in 2008.