A Bluffer’s Guide to Gary Numan

40 years in music terms is a very long time, plenty of civilisations and flavours of Walkers crisps have risen and fallen in that time, and 40 years of being in the public eye without succumbing to the trappings of drink, drugs or bizarre gardening accidents is nothing to sneer at. Very few musical artists get to that milestone of their career and you could probably count the ones who are still alive on one hand, but they do exist and often matured like a fine wine. For almost 40 years Gary Numan has been there and seen it, he has inspired a plethora of bands, genres and producers all across the musical spectrum and not many artists can claim that #humblebrag.

From humble beginnings with his band of ragtag electro punks Tubeway Army, to his meteoric rise to fame with songs such as ‘Cars’ and ‘Are Friends Electric?’ that are still being used as samples for modern pop music or television adverts to this day, squandered and lost opportunities that led to his downfall, to a phoenix like resurgence that has won over the admiration of a cult audience that look to stay with him until he sings his last note; there is no denying that Gary Numan has had a long, chequered and interesting career.

With his 21st album Savage (Tales from a Broken World) unleashed onto the public and looking to win over more music lovers across the world, we look back at some of Numan’s greatest achievements and beautiful atrocities over his 40 year career span. Please bear in mind that this is my list and while you’re all entitled to your opinion, if you feel I am wrong, you can listen to all of his albums and compose your own damn list! With this in mind here are 5 of his best and 5 of his worst albums.

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Top 5

 

5. Dance – 1981

Walking away from touring three very successful albums, electronic music being embraced by the mainstream with open arms and a lot of ire from the mainstream press for his quirky, almost arrogant demeanour and his admiration for Margaret Thatcher, Numan needed to try his hand at something different and experiment with new sounds, and Dance was certainly a different creature to 1980’s Telekon.

Gone were the upbeat synths and songs about circuits, wires and dystopian futures, in came a more sombre Numan, with slower paced songs and personal lyrics about sexual frustration, unrequited love and experiences with prostitutes with the almost 10 minute ‘Slow Car to China’. Though this album is also home to the infectiously catchy ‘She’s Got Claws’ and to one of my personal favourites from his back catalog ‘Stories’, Dance was the breakup album you didn’t know you needed and a diamond in the rough of Numan’s early body of work.

Tracks to Download: Cry the Clock Said, She’s Got Claws and Stories

 

4. Splinter (Tales from a Broken Mind) – 2013

This album was special for several reasons, it put Numan back into the UK music consciousness for the first time since 1983’s hit and miss Warriors album, peaking at number 20 in the album charts. It also saw the hard work of Numan and the industrial sound he was trying to capture since 1994’s Sacrifice pay off critically as well as commercially. A winning formula was finally created, not bad for a musician who by then was in his late 50’s

Lyrically, the album was probably at the musicians darkest, songs about depression, fear of abandonment and loneliness helped pencil the canvas, preparing it for musical broad strokes of robust strings, bitter sweet harmonies, grimy industrial synths and beefed up downturned guitars; Splinter provides the soundtrack to anyone’s impending and often inevitable mental breakdown, but with enough electronic flair and brush strokes to make you feel optimistic that you will steer through the darkness of your world in the end.

Tracks to Download: Here in the Black, The Calling and Who Are You?

 

3. Pure – 2000

As haunting as it is claustrophobic, 2000’s Pure provided the much needed conviction that Numan didn’t need the admiration of the mainstream music media to go his own way and find a new, younger fanbase and cult status that would have him creep up on Fear Factory albums and receive honourable mentions in Marilyn Manson interviews. It was just ironic to the point of laughter that when this album came out, he won that admiration, with critics at the time hailing it as some of his finest work since the early ’80s.

Having spent most of the ’90s locked away and homing in on his new darker sound, no one quite expected Pure to be as good as it was. Songs about loss of faith and organised religion may have been old hat by the turn of the millennium, but it showed that Numan was looking at his younger contemporaries and silently taking notes. Add this to songs about miscarriages, the tribulations of IVF with sprinklings of dark and brooding industrial synths, Pure may have aged a little over the almost 20 years since its release but is still a vital album for any Numan or Industrial newcomers.

Tracks to Download: Rip, My Jesus and Listen to my Voice

 

2. Replicas – 1979

Going back to where it all began and Replicas is still a criminally underrated classic that should be up there with Queen’s A Night at the Opera and Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks. Showing off at the time a new, exciting world of electronic music that unlike Numan’s German contemporaries Kraftwerk could not achieve, the album was something that was accessible and easier to digest for the more mainstream music fan, whilst simultaneously keeping the more artsy of music listeners satisfied.

Inspired by Philip K. Dick’s novella Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the album bleeds sci-fi, infused with punk riffs with monotone almost hypnotic androgynous singing, it’s little wonder why the Numan faithful adhere to this album and follow it note for note, it’s chaos and beauty combined that leaves you confused and scared for our modern world and its technological advancements 38 years after the album’s initial release.

Tracks to Download: Are Friends Electric? Down in the Park and It Must Have Been Years.

 

1. The Pleasure Principle – 1979

1979 in British music was Numan’s year, already hot off the heels of ‘Replicas’ and gaining much admiration because of it, Numan set off without his Tubeway Army and came back with this phenomenal work that put him on the map and had him performing both Top of the Pops and The Old Grey Whistle Test – two UK based music shows with contrasting music listings that was up until point unheard of to perform both.

The album is steeped in doomed futuristic prophecies, disassociation toward society but had that much needed upswing to keep everything catchy and bouncy in a way that only old electronic music could offer. From the first crack of the high hat on ‘Airlane’ to the bleak last ringing note of ‘Engineers’ you are invited to a Mad Hatter’s tea party of sharp writing in a catchy pop formula that is almost lost to us in auto tune, booty shaking and Taylor Swift and her many “white girl problems”

Tracks to Download: Metal, M.E. and Cars