Bottom 5
5. Jagged – 2006
Jagged isn’t an awful album per say but compared to 2000’s Pure and 2011’s audibly robust Big Noise Transmission this is debatably one of Numan’s less received albums during the modern renaissance of his body of work. Boasting more or less the same, that is lyrically confusing and offers nothing to the imagination.
Though in defence, Numan was a little preoccupied with being a father to his two new born children and various record label issues that would set the album back until its 2006 release; the album does boast some beautiful and haunting gothic melodies unfortunately it was for the most part a tired retread of ‘Pure’ that could have been summed up on a 6 track EP and probably would have been better remembered.
Tracks to Download: Fold, Halo and Before You Hate It
4. Berserker – 1984
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlKcgcuzuGM
Somehow, someway this album along with David Bowie’s Low inspired Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame to come out with his magnum opus 1994’s ‘The Downward Spiral’ Though this album had all the right intentions and Numan was free from the oppression of mainstream record labels to go whichever musical direction, the result was admirably different to Numan’s previous work, but lacking in identity.
Sounding more like a watered down Prince record than a Gary Numan record, Berserker was more a missed opportunity to capitalise on the then growing Nu-Romantic trend and turn the genre on its head offering something more contemporary and darker, which is what Depeche Mode would later go onto to achieve with its 1986 Black Celebration album. There are a few gems on this album that represented the Numan of old, but it’s lost in a myriad of hair metal guitar work and funk slap bass that felt alien and almost jarring in comparison.
Tracks to Download: This is New Love, Cold Warning, and The God Film
3. Warriors – 1983
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gXr83XzamA
This would stand to be Numan’s last album to reach UK album chart success for 30 years and you can hear why. At this point of his career, Numan was obsessed with trying to capture the lightning in a bottle that made his previous work memorable, all whilst going to war with the press, his record label Beggars Banquet and his own backing band; it was an understatement to say his head was really not in the music game and his heart and passion was clearly on vacation
What resulted was an album where the synth was gone, the alluring bleakness to his lyrics dissipated and instead came in backing singers, horrible pop music even by ’80s standards and plenty of saxophone to keep a Jazz club in Tunbridge Wells in business. Warriors is a sordid affair that even Numan later admitted was the beginning of his downfall.
Tracks to Download: The Iceman Comes, Sister Surprise and The Tick Tock Man
2. Metal Rhythm – 1988
Screeching guitar, more backing singing than front singing and Gary Numan decked out in more leather than the entire wardrobe of Judas Priest going to a Village People tribute concert, Metal Rhythm was meant to be Numan’s last shot for re-entering the loving bosom of the music mainstream and he fell flat on his arse as a result.
Whilst 1985’s The Fury and 1986’s Strange Charm redeemed him a little bit with its early industrial infused rock music that he would later make a success out of. Metal Rhythm went back to the smegma encrusted lows of ‘Warriors’ and ‘Berserker’ and what fans ended up with was a pitiful former shell of a once mysterious and genius songwriter.
Tracks to Download: New Anger, Voix and Don’t Call My Name
1. Machine + Soul – 1992
[YouTube link confiscated, currently being used as evidence in an investigation into crimes against music]
An album so bad fans won’t even acknowledge it, it has been scrubbed from the annals of music history and highlighted as such a low point even Numan thought about quitting the music business altogether to focus on becoming a pilot. The only redeeming quality to this was he met his now wife who was president of his fan club and was able to steer him in the direction that would rejuvenate his career from becoming a novelty act – here’s an interesting pub fact, their first date was in a Little Chef roadside restaurant .
Everything about this album was outdated by about 5 years like a new iPhone, more horrible “dad rock guitar”, ghastly sounding synthesisers that came out of a horrendous 16-bit video game and more of those fucking awful saxophone solo’s he seemed to have been obsessed over during that period of his career. I could only imagine this is the album MI5 would use to torture prisoners and confess their evil deeds. An audible torture, that only Billy Ray Cyrus could conjure up in the early 90’s, Machine + Soul had no soul and must be sent to the depths of which it came or at least chucked into an incinerator.
Tracks to Download: Are you fucking high?! There is no redeemable quality to this album.
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