― JM, Thursday, 10 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Patrick, Thursday, 10 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
Actually I object even to the upper element in the choice we're given here: Cult Hero implies that even the best he'll get includes reservations. I love him without reserve.
"Can yer see 'is lickle eyez-ah?"
― mark s, Thursday, 10 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Nicole, Thursday, 10 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Nick, Thursday, 10 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― G.R.D.robot, Thursday, 10 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Tim Baier, Thursday, 10 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 10 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Kate, Thursday, 10 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
Old Fart!!!!!
― Old Fart!!, Monday, 14 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― DG, Tuesday, 15 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Old Fart!!!!, Tuesday, 15 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
However, don't veer into his mid 80's material and onward (pretty much anything after "Telekon), as the quantity of worthwhile material sharply decreases.
― md, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Damian, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Joe, Monday, 4 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― The Turtle #1, Thursday, 21 November 2002 22:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Thursday, 21 November 2002 22:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
*sniff*... this is pretty sad. Well, actually, it's hysterical. As is the above post. I mean post!!! btw, this is my first ever question posted the day I discovered ILX!!! Funny, I never gave my promised "well-considered answer".
There are over 300!!
*shudder*
― Sean (Sean), Thursday, 21 November 2002 23:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
If they didn't come out so close together, I would say that Ric Ocasek probably listened to some Tubeway Army. If you don't think so, check out "My Shadow In Vain", especially the breakdown.
Telekon is OK and the only other one I ever heard was I Assassin, which I found on vinyl for cheap and it is pretty bad, kind of reminds me of the first Underworld record that is also terrible. The biggest problem with these two albums is that the drums are no where near as funky, the songs are slower and Numan starts to go for a symphonic synthy sound.
― earlnash, Friday, 22 November 2002 00:29 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Joe (Joe), Friday, 22 November 2002 23:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
(i say "classic," but i have a soft spot for robotniks and Bowie clones)
― Tad (llamasfur), Sunday, 5 January 2003 03:40 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sean (Sean), Sunday, 5 January 2003 04:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
we'll take a taxi to the show we could report by phone we could remind ourselves that WE...MUST...LAUGH
Remind Me To Smile, that is.
A song that appears in my head about every three weeks on average.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 5 July 2008 04:29 (fifteen years ago) link
Reconsider fame I need new reasons
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 5 July 2008 04:31 (fifteen years ago) link
the tubeway army albums and the pleasure principle are awesome and completely unassailable classics.
― latebloomer, Saturday, 5 July 2008 05:48 (fifteen years ago) link
I bought Dance a week ago and I'm completely entranced by Cry the clock said and Stormtrooper in drag. I know the obvious Cars etc. but it's the only Numan I own so no grandiose statements about his genius.. yet.
― mmmm, Saturday, 5 July 2008 07:48 (fifteen years ago) link
old fart had a blog??
― s1ocki, Saturday, 5 July 2008 07:52 (fifteen years ago) link
Let The Boys Out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISUUdHffVYc
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 2 August 2008 21:15 (fifteen years ago) link
i don't have much use for his stuff from the mid-90s onwards (there, i said it -- though it's nothing personal, i don't go much for pseudo-metally/NIN-ish stuff these days), but i have come to rather like sacrifice.
― Eisbaer, Saturday, 2 August 2008 22:33 (fifteen years ago) link
I liked Sacrifice a lot at the time. When i saw him do his greatest hits tour in 96/97 whenever it was he played a few tracks off it. My favourite was the 2nd track on the album I think it was.
― Herman G. Neuname, Saturday, 2 August 2008 22:36 (fifteen years ago) link
Guys, you have to hear Pure and, if you like that, Jagged. They're awesomely bleak! And the choruses are massive sandstorms of thirsty power.
― moley, Sunday, 3 August 2008 07:17 (fifteen years ago) link
The first three albums were all rather good. As for the rest......
― Geir Hongro, Sunday, 3 August 2008 07:24 (fifteen years ago) link
STORMTROOPERS IN DRAG IS THE BEST SONG HE EVER DID DON'T LOOK FOR IT ON A PROPER ALBUM ETC
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 08:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Listen to the production!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk9r-UPyvFY
I'm sweating now. Wow.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 09:10 (fifteen years ago) link
God I bet it only costs 50 billion dollars to have that on vinyl.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 09:11 (fifteen years ago) link
Gary Numan--Cult Hero or Crap?
Well, technically, Gary remains a cult hero whether you think he's crap or not.
But he's not crap. YOU ARE!
― Alex in NYC, Saturday, 9 August 2008 12:15 (fifteen years ago) link
Sorry, it's early and that's the best I could come up with at this pre-caffeinated hour.
Alex in NYC! You have graced ILX with your presence again! I'm speechless. I'll check out that goddamn Alice Cooper greatest hits right this minute, I swear. I don't want Santa leaving me coal in my stockings. There was something about Killing Joke here on ILM recently though, that I can't recall...
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 12:20 (fifteen years ago) link
this. that is a solid and really emotional album. I mean, I know the line on GN was alway robotic/android and of course he did a lot to cultivate that, but the songs often had a warmer/hotter core than they seemed like at the time, or that's how it seems to me.
Both Dance (widely panned on release if I remember) and The Fury are underrated, though for many the saxophones may be a barrier.
― J0hn D., Saturday, 9 August 2008 12:56 (fifteen years ago) link
it's on Dance
― J0hn D., Saturday, 9 August 2008 13:25 (fifteen years ago) link
You're a bastard! No it is NOT! Not on my vinyl!
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 13:57 (fifteen years ago) link
It's on the Premier Hits comp that Beggars released in the late nineties as well as the rerelease of Dance that followed that. And said album is quite great; The Fury I remember being less than thrilled by. Sacrifice is very good!
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 9 August 2008 14:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Liar! It is not on the Dance LP.
xpost - sorry Ned I've got a bone to pick with mister John D. here
Yes on a CD of course well I've never bloody owned the damn Dance LP on CD.
I wish I had The Fury, though, I remember liking that quite a lot.
What the hell is "Dead Heaven" on though?
Too drunk to google? You bet.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 14:02 (fifteen years ago) link
Look I've got OK Computer on my iPod at last so don't fuck with me okay?
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 14:04 (fifteen years ago) link
But why? Why did other people have Dance on CD and I didn't?
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 14:07 (fifteen years ago) link
i was gonna say that "stormtrooper in drag" is on my CD version of dance. (i also like the st. etienne version, which i heard before i heard the original numan version.)
if i had to pick one numa-era numan CD, it would be either berserker or strange charm (for "my breathing," one of his more underrated songs).
― Eisbaer, Saturday, 9 August 2008 14:56 (fifteen years ago) link
then again, strange charm also has "the need," which is probably numan's worst song ever (other than anything off of machine + soul).
― Eisbaer, Saturday, 9 August 2008 14:58 (fifteen years ago) link
Fuck yeah, Berserker.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 15:02 (fifteen years ago) link
somebody should make a t-shirt of Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow etc all posing while plugged into a wall and shooting off sparks under the title "Are FRIENDS electric?" and sell it to people for the 5 minutes that it actually seems funny.
― dan selzer, Saturday, 9 August 2008 15:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Gary Numan has been on an RV trip out here and has been livetweeting it. Which explains this:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BOmWU9MCIAAIKQZ.jpg
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 8 July 2013 18:57 (ten years ago) link
My day has been made.
― doug watson, Tuesday, 9 July 2013 00:38 (ten years ago) link
Boy, Dance is an underrated album, isn't it?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5UVIiXM_HY
― Austin, Tuesday, 9 July 2013 01:13 (ten years ago) link
Dance is quite possibly my favourite Numan album.
― I wanna live like C'MOWN! people (Turrican), Tuesday, 9 July 2013 01:15 (ten years ago) link
What album is "Muzig vor... gameleons" on?
― Tommy McTommy (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 July 2013 18:12 (ten years ago) link
Oh God. I just looked at that picture and read Numan's feed and now I want a Numan cover of "Holiday Road."
― K. Rrosé, Thursday, 11 July 2013 18:23 (ten years ago) link
that picture needs to be added to the 'pictures where people have figured out how to live' (or whatever its called)
― mark e, Thursday, 11 July 2013 18:25 (ten years ago) link
― Tommy McTommy (Tom D.), Thursday, July 11, 2013 6:12 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
It's on I, Assassin, which is the album after Dance.
― I wanna live like C'MOWN! people (Turrican), Thursday, 11 July 2013 21:00 (ten years ago) link
Ned, you have made my week.
― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 11 July 2013 22:04 (ten years ago) link
This I did not expect
https://www.facebook.com/GaryNumanOfficial/photos/a.146356118757563.28686.128507877209054/804414429618392/?type=1&pnref=story
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 12 December 2014 05:32 (nine years ago) link
"some of it's mine, most of it's not. here's marge"
― don't ask me why i posted this (electricsound), Friday, 12 December 2014 05:37 (nine years ago) link
Ha, that's brilliant!
― Welcome To (Turrican), Friday, 12 December 2014 22:36 (nine years ago) link
Listening to Strange Charm now and surely 'My Breathing' must be one of his most blatant Bowie rip-offs... he's essentially taken the middle 8 from 'It's No Game' and written an entire song around it, and the last verse is all like "wah, why won't Radio One play my records anymore?" ... the rest of the LP (apart from maybe 'I Can't Stop') isn't very good, IMO... 'The Need' in particular being terrible.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 14:14 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, that's the one where I finally got off the bus after seven years of being a Numanoid. "New Thing from London Town" was great on its original single release but even that got botched for the LP as I recall.
― heaven parker (anagram), Thursday, 9 March 2017 15:35 (seven years ago) link
Anyway, I thought the revive would be to note that he just turned 59 yesterday. I see he's playing with John Foxx later this year, that would be worth seeing.
― heaven parker (anagram), Thursday, 9 March 2017 15:57 (seven years ago) link
Isn't there supposed to be an album due out this year? I know he's been working on something that was initially supposed to come out last year, but I dunno what's happening with that now.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 16:03 (seven years ago) link
Thing is, I actually really like Metal Rhythm... it's basically the only album of his I'd keep from the 1984-1993 period. Maybe the odd track here and there from the other albums during that period, but I think his songwriting lacked inspiration for many years.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 16:08 (seven years ago) link
yea he's doing some Kickstarter/Pledgemusic thing, can't remember which is which. album should be out in 6 months or so. though these things always go over schedule. good news too since I happened to think his last one (Splinter) was his best since Telekon, or maybe Dance
for the record I always thought Berserker was the one to save out of his...uh...less good years. love the title track on "Strange Charm" though.
― frogbs, Thursday, 9 March 2017 16:13 (seven years ago) link
Splinter was incredible, his best album since either Pure or Sacrifice for me, even though some days I might even prefer it to be both of those. It's well produced in a way that his stuff since 1994 hasn't always been.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 16:21 (seven years ago) link
plus the songwriting is quite diverse, which you can't really say about any of his other late career albums
― frogbs, Thursday, 9 March 2017 18:57 (seven years ago) link
It was a huge surprise given that he'd talked the album up for years as this huge, gloomy, noisy sonic monolith, like it was going to be a more extreme and uncompromising version of Jagged or something. Thank fuck that didn't happen!
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 19:15 (seven years ago) link
i loved the recent documentary re the Splinter recording/release process.
(at least i think it was the Splinter album .. )
― mark e, Thursday, 9 March 2017 19:39 (seven years ago) link
Very good new interview with the man in the latest Tape Op magazine. Goes in deep re: his recording processes, production etc
― Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Friday, 25 May 2018 22:37 (six years ago) link
Been blasting in cars
― add surface noise (Ross), Friday, 25 May 2018 23:43 (six years ago) link
That Numan interview is really good, he's such a self-effacing musician.
Any suggestions for tunes to check out on his later records with Ade Fenton that are discussed in the Tape Op magazine articles?
― earlnash, Friday, 25 May 2018 23:46 (six years ago) link
in my experience all his stuff is worth the dig, especially in the age of youtube/spotify -- Warriors is great to my ear, the bass is all slinky/warbly/possibly fretless? I suspect so stuff that I really like. if you were around for Cars the first go-round, it's a little hard to square the Numan of Telekon/Pleasure Principle with how much he grew musically, & I think this is down to how little he grew vocally. He has the same vocal style he had in the Tubeway Army all the way through, to my ear...but as a musician, as a songwriter, he goes through truly daring changes from album to album -- New Anger is one thing, The Fury quite another, and so on & on. But there, at the center always because it's so distinctive, is the same sound. So the ear tends to find that as a focus, but to me these days the vocal lines are more -- decorative? While musically, I'm still finding new things to like on so many of his records.
If you end up going all in, the live album from the New Anger tour, The Skin Mechanic, is especially good imo.
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, 26 May 2018 00:10 (six years ago) link
Ah yes the live version of Young Heart is pretty special. I think New Anger / Metal Rhythm is unjustly overlooked with some great stuff on it. Don't Call My Name sounds like it could slot neatly into a David Lynch soundtrack and Voix should've been a single.
― Lemon Kitten (Dan.S.), Sunday, 27 May 2018 11:32 (six years ago) link
I like all of the Beggars Banquet albums (yes, including Warriors which I hated for a long time until I finally managed to adjust to what Gary was doing on that record) - I like Metal Rhythm a lot and find it to be a very underrated record. Then of his recent phase: Sacrifice, Pure and Splinter. All the others I just cherry pick one or two tracks from.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 27 May 2018 17:29 (six years ago) link
Ah yes, and Dead Son Rising - love that one too. In hindsight, the recent one (Savage) was underwhelming.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 27 May 2018 17:30 (six years ago) link
I didn’t know until today that Tape Op has a digital subscription! So that’s happening for me today. My Numan thing has been to slowly creep forward with a new point on the timeline every few years. For decades Tubeway Army/Replicas/PP was the corpus for me, then I got with Telekon in the 00s, that was a very easy and thrilling add; Dance I digested in the 10s and I don’t think I’d have been able to grok it if I hadn’t gotten into Japan in the meantime. This past year I finally got I, Assassin and I’m still coming to terms with it tbh. I like its soundworld a lot but I do find at this point that his choruses are too often stamped from the “We Are Glass” template of long breathed whole note and half note melodies with portamento-ing monosynth.
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 27 May 2018 17:56 (six years ago) link
when in the right mood, I really enjoy Pure.I have a 2cd live set from that era, Scarred.because they released a LOT of live albums, and they were selling them off at Fopp for £3 each, and I just picked one randomly.
― mark e, Sunday, 27 May 2018 18:03 (six years ago) link
So many great tunes, and I ask: what was his presence -- college radio and otherwise -- in America 1979-1981?
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 31 January 2020 02:43 (four years ago) link
Can only speak for commercial radio, it was just "Cars" over here, and it was inescapable in early 1980.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 31 January 2020 02:59 (four years ago) link
can I just say what a fucking phenomenal tune "Complex" is
still yet to find anything that makes me feel like that song does
― frogbs, Friday, 31 January 2020 03:07 (four years ago) link
"Muzig vor gameleons... muzig vor gameleons..."
Despite attempts to change his signature sound with fretless bass and terrible sax playing and whatever, his stuff is so samey - I mean I like it, but listening to a whole batch of it you very quickly notice its limitations. Of course, the music's all written around his extremely limited vocal range, which doesn't help.
― Bridge Over Thorley Waters (Tom D.), Monday, 30 March 2020 14:44 (four years ago) link
limitations are good
― Οὖτις, Monday, 30 March 2020 14:54 (four years ago) link
LOL @ his US chart record, "Cars" got to #9 and "I Die: You Die" climbed all the way to #102. I didn't even know there was a #102.
― Bridge Over Thorley Waters (Tom D.), Monday, 30 March 2020 14:55 (four years ago) link
haha yeah wait how low does that chart go
― Οὖτις, Monday, 30 March 2020 14:56 (four years ago) link
"debuting at #572, it's..."
― Οὖτις, Monday, 30 March 2020 14:57 (four years ago) link
I Die: You Die is better than Cars
― avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Monday, 30 March 2020 15:02 (four years ago) link
And it goes to 200, no?
Excuse me, "I Die: Yo Die". His singles are great.
― Bridge Over Thorley Waters (Tom D.), Monday, 30 March 2020 15:04 (four years ago) link
those limitations have defined his career from the start, someone (maybe on here?) mentioned that The Pleasure Principle was like 10 different takes on the same tune and that's really stuck with me, actually makes me like the album more
I was really into Pure (his 2000 album) for a while until I realized that he was doing the same trick on nearly every track, you could drop in any chorus on any tune at it would still work
his latest two do seem to mix it up a bit more for what that's worth
― frogbs, Monday, 30 March 2020 15:30 (four years ago) link