I think I might like that first Tubeway Army lp better than either of those.
otm
― Snowqueen's Icedragon (crüt), Friday, 1 June 2012 13:31 (eleven years ago) link
I like Tubeway Army plenty, but there's no way on Earth I'd rank it higher than Replicas or The Pleasure Principle. Some great songs on it, though: 'Listen To The Sirens', 'My Shadow In Vain', 'Something's In The House', 'Everyday I Die' etc. Although I think Numan did better versions of some of these tracks with his Pleasure Principle-era band on the Living Ornaments '79 album.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Friday, 1 June 2012 13:34 (eleven years ago) link
IMO the first album is on far with the next two - very different feel but it's like glam-techno rock and doesn't have any bad songs!
― frogbs, Friday, 1 June 2012 13:39 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, it definitely does have a different feel to what came after, and that really isn't a bad thing at all. Don't get me wrong, I do have a lot of time for the album. I'd personally rank it after Replicas, The Pleasure Principle, Telekon, Dance and Sacrifice, with Pure and I, Assassin just behind it.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Friday, 1 June 2012 13:56 (eleven years ago) link
Or: Dance > Telekon > Replicas > The Pleasure Principle > Sacrifice > Tubeway Army > Pure > I, Assassin > everything else.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Friday, 1 June 2012 13:58 (eleven years ago) link
Dunno if it counts but I really dug the Hybrid album. A bit too far on the nu-metal goth thing but some of the remixes of the Pure tunes were great - I think he finally found the sound he was looking for.
Just finished listening to the Berserker-era live album "White Noise" - it's actually pretty good!
― frogbs, Friday, 1 June 2012 14:34 (eleven years ago) link
Ah, Berserker is such a frustrating album for me, because if Numan had spent more time on the songwriting than acquiring and pissing about with the then-latest technology and his record label it could have been fantastic. Sometimes I listen to Berserker and there are parts of a song which'll make me go: "fuck, that's a really great bit", but it'll be surrounded by bits that aren't so great. The best example I can give of this is the track 'The Secret', which must be one of the greatest, fist-pumping and (dare I say) uplifting choruses he's ever written. But everything else in the song completely sucks!
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Friday, 1 June 2012 16:15 (eleven years ago) link
"A Child With The Ghost" is like that as well, great chorus but the verses really slump.
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Friday, 1 June 2012 16:22 (eleven years ago) link
From the show back in 2010. May have posted this elsewhere, but it's THAT GOOD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gmmWbaKsY4
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 1 June 2012 21:22 (eleven years ago) link
^my favorite Numan song
― but he go's to a resturang and then die in a toilet (Jon Lewis), Friday, 1 June 2012 22:47 (eleven years ago) link
what else sounds like this stuff (besides Bowie & Iggy albums from the same time period)?
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 10 January 2019 00:05 (five years ago) link
Early Ultravox has the synth/rock hybrid sound too.
― earlnash, Thursday, 10 January 2019 00:14 (five years ago) link
I assume you mean pre-Vienna
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 10 January 2019 00:19 (five years ago) link
Metamatic
― frogbs, Thursday, 10 January 2019 01:07 (five years ago) link
Systems of Romance and Vienna by Ultravox, the first two Visage albums, Magazine's Secondhand Daylight, Quiet Life and Gentlemen Take Polaroids by Japan, Empires and Dance and Sons and Fascination by Simple Minds.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Thursday, 10 January 2019 15:17 (five years ago) link
I guess the first two John Foxx solo albums fit too, even though Metamatic takes a slightly different approach to Numan 1979-1980, stuff like 'Underpass' fits. Non-album single 'Miles Away' definitely does.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Thursday, 10 January 2019 15:21 (five years ago) link
while we're on the topic did anyone else think the title of that song was "Underpants" for a long time
― frogbs, Thursday, 10 January 2019 15:22 (five years ago) link
No, you were the only one :P
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Thursday, 10 January 2019 15:29 (five years ago) link
thx guys - some of this stuff (Japan, Ultravox "Vienna") I'm familiar with, will check out the rest
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 10 January 2019 16:22 (five years ago) link
Metamatic is more to Telekon or Dance, as it is more full electronic sound. That said, Metamatic's sound holds up pretty well for a nearly a 30 year old synth pop record.
I just listened to the first two Ultravox records in a mix with early PIL, Wire, Cabaret Voltaire and others of that turn of the decade sound and their sound fit in very well.
― earlnash, Friday, 11 January 2019 01:25 (five years ago) link
I don't really know of any other electronic rock music that feels like Pleasure Principle. Its sound to me is primarily defined by a patient loping which is heavy as fuck. Other records which have that feel are all by solidly guitar based artists. I don't know of anyone else using mostly synths to go to that place. It is in retrospect such an obvious idea. Synths of that time were heavy as living fuck if you only had the simplicity to let them be so.
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Friday, 11 January 2019 14:54 (five years ago) link
digging Ultravox's "Quiet Men", that hits the spot
agree that Numan's setup in this era seems both unique and sort of "duh, why had no one thought of this before". Sorta like the Ramones.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 11 January 2019 16:25 (five years ago) link
Yeah not a lot else has that Numan crunch... I want to say Gary Wright for some reason lol
― brimstead, Friday, 11 January 2019 22:26 (five years ago) link
The impressive thing about The Pleasure Principle is that there's no guitar on it at all. In fact, it's probably the only guitar-less Numan album.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Friday, 11 January 2019 22:34 (five years ago) link