lcliffor@bbncca.ARPA (Laura Frank Clifford) (11/01/83)
A warning for anyone who might like Gary Numan - his latest l.p., "Warriors", is a total flop. At least his last one , "I Assasin", had a couple of good tunes. "Warriors" is boring and a waste of money. The cover is even in bad taste - Gary seems to think he's Mel Gibson. Take it from a (former) Numan fan - avoid this one.
dce@hammer.UUCP (David Elliott) (11/18/83)
My earliest Numan recordings are early Tubeway Army singles from 1978. My favorite Gary Numan album is "Tubeway Army". The singles mentioned above are really great, containing the original version of "Bombers" and other greats. In this early period, Gary was called "Valerian" and the other two band-members had equally strange names. These recordings are nothing like anything that came after them. These are not full of synthesizers. Numan was playing guitar back then and was really good at it. I'm not saying that his later stuff is not any good, though. I listen to my copy of "Living Ornaments 79-80" quite a lot. This is a really good live album from the 1979 and 1980 tours and has a much more powerful sound than albums like "Pleasure Principle" and "Telekon". Has anyone heard the new album? If it's anything like "Dance", I don't want anything to do with it. By the way, is that really Gary on the cover, or is it a GI Joe doll? David
rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (11/22/83)
Gary Numan (nee Webb) has been around since 1978 or so, making records with his (then) band Tubeway Army. The first album was not in the electronic vein he has become known for. (one song "BOMBERS" survived into live concerts and a live EP) Tubeway Army's second album, Replicas (released in USA as Gary Numan and Tubeway Army - Replicas) is the album that broke him in Britain, with seminal electropop #1 hits like "Me I Disconnect From You" and "Are Friends Electric?". The album reminded some critics of the work of Philip K. Dick. (I disagree, but reading that review after hearing the album resulting in my initial introduction to the wotk of P.K. Dick) Other great songs from "REPLICAS" include "Down in the Park", "Praying to the Aliens" and the title cut. Yes, he was droll and unoriginal (in many ways), owing the world to David Bowie (especially "Low"-- listen to "Asylum", which is the flip side of the British single "Cars"-- a direct ripoff of "Warszawa"), but it was he who started the ball rolling for electropop with some really good cuts. The next album "The Pleasure Principle" (Gary Numan sans Tubeway Army) brought us the top ten US smash "Cars", and a few other tracks worthy of minimal note. "Cars" really is a masterpiece in its own way. Like all of the best of Numan's music, it is linear: no chords, hardly any counterrhythms, just a single melodic line on bass and synthesizers compounded with electronic effects. The added electronic strings are bare, minimal, and effective. First appearing as a basic simple sustain, evolving into a simple countermelody, and then into two countermelodies. Not as sophisticated as I make it sound, but that's the point: through the process of just overdubbing string melodies, he built himself a great song. After the Pleasure Principle, Numan seemed to drown in his own excess of image. "I Dream of Wires" was covered by Robert Palmer, but nothing else of note emerged. His time seemed to have come and gone. I heard very little from "I, Assassin" (what I heard was boring) and nothing from his latest work, but I fear his best days are behind him. Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr -- Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr
emks@uokvax.UUCP (11/24/83)
#R:bbncca:-24100:uokvax:5100003:000:309
uokvax!emks Nov 15 02:12:00 1983
Okay, this isn't TOTALLY germane to the last album, but I'm ask anyway...
How long has Numan been recording? I'm told that he's been recording for
some years now... If this is correct, then what is *your* appraisal of
his recordings? (What's his *best*?)
kurt
...!{ctvax | tinker | uok}!uokvax!emksjrd@brunix.UUCP (john r. durand) (12/08/83)
if you want a truely great album by Gary Numan, by Replicas. it has most of his best work including "are friends electric", "me! i disconnect from you", "down in the park", and a lot of other great stuff. if you don't already know it, buy it!
dce@hammer.UUCP (David Elliott) (12/15/83)
Yes, Yes! All of Gary's records up through Telekon are great, but Dance was horrible so I want to know what the new record is like. David