I feel like Gary Numan got a raw deal. Most of you know him as the ‘Cars‘ guy. If you’re a scenester kid or a big goth/industrial fan you’ve probably heard some of his other singles, like “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” and ‘M.E.,’ the latter having been sampled pretty hard by Basement Jaxx a few years back. If you’ve got credibility to spare you’ve also got a copy of The Pleasure Principle and no doubt defend it to anyone who complains about ‘Cars‘ being so played-out. And…that’s it! To most of the population he’s an early-80s synth-pop star who faded into irrelevance a couple decades ago. And that’s fine, I guess, but if you stick around for a few paragraphs you’ll learn there’s more to the story.
Here’s the gist of his career, summed up based on a Wikipedia article I read a few weeks ago. He stumbled into the music industry and accidently made it big for awhile, as he happened to be doing his thing when Kraftwerk was killing and synthpop was just getting off the ground. His trademark pasty androgyne look came about my accident: he had really bad acne and got his face covered with thick makeup before going on TV once, and the look stuck. His song ‘Cars’ was an incredible hit, he had a couple of excellent albums, and then he pulled a Bowie and “quit” at the height of his fame. Then, like Bowie, he continued to record like mad and took his music to really interesting and experimental places. Like Bowie, most of his albums during that period were actually pretty awful. Unlike Bowie, people pretty much stopped caring about Gary and now you’ll be hard pressed to find two people at a party who can name one of his albums. Yet he kept making music, and some people were listening.
I’m bringing this up because a few weeks ago a local record shop closed (something I’ll write about one of these days) and I picked up a Gary Numan double-album called ‘Remodulate‘ at a pretty deep discount. It’s a compilation album with tracks culled from the dozen-or-so albums he released over the dozen-or-so years Numan operated his own record label. There’s also a live disc, but I don’t give a shit about that, I’m mostly hooked by the hit singles Gary was crafting throughout all those years when nobody was listening to him. They’re damn good. There’s some excellent songs on here. Maybe you’re sick of ‘Cars,’ but you have to admit it’s catchy. Gary Numan can write great hooks. Maybe it sounds dated to you because you’ve heard the goth/industrial beats in Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson songs. Hate to break it to you, but Gary Numan was doing it long before Trent was. Matter fact, Trent Reznor’s a big Gary Numan fan;* he’s the kind of musician who knows the importance of citing his sources.
If you like the whole goth/industrial thing you’d do well to give Gary Numan a closer look. Late-period Numan is basically guitar-based goth/industrial with strong pop elements. There’s nothing not to like. Well, one thing: if I had to bring one criticism at his ouevre as a whole, I’d have to say there’s nothing wrong with his songs except they’re about a minute and a half too long. Maybe it’s just because I’ve got the ‘extended version’ tracks that are obviously intended for vinyl records. I dunno. As the GZA would say, this is music from the heart, and not for the charts.
Oh, one more thing. He didn’t learn until the 2000′s that he had Asperger’s. Makes total sense, doesn’t it? All his big songs are about how he feels alienated from other people and feels safest when he’s with lifeless machines. You know, “Here in my car / I feel safest of all / I can lock all my doors / It’s the only way to live,” you hear that? Asperger’s. It’s sort of like when your big-shouldered, bearded lumberjack-lookin’ broseph who loves Christina Aguilera comes out as gay. It’s like nothing’s really changed between you, but everything snaps into place and you can’t believe you didn’t see it before.
Gary Numan – “Love and Napalm”
Gary Numan – “Your Fascination”
Gary Numan – “The Secret”
* EDIT: Also Fear Factory.
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Comments ( 3 )
Shane added these pithy words on Apr 09 10 at 3:56 pmI love Numan’s albums from the last 15 years or so. I highly recommend starting with “Exile.” Also check out his collaborations with Ade Fenton if you dig the Industrial Goth thing (I do).
Deiter added these pithy words on Apr 10 10 at 12:52 amI discovered GN from the first album. Heard it playing at a friend’s house one night and thought his icy alienation vibe was really onto something. I bought my own copy but found it quickly lost its luster for me. (But that’s just me.) I think what went wrong for me, and this was the crime of the whole synth pop genre in general, was that the songs were all sound and ambience and distinctly lacked a deep, creamy center. (I always thought the Buzzcocks could’ve done well by adding an idea or two more to their songs as well.) I dig GN’s voice and I’d bet his songs could do well in the right other person’s hands. (Robert Palmer had a pretty good go at one once.) I’d love to hear some real drums. One thing Depeche Mode managed to do fairly well was throw enough layers into their songs so that they’d bear repeated listenings. I wish GN would’ve done the same.
Patrick Jennings added these pithy words on Apr 13 10 at 7:03 pmWhoa!Very surprised by “Your Fascination” and “Love and Napalm”!
I have an endless fascination for “Replicas,” released in 1979, both for the departure from pop music of the day, and for the ‘do androids dream of electric sheep’ themes on what is, essentially, a concept album.
“The Pleasure Principle” fell off a bit from that, and “Telekon” all but obliterated Numan from my consciousness.
“Your Fascination” has rekindled my awareness. Sweet use of synth sounds for creating a rhythm…reminiscent of the 80s, but something about it feels much more contemporary — perhaps it’s the arrangement of the backing vocals?
