Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Extension of His More Recent Work, March 22, 2006
If you like Numan's more recent stuff (Exile, Pure), you'll probably like this. If you're looking for his 70s-80s sound, you might not. I like his overall body of work, with various high points sprinkled throughout, from Down in the Park through Dominion Day. Some people just want to hear rehashes of Cars. Not me. I like the "dark" and "heavy" quality of the more recent stuff (and, yes, I like Nine Inch Nails, so you know where I'm coming from). One thing that always works across the board for Numan is his unique voice. No matter what the music sounds like his instantly recognizable voice stands out.
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16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A solid and provocative entry from Numan, June 19, 2006
Gary Numan's 17th studio album follows the same themes and sound explored in Sacrifice, Exile, and Pure. These are all explorations of the social function of religion, and its relationship to love. One need pay no attention to the negative reviews of this disc. It is not simply a repeat of the previous three musical explorations of the dark side. The opening number clocks in at 5:19, introduced by a reverberant acoustic and dark lyrics. Several writers have criticized the extended, atmospheric introductions. I disagree. They are instead highly creative and evocative. Pressure invokes the color black in association with an apparently disastrous end to a love affair. At 5:47, Fold is a good follow-up, a bit less negative than the first. Halo is the third strong entry in a row. After a mysterious, pulsating introduction, Numan breaks out into a less comprehensible vocal line about failed love that questions God's commitment to humanity. The sound is heavily processed, and Numan's voice is buried under innumerable layers of electronic harmony. The first three songs share a minor-key, falling melodic line. At 4:17, the relatively short Halo gives way to another echoic soundscape, filled with distant howls. This is the 6:02 Slave. The coda is especially impressive, the echos dying away to leave nothing but electric piano. The fifth piece is In a Dark Place, 6:06. Here Numan reveals a far more open and questioning voice than in Pure, or even Exile. Speaking of God, he cries: "Sometimes I call out for you, and sometimes I'm afraid." Haunted (5:29) begins with a sound reminiscent of Led Zeppelin. The lyrics of this song effectively evoke how love and death are related: "And this is not my face, not my voice, not my life, It belongs to you." At 7:01, the longest song on this album, Blind, features yet another spooky beginning, and another melodic line in quite the same vein as those of the previous songs is introduced. The blackness of the opening number is now revisited, and the referent of the metaphor becomes clearer. As in previous outings, Numan is exploring failed love in the larger, theoretical context. In this setting, though, he is significantly less arrogant, more beaten, guilt-ridden, and desperate. In Blind, as in the other numbers, this is presented in a wall of throbbing, electronica rock. At 5:14. "Before You Hate It" is a relatively subdued rocker. "Once is always so don't call me," the love-obsessed singer commands. The next song, Melt, at 5:18, features a monster bass line. There is a bit of choral backup in this appealing song: "Sometimes I wonder if a soul can try." Here, Numan is at his most explicitly anti-religious: "I don't think He died for me." The 6:02 Scanner returns to the theme of love, and the melodic line actually rises a bit, giving a slightly stronger and optimistic feel to the music. Jagged, 5:23 opens with yet more industrial atmospherics, giving way to a synthesized orchestral sound and a whispered lyric. The relationship between love and God is made clearer. The songwriter rejects the condemnation by the church of unstated sexual feelings or actions. The single bonus track on this disc is a catchy, busy 4:44 remix of Fold. While none of the ideas here is particularly shocking or new in light of previous ventures down the path of a religious iconoclast, the sound has evolved. These songs will mix nicely with gyrating bodies on a high-tech dance floor. At 65:42. this is yet another generously filled and highly professional exploration.
Having observed all of the above regarding Numan's latest entry, there is much that is appealing about pre-Sacrifice Numan, namely a generally large assemblage of excellent studio musicians. I remember particularly the appealing ways in which saxophone and fretless bass were used to impart a jazzy, improvised feel to so many Numan records. Instead, Numan identifies a hook, appears to program it, and then let's it run. I enjoy the hypnotic effect, the mesmerizing atmospherics, the sheer dimensionality of the music, but there is much to be enjoyed in the diversity of musical influences that characterize the huge middle section of Numan's output, from Telekon to Machine and Soul. I would love to see Numan retreat from the mechanized virtuosity where he currently resides, to a community-oriented, collaborative approach. There is no doubt in my mind that the multiple masterpieces that Numan has produced all have that professional cooperation and creation in common.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Kudos to Gary for another great album, March 22, 2006
With all due respect to marblehead, how the heck do you get to KISS from this album? I'm confused.
No, this album is not NiN, nor is it a return to Replicas. He already did Replicas, and I do not believe that he feels the need to recreate it for you. His music has always been a reflection on who he is and what he's going through at the time, almost like a magazine subscription of his life. Is the album good? Of course it is. It does have a consistent pervasive sound running through the whole thing, much like Exile, which may be too much for some people to deal with for over an hour. Not for me. The album's dark tone is more stylized than Pure, and is easier to absorb, as it does not have some of the achingly painful emotional moments that graced Pure after some very hard personal events in his life. He's in a happy mood these days, and the music reflects this too, even as it eschews dark themes and atmospheres.
And the lyrics are not horrible. He is not trying to write a narrative or a diary with them; they are more on the level of a puzzle game, as the lyrics from the songs sometimes overlap each other in different variations to approach the themes of the album from different positions.
Bottom line, although not as personal as Pure, this album still rocks, and focuses on the musical and lyrical atmosphere and mood. Give the album a few listens. It will grow on you.
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by Gary Numan 
