Customer Reviews

New Dreams for Old 1984-1998

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yes, Gary has done it again with this new compilation album. I have practically all of Gary's Albums both on Vinyl and on CD. I have been waiting to hear his new material mixed in with the old. I am amazed at this man's capability after so many years of amazing music. In my opinion, Gary Numan's greatest hits CD would be a CD containing every song ever written and performed by himself. I would recommend this album to anyone with a taste for Gary Numan.

This CD represents an overview of fourteen years worth of Gary Numan. In that time, he had faded from guaranteed chart-act to a virtual outsider. It is also the time when he created some of his most interesting music. Criminally under-achieving singles like 'Berserker' and 'Call out the Dogs' are mixed the occasional outstanding album track, like 'Voix' and a re-working of 'Metal'. This album charts his flirtation with 'funk', and his present love affair with all things gothic (enjoy the darkness of 'Question of Faith' and 'Dominion Day' for example), and provides proof of his ability to write a heart-rending ballad ('Absolution'). This is a great cross-section of styles from all his ever-changing moods and is an excellent introduction to the metallic, synthesised world of Gary Numan.

What an amazing selection of songs ! Even for those who have all of the studio records.These carefully selected bunch are different versions to make it even better.Shorter 7 ¨ raio edit versions,reworkings,edits,etc.Even 4 reworkings from 98 in full industrial mode and the funkiest version of ¨Cars¨ taken from the live ¨White Noise ¨albums are included.The sound is remastered to perfection,and even the singles from ¨Sacrifice¨ (famous for their abysmal sound) sound excellent here !! I'd have included yet more tracks from ¨Outland ¨and ¨Machine And Soul ¨,but understand those are people's least favourites and that a comp has to be made with popular taste into account so I'm more than happy with this cd.75'of pure Numan history.WILL PUT A SMILE IN YOUR FACE TOO !!!

I bought this one day ... and this particular item caught my eye from the section I passed. It piqued my curosity so much, I decided to make it an official impulse buy. Now, I don't do that very often, but I am extremely glad that I did, as this is some of the best rock/electronica I've ever heard! ... Anyway, about this CD. NO, I did NOT get it just for "Cars", even though it's live, as I was already aware that Gary had performed music of considerable quality and depth. His songs actually have *soul*, which most of what I had been listening to up to this time had severely lacked! Also, even though this collection is composed primarily of edits and remakes, I didn't care. I really, really like the sound of most of what's on here. Hey, I'm listening to "The Skin Game" as I write this, it being one of my favorites! Some others from New Dreams For Old I like are "America", "Down In The Park", "Call Out The Dogs", "New Anger", "My Dying Machine", and "I Can't Stop". Yes, I am aware, that Mr. Numan is considered a one-hit wonder in THIS country, with the song that I am really sick of, and which was never one of his best to begin with, and I also aware of his controversial reputation back in the U.K. But ya know, once again, I DON'T CARE! His music rules! Long live Gary, and long live the rock/techno/electronica genre!

Old hits, new hits...simply brilliant. I adore most of his music, especially the later, darker stuff. This has a bit of everything and yes, 'cars' is in here too!
It's great if you want to get into Numans music as you get a clear taste of what he has achieved. A worthy addition!

If you're a Numan fan, or a beginner looking to find some Numan CD's, you will find a whole bunch of pretty worthless compilation albums that are filled with previously released live tracks, easily attainable b-sides, and filler pieces taken right off the original albums; in other words, nothing you can't find on regular, and very common, releases. This release, however, gives you TONS of tracks that are seemingly impossible (and would be very expensive) to get by buying every original release.

First, you get a whole bunch of edited/single/7" versions (like 10) of some songs; these aren't too exciting for big Numan fans, unless you like different mixes, but to give a good overview of Numan's music of this period these tracks are perfect for beginners.

But what's truly awesome are the different versions of 'Metal', 'Magic', 'Voix', and 'Down In The Park'. These tracks are hard to find, and have been released only on the singles 'Dominion Day' and 'Absolution'.

Aside from the edits and newer versions are a few odds and ends which add even more volume to this great collection. Most compilations don't cover the whole length potential of the CD format; this one, however, is a good 70+ minutes. Even if you have all the tracks on this CD, it's still a good buy because the songs aren't just thrown around, they carry a focused cohesiveness throughout, giving a great mix for traveling or CD players, not just to rip onto the computer.

If I had my druthers, this disc would've been a handy "summing up" of Gary Numan's output during the period 1984 - 1998. But unfortunately, it didn't quite come out that way. Some of the song selection is spot-on - "America", "Berserker", "A Question of Faith", "My Dying Machine" and so forth. We even are given the rare 7" forms of several tracks, which to me is a plus (I've already got the album versions). But there's several tracks that are harder to account for. Why so many "'98 workings" of songs? Why (yet another) live version of "Cars"? Yeah, this wasn't the most fertile time of his career, but certainly "My Breathing", "Cold Warning" and so forth would've fit better than a revisited "Metal". The re-recording tracks aren't bad at all, but they'd sound better somewhere besides a "best of" collection. Stilll, there's a fair amount to like here - it's just distressing to see obvious filler when there didn't need to be any.