Pure

Gary Numan | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 7, 2000)
• Original Release Date: November 7, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Spitfire
• ASIN: B000050I3X
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #319,383 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Pure

2. Walking with Shadows

3. Rip

4. One Perfect Lie

5. My Jesus

6. Fallen

7. Listen to My Voice

8. A Prayer for the Unborn

9. Torn

10. Little Invitro

11. I Can't Breathe

Editorial Reviews

2001 studio release from Gary Numan featuring "Listen To My Voice", "Rip" and "Pure". --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Numan still has it., November 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Pure (Audio CD)

I've been a Gary Numan fan since 1979 and, frankly, it hasn't been easy. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, his albums have been a little hard to swallow, usually containing one or two fantastic songs mixed with tunes that range from "just miss" to "absolutely embarrassing." Then, something happened. In 1994, Numan stopped writing songs geared towards getting radio airplay and started writing stuff he wanted to hear. The first evidence of this newfound confidence was 1994's SACRIFICE, an absolutely dark, brooding album. It was the kind of music I'd been longing to hear him make since 1982. Numan followed SACRIFICE with EXILE, an even angrier album.

2000's PURE turns down the anger, but turns up just about everything else. Numan's characteristic synthesizers have teamed up with guitar power chords, a new vocal style, the return of real drums and a use of distorted sound samples and electro-noise that recalls both the best of the Tubeway Army days and the more modern industrial sounds of Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson.

Numan sings with a confidence I've not heard him sing with before. By allowing his emotions to ooze into his delivery, he absolutely boils over with both power and delicacy in his vocals.

Gary Numan has created an album that can be held up to all those that have wondered what long-time fans have seen in him all this time. It is this: PURE.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Return To Form For Numan, March 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Pure (Audio CD)

Having been a Numan fan since 'Are Friends Electric?' in '79, I've witnessed all the highs (Pleasure Principle, Replicas, Berserker) and lows (Warriors, Machine & Soul) in Gary's album career. From Telekon onwards, his lyrics have tended to over-fixate on the turbulence of his own career, but his wife Gemma appears to have opened a whole new chapter in his life, entirely for the better. On previous albums, 'Exile' and 'Sacrifice' a welcome new musical and lyrical direction was explored, but it's only with the triumphant new album 'Pure', that things have really come together. Kicking off with the huge electronic bombast of the title track, it's clear that Gary has finally reached the musical plateau that he's been aiming for all these years. I challenge anyone to get the riff from this song out of their head after a couple of listens, and it's also (as far as I'm aware) the first time Gary has used the word 'bitch' in any of his lyrics! 'Walking with Shadows' is dark, brooding and lyrically unsettling; 'All they need is one tortured soul', ostensibly about the thoughts of someone in a coma. 'Rip', the obvious choice for a single, uses menacing, whispered lyrics to lead into a crashing chorus, building to a huge muscular synth work-out and breathless ending. This track alone is worth the album price. 'One Perfect Lie', my personal favourite, is a moving tribute to Gary's pet dog, with a lyric just as fitting for anyone experiencing the loss of a loved one. 'I kneel down by your grave, torn and guilty', may not be a radio-friendly lyric, but conveys more than a million shallow pop songs ever could. The mighty 'My Jesus' is a huge slice of dark energy, ostensibly tapping into the thoughts of a potential serial killer; 'the screams will guide you to me'. Powered by a huge synth riff, the track demands repeated listens. 'Fallen', a near instrumental with whispered backward lyrics is superb, but too short. Another few minutes of this would be just the tonic!

'Listen to my Voice' starts off innocuously enough, but rapidly builds to a chorus seething with malevolence; 'They will send angels, send black angels for you.' 'A Prayer for the Unborn', the first of two tracks about Gary and Gemma's baby girl, who sadly did not survive, must surely rank as one of his most incisive and bitter lyrics, directed at a god who could allow such a small life to be extinguished before it had begun; 'You were glorious, but you were somewhere else.' 'Torn' is another enormous slab of darkness and disturbance, bristling with menace, and is followed by the heartbreaking 'Little Invitro'. Having recently become father to a baby girl, I can entirely empathise with Gary's feelings of anger, guilt and loss, laid bare in a lyric that is almost too painful to listen to. The album exits with the huge 'I Can't Breathe', a track which, the listener should be warned, has several false endings. Overall, the album is the first by any artist in over 10 years that I can thoroughly recommend in it's entirety. The whole thing is a masterpiece of Gary's trademark lyrics of alienation, yet harnessed to themes that anyone can identify with, and featuring marvellously dark instrumentation, a tribute to the skills of both Gary and his band. If you've ever liked anything by Numan, give this a listen, likewise if you're a fan of the dark music of Nine Inch Nails, Ministry or Marilyn Manson. If Hootie & The Blowfish are more your bag, I suggest you try somwhere else.

Excellent!!!!!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forget All You Know About Gary Numan's "CARS", July 29, 2004

By 

Eric Dapkewicz (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pure (Audio CD)

Anytime I have ever brought up to people... that they should pick up "EXILE" or "PURE", they laugh and make jokes about the song "Cars". Well... clear your mind of the 80's or that song for a moment here. This is not the same Gary Numan. "PURE" is a continuation of his previous work, "EXILE". There is no denying that elements of this album sound like NIN, or even DM. That's not a bad thing either. Numan's voice is low, dark and alluring. He draws you into this dark, gothic setting, and never lets up. The music is a bit more up to date, edgier and mature than "Exile". There are more crunching guitars woven in with brooding synths. My favorite track is "My Jesus". Other stand out tracks include "Pure", "R.I.P.", "Listen To My Voice" and "A Prayer For The Unborn". I believe Numan and his wife lost their first unborn child during the making of this album. His anger towards religion, and his sadness of loss are reflected here. This is a serious album, that works on so many levels.