Customer Reviews

Replicas

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Replicas is easily one of the most unique and exciting pieces of music I own. Due to my prejudice against non-guitar-based rock, I didn't discover Gary Numan's work on my own; a much more open minded friend turned me on to this CD. I was immediately taken with it, for it sounded fresh and new and wholly original. My experience with this type of electronic, keyboard-driven music is very limited; obvious bands like Ministry and Nine Inch Nails were about as far as I went into that field before I discovered Replicas.

What Gary Numan has done here is fashioned a cold, bleak, alien world of the future. Some of the synthesizer work could be straight out of THX 1138 or Blade Runner; it evokes the same sort of hopeless chill. Numan's exaggerated voice, robotic and monotone, makes one wonder if he's human. In the copious liner notes included with the new remastered CD, Numan himself explains the strange world he's created. Obviously this guy read lots of Philip K. Dick and other edgy SF masters whose vision of the coming society was one of the breakdown of human identity due to the prevalence of engineered, thinking machines.

Two of Numan's trademark songs start the album off, and both have titles that could have been taken right from Philip K. Dick himself: "Me! I Disconnect from You" and "Are 'Friends' Electric?" Punchy, driving, and eerily catchy, these set the stage for the entire album. Numan easily mixes his brand of synth-rock with pop aesthetics. The lyrics stop short of being obvious, provoking thought more than confusion.

"You know I hate to ask
But are 'friends' electric?
Only mine's broke down
And now I've no one to love"

"Down in the Park," the hit single, reveals what happens to the few rebellious humans left in this world: they're locked in The Park, where, when it gets dark, torturous machines come out to terrorize them. "Very few people survive one night," Numan says in the notes, "no one survives two." Watching from Zom-Zoms, the elite club high above The Park, are the humans who have been deemed acceptable by the ruling machines.

"Oh look
There's a rape machine
I'd go outside
If he'd look the other way
You wouldn't believe
The things they do"

Other songs like "Machmen," "Praying to the Aliens" and "You Are in My Vision" continue the paranoia, the fear, and the irrevocable feeling of living in a sterile, yet decaying, totalitarian future world where machines and men--and those that are both--are at war.

"The wreckage of a hero
Lies broken in the corner
And everyone pretends
They like to live that way"

Really, this is an incredibly exciting, contemporary-sounding album. Being introduced to the work of Gary Numan was one of the highlights of my musical journeys last year; I hope my words on Replicas have done it justice, and I encourage you to pick it up for your own enjoyment.

With this album, Gary Numan & band took full advantage of the direction prepared by synth experimentalists Kraftwerk, Bowie, Giorgio Moroder and a few others. (Replicas owes a lot to Bowie's Low and Heroes but is original enough). The electronic music comes with an atmosphere of gloom and alienation as reflected in the opener Me, I Disconnect From You, and the theme runs right through songs like Praying To The Aliens and the sinister Down In The Park with its beautiful instrumental flourishes. The prominent guitars on You Are In My Vision and It Must Have Been Years make them driving rock songs, while the title track now reminds me of the band OMD that arrived on the scene some years later. Two instrumentals follow: When the Machines Rock is a powerful composition reminiscent of Kraftwerk, while the desolate and cinematic I Nearly Married A Human brings artists like Peter Baumann and Bowie to mind. The big hit Are Friens Electric? is a real gem of a song and still sounds unique after so many years. The added tracks 11 to 16 are a great bonus and have assured Replicas a 5-star rating.

This album is solid. It's got Gary's unique brand of cold synth rock, with those amazing late 70's early 80's analog sounds. Plus it's backed up with Jess Lidyard's rocking (yet clinical) drums. If you like Pleasure Principle, his first solo release that came shortly after this album, you'll like Replicas. He released his big single "Cars" about two months after this album. Beggars Banquet did a nice job remastering. Pretty much all 16 tracks are good, although I find "The Crazies" kind of annoying, but the other great tracks make up for that one, such as "Are 'Friends' Electric?", "Me! I Disconnect From You" and "You Are In My Vision". Worth checking out for any fan of what was happening in the music scene in the late 70's. I Highly recomend this one.

The uninformed know Gary Numan only by his 1979 hit "Cars" but those of us who know him best will tell you that this LP (along with "Telekon") is his best work. A futuristic nightmare where alien machines rule the world and use the remaining humans for sport (rape and murder). This is frightening and brilliant rock and roll record, Numan makes excellent use of both heavy guitar and other-worldly synthesizers to create an atmosphere that Philip K. Dick would be proud of. If you need a soundtrack for Halloween or if, like me, everyday is halloween then this is the stuff for you.

Numans' second full length album, still under the name of "Tubeway Army" was part accident. Prior to his debut release in 1978, Gary Numan had never worked with synthesiszers and had really no intention to until someone from a previous band left on in the recording studio. Even more of luck was it was set on a sound that when he first hit a key it was what he called a "Eureka" moment. Even the No 1. track "Are 'Friends' Electric?" was 2 unfinished songs stitched together and a wrong note kept in for extra measure. Also for being just over 5 minutes long made it the most unlikely candidate to storm the charts.

What transpired was at the time a dark, moody sound that accompanied a bit of a disjointed concept album whose subject matter was set in a disturbing futuristic world, of cyborgs,( Years before the terminator film debued ) human atrocity, and rebelious "Crazies". Some say the album still sounds fresh, and in a way it does, but time has left it's mark on this calssic, and justifiably so. I woudn't change one sound on it.

Another brilliant track is "Down in the Park". The title alone doesn't suggest anything slightly abrasive, but the track is about humans that are law breakers and sent into a park where machines would hunt them down... Both the Foo Fighters and Marylon Manson did covers of the track, however I find the Foo's version much better. Subject matter aside, it's an incredible piece of music and for all those sci - fi fans out there, this is a must have in your collection. More importantly however are music fans.

This disc is a reissue and comes packed with bonus tracks that were b-sides, and unreleased studio out takes that just add to it.

Replicas ranks up there with Pink Floyds "The Wall", Genesis's "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" and Bowies "Alladin Sane"

This isn't even a Gary Numan record, it's from when he was still part of the band Tubeway Army. I have read a few reviews that talk about how the record was "trendy" or "sounds dated." But I think they might miss the point. Gary Numan (along with a handful of others) was a post-punk pioneer, that somehow inadvertenly created what is now known as "New Wave."
This record sounds like early primative electro or new wave, because that's what it is! This music is awash with analog synthisizers, and yet uses guitars and a real rhythm section (much like New Order would do a few years later.) But ultimately this record just rocks, and Gary Numan wrote some great and memorable songs. He just had a penchant for experimenting with the new technology that was available at the time, and now that that technology is not really widely used nowadays, it sounds like a record recorded at a particular place and time. (does that mean it's dated? I mean the Beatles sound like "60's music" but no one says they sound dated!)
This sound would become hugely influential with indie bands like Trans Am, and Wolf Parade, after analog synths became "trendy" again.
Gary Numan's lyrics are very heavily sci-fi influenced, and are on the bizarre side, but if you don't take this aspect too seriously, you will get much enjoyment out of it. Well, if you hate music with lots of synths, you'll hate it no matter what!

Gary Numan peaked on this release, and it remains not only his best, but reminds us that this album was a turning point in the parade of "New Wave" styles of the late seventies and early eighties. Borrowing vocally from David Bowie and musically from Kraftwerk and Ultravox (pre-Midge Ure), Numan helped to establish the chilly sound of Techno-pop. Although "Cars" was his biggest hit, it was pretty much the only good track on "The Pleasure Principle", a far weaker effort overall than this. After all these years, "Replicas" is still very, very cool.

This is truly an amazing album. I hadn't listened to this in years and it seemed better to me now than it did a quarter century ago. This is his last album where there were some significant guitar work and it's really a brilliant combination of synth & power.

Gary Numan blasted on the music scene at a very young age around 1979. He scored probably three number one albums in a row in England, including this album. He achieved this level of success almost overnight and before the age of 20. Many people compared Gary to David Bowie at the time. Bowie responded by saying some very unkind things about Gary which were totally unfair.

I find Gary's music, at times. to be far more interesting than Bowie. Many current groups were heavily influenced by Gary's music. "Down in the Park" is am incredible song and very powerful. I believe it is as good or better than Bowie's best which would be "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes." Replicas is great album though somewhat dark. I loved this album when it came out and it is still great today. It has held up very well over time.

This album could be the basis of an incredible science fiction movie which ideally would be directed by Ridley Scott using the same dark atmosphere he used in the first Alien movie. The imagery and atmosphere of the album is so strong and powerful.

I saw Gary play a show in West Palm Beach a few years ago and he was awesome. Buy the album - you will be glad you did.

"Replicas" contains some of the best early work by Gary Numan, while he was still with his band Tubeway Army. The tracks are synth-heavy new wave, with more guitar than his later breakthrough "The Pleasure Principle".

"Are 'Friends' Electric" and "Down In The Park" are the songs most people rave about, although "You Are In My Vision" is also a standout. My personal favorite on the CD, however, is "Me! I Disconnect From You", a phenomenal two and a half minutes of music.

If you are thinking of buying this album - do it. You will be listening to an emerging genius, just hitting his stride. Five stars!