Gary Numan. You probably know his name, though you probably
\ndon’t know his music beyond one song. The first time I ever heard
\nof Numan, I was about ten years old. I was watching television, and
\nan ad for one of those K-Tel albums came on, featuring Numan’s
\n“Cars”. I was a bit freaked out – but then again, I didn’t know
\nabout electronica at that tender age.<\/p>\n
Numan has always been a practicioner in the electronica field,
\nthough it was mistakenly labeled “new wave” back in the ’80s. And
\nwhile Numan has continued to record all these years, his work might
\nhave remained in obscurity had it not been for Fear Factory, who
\ncovered “Cars” (and had Numan sing with Burton C. Bell) on their
\nlast album.<\/p>\n
Numan’s latest disc,
\nPure<\/i>, features the Brit rocker still honing his craft, and
\noccasionally making a big noise with it. Pity that much of the
\nmusic isn’t as accessible and listener-friendly. Not that I would
\nhave wanted Numan to keep recording in the style of
\nThe Pleasure Principle<\/i>; that would have been too
\npredictable.<\/p>\n
In fact, if you pick this up expecting to hear “Cars Circa
\n2001,” this music will send you screaming for the exits. Numan
\nseems to move more into a Nine Inch Nails vein, with the sparse
\ninstrumentation and the dark, depressing lyrics. Frankly, I give
\nthe man a lot of credit for plowing such a musical path and taking
\na risk.<\/p>\n
What
\nPure<\/i> lacks, though, is a thread that would suck the listener
\nin. Indeed, part of the problem is the new musical style for Numan;
\nit doesn’t present itself as being accessible. I found that, on the
\nfirst few listens, I couldn’t get past “One Perfect Lie,” the
\nfourth song on the disc, without giving up and starting all over
\nagain. I wasn’t getting something, and I didn’t know what.<\/p>\n
The second problem is Numan’s vocals are surprisingly buried in
\nthe mix. When he really sings out (something he’s quite capable of,
\nand something I wish he’d done more often), his lyrics ring out
\nlike a bell. But most of the time, Numan sounds like a cross
\nbetween Al Pacino and Billy Corgan, almost mumbling the words on
\nsons like “Rip,” “My Jesus” and the title track.<\/p>\n
This is really a shame, because
\nPure<\/i> seemed to have a deeper message that most listeners
\nprobably won’t get simply because they can’t hear it. A disc which
\ndeals with loss, both of someone Numan cared for and a belief in a
\ncaring God, the lyrics to the songs on
\nPure<\/i> pack an emotional punch. (It could almost be argued
\nthat this is a “concept” album; I’d differ slightly and just say
\nthat the songs do tie together, but there is not a story being
\ntold.) If you read the liner notes and follow the lyric sheet as
\nyou listen to the songs, things become a little clearer. But the
\nrawest emotional nerve would be hearing Numan break through the
\ninstrumentation and have his vocals heard… and unless this disc
\nis remixed, that just isn’t going to happen.<\/p>\n
It’s a shame, really.
\nPure<\/i> could have easily become Numan’s masterpiece, and even
\nthreatened Trent Reznor’s grip on industrial alternative rock
\nleadership. Had a little more time been spent on bringing Numan’s
\nvocals to the forefront, this could have been an excellent disc.
\n(I’d have thrown in a little more guitar work as well… but that’s
\njust me.) Instead,
\nPure<\/i> tries to wade through over-mixing of the instruments
\nand leaves the vocals to try to fight their way to the surface. If
\nonly they had succeeded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6568],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-37019","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-gary-numan","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37019"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37019"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}