The Pleasure Principle
by Gary Numan
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Gary Numan bestography
The Pleasure Principle is ranked as the best album by Gary Numan.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
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The Pleasure Principle track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
The Pleasure Principle rankings
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 6 hours ago).
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The Pleasure Principle ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 276 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 4 days ago |  serpico | 875 | 86/100 |
| ! | 04/06/2026 16:05 |  EyeKanFly | 8,848 | 65/100 |
| ! | 03/29/2026 17:42 | Baily | 2 | 93/100 |
| ! | 02/13/2026 01:08 |  CharlieBarley | 3,264 | 81/100 |
| ! | 02/03/2026 14:19 |  Squonk007 | 757 | 24/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 3% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 77.3/100, a mean average of 76.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 77.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.1.
The Pleasure Principle favourites
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The Pleasure Principle comments
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doombringer 01/03/2024 10:50 | #300867
Excellent album , no fillers. Numan was one of the sparkplugs that started a whole new genre.
Good and influential album, it takes Kraftwerk sound and makes it even more accesible than The Men Machine. Although not all the tracks here are great and some of them are repetitive I still like this album very much.
LukasAntoine00s 02/13/2022 02:26 | #281229
82
Disco que cumple. Interesante estilo el de Gary Numan, quizá hasta inspirado en Low de Bowie o en la música de Kraftwerk. Cars es probablemente la mejor canción de su discografía.
very very little here. electronic monotone
Favorite Tracks:Observer
Even forty years after it was recorded, this album still has a very unique sound. It was an unusual move to couple such groundbreaking synth sounds with analogue drums but it sure as hell worked here. 'Films' is a personal favourite with the fantastic synth and drums opening. There isn't any track which I don't like, to me, even forty years after its release it still sounds fresh and unique. If you like Berlin era Bowie, Human League, Depech Mode then you will most certainly like this.
Cars is great but this album is more than just a hot single. To anyone who is a fan of Bowie's Berlin trio, I highly recommend this album.
Fav Tracks: M.E., Tracks, Cars
Least Fav: Engineers
Helios 06/21/2018 21:57 | #217122
Ah, the day machines conquest the world, yes...
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Nobodyisemo 10/19/2017 21:46 | #199820
Much more lush and organic than I than I expected. Expectations: cold, calculated, dire
The lyrics are still a little dire, but the rounded bass tone, full drums and expansive synth tones really make for an imaginative record here. I love the humanizing violin and piano delicately strewn about. A couple of the songs sound a LOT like 'Cars' though, though that made me consider that he may think of the album as a sort of symphony with recurring themes, and that's cool-ish if it's the case.
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