Replicas
by Tubeway Army

Since his activities as central figure of Tubeway Army and its very strong album "Replicas" I have always liked electro-pop pioneer Gary Numan. I remember the time when "Are Friends Electric" was often heard on the radio and I always got overwhelmed by the special timbre of his voice, the emphatically present synthesizers (the inevitable MiniMoog), the bizarre story that is conveyed through the lyrics and the extremely catchy melodies. On concept album “Replicas” Numan makes the transition from punk rock to New wave. Influenced by David Bowie (who, according to tradition, criticized Numan rather brutally - see “A broken nosed mogul are you - One of the New Wave boys” in the song “Teenage Wildlife”), the early Ultravox (the very underrated version of the band with John Foxx) and Kraftwerk. The quality of the songs on "Replicas" is beyond question. Drum, bass and electric guitar do an excellent job writing songs without looking back. The material remains intact even without the synthesizers. On replicas, Numan tries to reconcile the existing traditional and new instruments and he comes up with lyrics that you can easily call "surreal" and "absurd." There is no synth in "It must have been years", and yet it is one of the strongest songs on the album. "You are in my Vision" is also quite fun. "When the Machines Rock" is fun, but it doesn't really appeals to me. With vocals the song might have been better. "I nearly married a Human" (possibly a solo trip) does not interest me at all. The song has something nostalgic about it, but the synths that are too emphatically present sound loud and create an uncomfortable feeling. A pity, because this monster brings down the overall quality of the recordings. "Are Friends Electric" has a great drive. All pieces of the puzzle fall together. Synthesizers and classical rhythm section sound great. Pretty analogue by the way. There are some imperfections in timing here and there, but nobody cares. "Me, I disconnect from you" is one of the better songs. Nice to hear it again not too long ago during Numan’s Savage tour. The sound of the Minimoog is very good, but the bass also sounds good. "Praying to the Aliens" continues on that impetus. Again it is striking that Tubeway Army is actually a classic rock group. The synthesizers only providing the salt and pepper. Effects from a synth set up the stage for the song. A bit primitive and not smashing in terms of production, but here too no loss of face. “Replicas” is fairly dark, partly due to the synthesized snare drum and the melody of the vocals. "Down in the Park" is a classic. The lyrics are also special because, in the footsteps of Ballard and Philip K. Dick, they describe a world of machines and robots that is extremely hostile to the human species. Numan once described the scene of those things happening in the park reminded him of the ancient Roman gladiators. The cover of the album is also good. I think it is better than the Man Machine cover by Kraftwerk (The influence by Kraftwerk is perhaps the strongest here). Numan became very successful in a very short time, but it took less time to be considered a One Hit Wonder without any relevance or merit. It became particularly painful when his live set started to consist of covers from Prince ("U got the Look") and he soon no longer knew how to get his musical career out of the quicksand. It is to his credit that he managed to reinvent himself - albeit with the mental support of Trent Reznor or Marilyn Manson - by returning to the essence, bizarre sound collages and good songwriting. According to the literature, Numan would suffer from Asperger. I am not an expert and so I cannot agree. What I have noticed however is that the man always sounds very sincere and straightforward in interviews. When listening to recent albums such as “Splinter” or “Savage” there is no doubt: he came back, and hopefully to stay this time.

The thing with Gary Numan is...he's not that great of a songwriter. He writes these limited little tunes that aren't great...BUT, he makes them interesting. He is good at putting catchy riffs in his music, and cool sounding synths, that make his music very listenable, enjoyable and atmospheric. Take away the synths, and the little riffs, and he's nothing. Nonetheless, this is a great example of the atmosphere he can build with those synths, and a really good album.

My rating is for the first ten tracks as per the original album.
How can this be from 1979? The tracks are so strong it's not at all experimental sounding which is what you may expect - seems way ahead of its time

My album rating is for the first ten tracks, as per the original LP\CD\cassette released 1979.
The above 16 track listing is from 1997 CD and bonus tracks reissue.

The first album i can remember walking home with from my local record shop, having proudly purchased with my own saved cash. The first listen gave me goosebumps and it remains for me one of my most played records. I was born at the right time to be an early teen who was ready for the birth of the dark synth sound.