So Cold and Distant

Gary Numan : Conversation

[Purchase]

On September 7, 1979 Gary Numan released his debut solo album, The Pleasure Principle. Having already scored a U.K. #1 hit with Tubeway Army's "Are 'Friends' Electric" and  with "Cars" racing up the charts to #1, Numan is in the midst of his biggest moment. Sure, he borrows elements from David Bowie and Kraftwerk, but he has also found his own catchy slice of the spectrum: android vocals over electronic machines played over Cedric Sharpley's drums.

In the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Yoshi Kato writes "The Pleasure Principle manages to sound at once futuristic and oddly timeless in a postmodern world."

From Smash Hits, Red Starr writes "I'm not greatly sold on this. It's not bad, mind you--a smoother, almost disco-ish version of Replicas--but much too it and not as adventurous, though Numan worshippers will doubtless adore it anyway."

And from Robert Christgau a dismissive grade of B:

Once again, metal machine music goes easy-listening. But last time the commander-in-chief of the tubeway army was singing about furtive sex, policemen, and isolation, while this time he's singing about robots, engineers, and isolation. In such a slight artist, these things make all the difference.