Gary Numan: The Pleasure Principle CD Track Listing

A list by checkmate

Gary Numan The Pleasure Principle (1979)
Originally Released September 1979\nCD Edition Released June 23, 1998\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: The most popular of all the Gary Numan albums is undeniably 1979's The Pleasure Principle. The reasons are simple -- there is not a single weak moment on the disc, it contains his sole U.S. (number one worldwide) hit, "Cars," and new drummer Cedric Sharpley adds a whole new dimension with his powerful percussion work. The Pleasure Principle is also one of the first Gary Numan albums to feature true ensemble playing, especially heard within the airtight, killer groove of "Metal" (one of Numan's all-time best tracks). Starting things off with the atmospheric instrumental "Airlane," the quality of the songs get stronger and stronger as the album progresses -- "Films," "M.E.," "Observer," "Conversation," the aforementioned "Cars," and the U.K. Top Ten hit "Complex" all show Numan in top form. The 1998 reissue contains three unreleased instrumentals (one the B-side to the "Cars" single, "Asylum"), as well as four live tracks. If you had to own just one Gary Numan album, The Pleasure Principle would be it. [Note: In addition to bonus tracks, all of the Gary Numan/Begggars Banquet re-releases contain classic photographs and informative liner notes by Numan biographer Steve Malins.] -- Greg Prato\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\n"We're in the building where they make us grow", August 5, 2004\nReviewer: mwreview "mwreview" (Northern California, USA)\nThe Pleasure Principle, of course, is Gary Numan's most recognizable album because it features "Cars." Sadly, "Cars" is the only Numan track a lot of people know which is unfortunate because it is not even close to his best work. It is in the middle of the pack on this album alone. Every track off Pleasure Principle is classic! The opener "Airlane" is an instrumental but it is by no means a filler. It rocks and once those drums kick in, it takes the listener for a ride (Numan, not long after this album was released, earned his private pilot's license and traveled around the world). "Complex" and "Tracks" are beautiful. "Metal," having a very rough sound, is a fan favorite as is "Films" with the powerful, kick-butt drums. "M.E." is one of my all-time Numan favorites and "Engineers" is interesting for its, well, ingenuity and for its experimental, retro late 70s/early 80s sound. The only track I am not as crazy about is "Observer" because it sounds too much like "Cars." Still this album is classic and a must for fans of New Wave, synthesizer-driven music. The extra tracks on Pleasure Principle are not as intriguing as the ones on the other re-issues. "Random," "Oceans," and "Asylum" are all instrumentals. "Oceans" is the best of the three. It has a beautiful relaxing sound like the instrumental extras off Telekon. "Random" is a jolting rocker. "Asylum" is spooky. The live version of "Bombers" (B-side to the "Complex" single), I admit, is better than the original studio version. The live tracks come from Living Ornaments '79 which includes the peculiar "On Broadway." It is a very odd cover for Numan, although the keyboard part is pretty cool. I would rather not have that track on this CD but, whatever. I recommend all the Beggars Banquet Gary Numan re-issues. They each have several pages of text on the albums, photos from the original album and single covers, lyrics, and many extra tracks. Each disc also has a slice of the album cover on the spine so, together, they look terrific in the CD case.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nPlastic Passion, July 8, 2004\nReviewer: tashcrash (South Shore, MA) \n"New Wave" was a woefully insufficient label for a loosely collected mass of musical acts during the time period between Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and Michael Jackson's Thriller, an album which singlehandedly and oh-so corporately sounded the death knell for originality on both MTV and FM radio. Unlike psychedelia, punk, or (heaven help us) grunge, there never seemed to be a coherently constructed philosophy behind what was being released by a vast array of almost-popular artists. But when you listen to The Pleasure Principle, you begin to realize that there was some seriously profound subtext at work amongst the better artists of the period, something beyond irony and WAY beyond satire that appealed, however momentarily, to a spectrum of vaguely disenfranchised adolescents and post-adolescents, people eager for music with the same relative intensity of punk, but channeled in a far more conceptual, aesthetic way. The Pleasure Principle, along with Devo's New Traditionalists and Talking Heads' Fear of Music, is an unheralded monument of the era.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nOne of the top 10 of all 20th-century rock albums, March 2, 2003\nReviewer: A music fan\nMy title for this review is absolutely NOT hyperbole. This is THE album that best sums up where music seemed to be heading in 1979. It's certainly not Gary's fault that the future seems mundane today in comparison.\n\nI don't know of any album that comes closer to suggesting an alien, dystopian future than The Pleasure Principle. The Human League's Dare, Devo's New Traditionalists and Thompson Twins' Quick Step and Side Kick would be the only others I know that even come close to the utterly DIFFERENT character of this record. This really sounds like music from another time and place.\n\nNuman was able to combine electronics with acoustic drums and violas in a way that I've never heard since. The record is organic and chilly at the same time, intensely emotional and robotic in one breath. Thick, beefy and completely ROCK, in a way that Kraftwerk or Cabaret Voltaire never even attempted, and certainly never achieved.\n\nThis is probably the quintessential British New Wave album of all time. No serious music lover can afford to be without it. It's not Bowie's Low, but it certainly builds upon that insanely amazing Bowie/Visconti/Eno aesthetic.\n\nIf you don't have this album, it is an absolute must buy. The remastering is excellent, the bonus tracks ace, and the whole package is absolutely first-rate. These Beggars re-releases are top-notch in every way, even superior to the second round of 2-disc re-releases they did in the early '90s.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nSynthesizer Perfection!, January 29, 2001\nReviewer: Erik King "erikking@erols.com" (Northern VA USA) \nIts very simple. Before this album, there was nothing. Like a universe that explodes from a single sub-atomic particle, this album spawned everything that "synthesized" alternative rock has evolved into. You must put this album in perspective with the time it emerged to appreciate the pure elegance of this work. Completely synthesized (sans drums), melodic, dark, cold, androgenous masterpieces - all. Every Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, (pick your favorite synth band and insert it here) owes its inspiration from this recording. Sure there was Brian Eno, David Bowie, OMD, and others - but nothing as fresh as "Cars", "Films", "Complex".....If you like Gary Numan, you must own this album.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nMiddle, May 11, 2000\nReviewer: Mr. A. Pomeroy (Wiltshire, England) \nAs *the* classic early Gary Numan synth record, the genius of 'The Pleasure Principle' is that, instead of attempting to forge a new musical language with electronics, Numan took synths, put them through a distortion pedal, and used them to replicate guitars. Loud, crunchy guitars. At the time, it sounded alien and wierd, and nowadays it still sounds strange - Numan existed off to the side of pop fashion, and the use of proper drums and a normal electric bass stand out in an age of cheesy drum machines.\n\nMost of the songs are simple, riff-based affairs - 'Cars' sets the pattern, with tracks such as 'Observer' and 'Conversation' seeming like variations on a theme. 'Metal' is a great lost single, a bouncy tale of paranoia and alienation, and 'Airlane' sounds like a demented disco track. Alone of the songs, 'Complex' has a proper tune, and is an almost-entirely instrumental ballad.\n\n'Films' has a strangely funky drum-loop, 'M.E.' is the most obviously punk song of the lot, 'Tracks' sounds the least unusual, and 'Engineers' is deadly dull, but then again all albums have to have a clunker. From a technical point of view, this is the first and last word in Polymoog usage, and the inside cover artwork is atrocious.\n\nThis was an odd point in Numan's career - after the success of 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' and 'Replicas' he was still seen as being a one-off fluke, and by the time of 'Telekon', a year later, he didn't want to be a star anymore.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nPioneering synth-pop, June 13, 1998\nReviewer: A music fan\nMore interesting than critics make out, The Pleasure Principle offers a typically alienated world view. At this early stage of his career, Numan was, by his own admission, almost a non-musician and the song structures show this. His double-tracked voice is usually followed by a synth line, and the bass guitar often follows that too. The melodies are strong, but the arrangements are somewhat samey. Numan currently plays several of the songs from this album in his live set, but violently rearranged. For all its flaws, the sound of this album is undoubtedly very influential on a range of artists, from Depeche Mode to Blur and The Smashing Pumpkins. Standout tracks: Complex, Films, Tracks and of course Cars.\n\nHalf.com Details\nProducer:\\tGary Numan\n\nAlbum Notes\nTHE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE contains seven bonus tracks which includes demo out-takes and `B' side singles.\n\nPersonnel: Gary Numan (vocals, keyboards, synthetic percussion); Billy Currie (violin); Christopher Payne (viola, keyboards); Paul Gardiner (bass); Cedric Sharpley (drums, percussion); Garry Robson (background vocals).\n\nRecorded at Marcus Music AB, London, England. \nIncludes liner notes by Steve Malins.\n\nGary Numan's most commercially successful album is, perhaps unsurprisingly, his least representative disc. Powered by the hit single "Cars," arguably the first British synth-pop song to dent the US charts (M's "Pop Muzik" came out around the same time), THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE is a striking turnaround from the guitar-powered, Joy Division-like post-punk of his old band Tubeway Army. Aside from Paul Gardiner's bass and some percussion, every instrument is electronic.\nTo denote their futuristic simplicity the album's 10 songs are given one-word titles; they're all built on the same layers of analogue synthesizers and futuristic, dystopian lyrics. The album's resulting numbing quality is also pretty much its point. This Cleopatra reissue has seven bonus tracks, including demo outtakes, live tracks, B-sides, and, oddly, a song from a seven-inch single given away with the first pressing of Numan's next album, TELEKON.\n\nIndustry Reviews\n Spin (9/98, pp.188-189) - 8 (out of 10) - "...further honed REPLICA's adolescent angst/android fetishism schtick..."\n\nCMJ (1/5/04, p.6) - Ranked #12 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1980"
This rock cd contains 17 tracks and runs 69min 6sec.
Freedb: f5103011
Buy: from Amazon.com

Categories

Latest lists

Gary Numan: The Pleasure Principle CD Track Listing

Category

Tags

cyList

Legal