Receptacles

Overall Album Score: 8.5 out of 10

Gary Numan is so much fun! ... OK, not everyone will think Gary Numan is fun. I guess I could attempt to write "objective" reviews even though everybody knows that's impossible. Critics with the delusions that they are objective are really awful and not fooling anybody! Well, it's my subjective opinion that Gary Numan is so much fun! But I do realize that not everyone will think so. God knows why.

If you were paying attention to my review of his previous album, Tubeway Army, Gary Numan's primary purpose in rock music was to be a minimalist in the same vein as David Bowie's and Brian Eno's Low. That's even more evident with Replicas to the point when some of the songs are sounding like Low imitators... Well, not quite of course. "Down in the Park" reminds me quite a bit of "Warszawa," but if you listen to each song you'll probably note that they had different musical purposes... "Warszawa" is an impressionist piece about Warsaw, and "Down in Park" is a dark and seedy sci-fi song. One blatant Bowie attempt was the closing track, "I Nearly Married a Human," which sounds a lot like he listened to the last half of Heroes a bit too much! Though I do like the last end of Heroes, Numan's attempt seemed half-hearted and not even half as vibrant. Naturally, I appreciate the attempt!

The big change Numan had undergone in respect to his debut album was that he's experimenting much more with synthesizers. Only a couple of these songs are guitar-oriented! Furthermore, his music sounds more robotic and cleaner than ever! Even though I read all the time that Gary Numan writes music that anybody can write, I persist with the opinion that he is an exceptional artist... And that shines through most of these tracks. The best example of Numan's talent would have to be the opening track "Me I Disconnect From You." The groove is strangely hypnotizing and somewhat catchy. Numan doesn't try to write pop hooks at all, but it somehow still manages to capture the ear.

I think this album is quite an improvement over the debut album. Most importantly, the instrumentation is much more diverse and wild. But he'd still get better. Numan wanted to go even further, and he would end up dropping his band, "The Tubeway Army" after this release. Fortunately, it seems his future albums are better!

Overall Album Score: 8.5 out of 10 (And Gary Numan's career takes off with this interesting release... But will it get even better?)

Average Song Score: 8.6 (He's taking his minimal tendencies with more creative arrangements with synthesizers, and it produces more rich results.)

Album Tilt: 8.5 (Many listeners probably don't think this is entertaining, so knock this down to an 8.0 if you must...)

Artist Rating: 8.5 (His creativity is absolutely fun...)

Track Reviews

Me I Disconnect From You 9.5/10

Gary Numan writes songs that anyone could write? I doubt it. Hear this song. Would a normal person be able changes textures this much and still keep a smooth flow? I doubt it. Hear how it ends... I've been judging an amateur music contest for more than a year now (specializing in pop songs, naturally), and only a small faction of the participants can write great endings like this. It's absolutely nailed (and seems to suggest that Numan was influenced by early Philip Glass.). Plus, this is also a fine pop song. The melody doesn't have pop hooks in the sense, but it's interesting and still manages to catch my ear. The instrumentation is varied and keeps the song flowing well. You have Numan's robotic vocals, the usual boom-thwack drum machine pattern, and a wide variety of synthesizers that come in and out giving it a rather spaced out feel to it. Anyway, there's no way I'm going to be able to describe everything. This is greatness!

Are "Friends" Electric? 9/10

When I started listening to this album about a week ago to prepare for this review, I had this robotic groove going through my mind in one of my dreams. So, I have experience with this song in the dream world! The robotic groove is catchy, but it's difficult to know why... It would seem monotonous, but Numan knows exactly what to do to keep the effort sounding fresh. He changes the textures around, brings in a new synthesizer, introduces a new chord progression--- what have you. This isn't quite as interesting as the previous track, but this one seems to be Numan's more celebrated songs...

The Machman 8.5/10

This groove is pretty catchy as well, but it's hard to tell why. I know that it's not simply becasue it repeats so much, because it captures me from the moment it starts playing. Numan's singing seems to follow the groove around, which is appropriate but not spectacular. My only complaint is the scaling synthesizers seem less inspired here, though.

Praying to the Aliens 8/10

This is clearly not the best song of the album. The groove is a little less interesting, and the melody is rather bland and robotic. You still have the novelty of Numan's robot vocals, the spacey synthesizers and the sci-fi lyrics! ... I also like those calculator synths that he fades in and out of this entire thing...

Down in the Park 9/10

You get the whole "Warszawa" vibe going here except it's not nearly as compelling! Well, I guess that proves that nobody can properly reproduce those classic vibes from Low. But in any case, I don't want you to think I consider this a rip-off. I still a good song that does a formidable job at the atmospherics! This is certainly has more of an outer space feel to it, so it has a different purpose... This is a rather captivating song, and it's fun to hear his synthscape. This synthscape isn't too lush (it's a Low-ish synthscape), and it's utterly well done.

You Are My Vision 8.5/10

I believe this is the first song of the album to predominantly feature the electric guitars, which seems a throwback to their debut album! (I'm guessing the sheer lack of guitars in this album is why this "Tubeway Army" band broke up after this album... I'm not even bothering to do research.) Of course, the guitars are very welcome. They're playing so choppily that they'd might as well be exceptional sounding synthesizers! He's not doing any of those funny synthscapes with this track, but that's OK. The guitars are here, and they sound great!

Replicas 8/10

Again, this song creates a very dark atmosphere that's rather well developed. I don't find this one as captivating as other songs like "Down in the Park." It's hard for even me to realize how little Gary Numan bothered about hooks or melody ... and that wasn't the purpose of his music. But this one does seem to grow rather plodding...

It Must Have Been Years 9.5/10

Now this song is pretty dang neat. This marks the return of the electric guitars in all its glory (even featuring a rip-roaring solo). That robo-riff they're playing is really neat, and it's manages to catch the ear. Don't leave, band... please... OK, whatever.

When the Machines Rock 8.5/10

Here's Gary Numan's instrumental song, so I guess it's appropriate that this one seems to be slightly more instrumentally involved than the others. As I don't even have to mention, this is a robotic proto synth-pop song that fits that subject matter quite well. The melodic theme is alright even though Numan wasn't going for real hooks --- Well whatever the case, the theme manages to interest me! I like his funny sound effects throughout this... Again, he's an expert at changing up the textures of his songs at exactly the right times so that the song always feels fresh.

I Nearly Married a Human 7.5/10

This is also an instrumental, but I think that song title is hilarious! Anyway, this is Gary Numan's relatively epic (six minute) atmospheric song. It's not so much captivating as I would have liked, and I wish that I could come away with an awe-inspired feeling about it, but I don't get that impression at all I'm afraid. I do like how he structured this song in the technical sense... Bringing in those drum machines suddenly was an interesting idea, but I just get the feeling they were more of a distraction... that Numan wasn't really sure what he wanted to do. This definitely seems like he was aping the latter half of Heroes, but it just wasn't done extremely well... Those Bowie songs managed to give really deep, meaningful images --- this is just a bunch of dark atmospherics... It's still respectable, and I at least want to like it! ... Well, I do like it. Sort of.

BONUS TRACKS

Hey, you've got to like the bonus tracks! Well, this one at least... "Do You Need Service?" has such a simple chord progression that it's brilliant... Oh, yeah... The development is rather interesting as well. He wants to try taking us places.

"The Crazies" is alright... It's getting a bit inconsequential now. His robo-groove is interesting for awhile, but he doesn't really keep this song fresh throughout. Well, it's a bonus track, and I appreciate it of course...

"Only a Downstat" has a much better groove than the previous track. It's has a little more inertia. This isn't an inspired song at all, and it's no surprise that it was a bonus track. Again, Numan doesn't really keep this song sounding fresh throughout ... That's a disappointment! Still, it makes a fine listen.

"We Have a Technical" is an eight minute long track. He's doing that "My Sharona" pattern that he was doing in his debut album! This song extends its welcome by quite some time, but there's some interesting textures here...

Did I say that this album was minimal? "We Are So Fragile" is even more minimal. Some of it only consists of a choppy bass synthesizer and Numan singing to it with his robotic vocals. Fortunately the electric guitars and atmospheric synthesizers come in!!

Hm, I guess he almost did it again... "I Nearly Married a Human 2" is a little better than the album version in my opinion. The only reason I say that is because he keeps the drum machine pattern constant instead of bringing them in and out. It's a little less awkward... But this is still a rather overbearing and boring song!

Have any cushions? Send them to me here.