Numan’s recent albums are kinda meh… Lyrics are good but the music is NIN-lite to my ears. So I guess it makes sense for them to collaborate - Numan’s lyrics and actual NIN music might just work.
The collaboration is not such an exceptionnal surprise as Numan has appeared onstage with Reznor on numerous occasions.
Interesting to hear the results nontheless.
Numan’s recent albums are kinda meh… Lyrics are good but the music is NIN-lite to my ears. So I guess it makes sense for them to collaborate - Numan’s lyrics and actual NIN music might just work.
Yep, I agree completely.
Ehhh… I’ve never been able to get into Numans stuff. I have 3 of his albums at home (the ones with Down In The Park, CARS and Metal on them I think, I wanted to hear the orginals) but just found them a bit crap.
I’ll try again one day, they have one last shot before they go on Ebay!
I appreciate him for the influence he has had on others, and the kick ass cover of Down in the Park by MM.
Being a NIN fanboy I’ll no doubt check this out. Can’t look at the link atm though, damn you work proxy!
Numan’s pretty hit and miss. His songs all have a great pop sensibility, yet the repetition is what kills it for me.
Then I recall… he has Aspergers.
From my personal experience with a friend with the same condition, he was really set in his ways with how he wanted songs to sound. There was a hell of a lot of repetition.
Then as I got to know more people in the black metal scene, I noticed there were a few with Aspergers. I shit you not. Black metal… repetitive… Numan… repetitive… Aspergers… I honestly think it speaks for itself.
But I digress. What the hell is it with everyone in the industrial scene hooking up with ex-80s pop musicians? Must be just one of those weeks. Not a bad thing, though… this could be a very interesting year in music…
… this could be a very interesting year in music…
Every year is an interesting year in music.
Numan should forget Reznor and hook up with Nifelheim.
I’ve been a huge fan of Numan’s work for years but I must admit that he has had more stinkers than hits but you’ve gotta give the man props for carrying on for 30+ years and doing it “his” way.
In short, I consider his first albums (Tubeway Army, Replicas, the Pleasure Principle and Telekon) essential works and quite groundbreaking. Dance, his 5th album, is just a bit short of superb (love the Mick Karn appearance), but you can tell he’s already starting to run out of ideas by this time ('81).
After Dance, I basically cannot stand to listen to any of his material from I, Assassin or Warriors all the way through Machine + Soul. He started creeping back in to relevancy with Sacrifice in '94 but things improved tremendously starting with 97’s Exile. It’s still arguably the best album to ever come out on Cleopatra. I caught Numan with Switchblade Symphony in '98 or so on the Exile tour and it was an altogether fantastic show. From that point on, I became much more appreciative of how strong his earlier material was, as it has made a nice transition to his heavier, more guitar-oriented sound.
I think Reznor would benefit from a dash of Numan’s pop sensibilities and Numan would likewise benefit from Trent’s production capabilities and ear for intereresting, non-repetitive sounds.
Just like Al’s upcoming synthpop solo record, this one will be interesting if nothing else.
Numan hoted an Aussie music videos show called RAGE fairly recently, some of the stuff he was saying was pretty damn depressing. I can’t remember much of it, I think it was basically along the lines of “yeah, I think my music sucks and xxx can do it so much better, I need a hug”. I think he was talking about Depeche Mode or something at the time. Was surprising to see him being so honest about his perceived short-comings on this show inbetween songs.
Numan’s pretty hit and miss. His songs all have a great pop sensibility, yet the repetition is what kills it for me.
Then I recall… he has Aspergers.
From my personal experience with a friend with the same condition, he was really set in his ways with how he wanted songs to sound. There was a hell of a lot of repetition.
Then as I got to know more people in the black metal scene, I noticed there were a few with Aspergers. I shit you not. Black metal… repetitive… Numan… repetitive… Aspergers… I honestly think it speaks for itself.
But I digress. What the hell is it with everyone in the industrial scene hooking up with ex-80s pop musicians? Must be just one of those weeks. Not a bad thing, though… this could be a very interesting year in music…
Speaking as someone who’s been diagnosed multiple times, I think Asperger’s is a fucking joke. It’s practically the new ADD. Just an excuse to make people feel special and for pharmaceutical companies to make bank.
Eeesh.
Speaking as someone who’s been diagnosed multiple times, I think Asperger’s is a fucking joke. It’s practically the new ADD. Just an excuse to make people feel special and for pharmaceutical companies to make bank.
Eeesh.
You hit the nail squarely on the head!
Late,
grmpysmrf
Maybe he’s help out Gary’s Career like he revived Halford’s career with that “Two” band he had on nothing.
I’ll agree Asperger’s, being such an ambiguous condition with a multidude of ‘symptoms’ on the Autism spectrum scale, in prone to being misdiagnosed to line the wallets of pharmaceutical companies…
…but I think it does exist. My friend is… trust me, if you knew him, you’d wonder. Everything he does is in line with the ‘symptoms’. Talking to him and engaging him, I shit you not, is a strategic process. It took me a while to get used to, but it worked.
And once you take the time to do that, they open up and the lines between their problem and ‘normality’ are effaced. From my experience alone, I am an ardent proponent of the value of human contact and understanding, over the perceived ‘value’ of pharmaceuticals, when approaching this condition.
I’ve been a huge fan of Numan’s work for years but I must admit that he has had more stinkers than hits but you’ve gotta give the man props for carrying on for 30+ years and doing it “his” way.
In short, I consider his first albums (Tubeway Army, Replicas, the Pleasure Principle and Telekon) essential works and quite groundbreaking. Dance, his 5th album, is just a bit short of superb (love the Mick Karn appearance), but you can tell he’s already starting to run out of ideas by this time ('81).
After Dance, I basically cannot stand to listen to any of his material from I, Assassin or Warriors all the way through Machine + Soul. He started creeping back in to relevancy with Sacrifice in '94 but things improved tremendously starting with 97’s Exile. It’s still arguably the best album to ever come out on Cleopatra. I caught Numan with Switchblade Symphony in '98 or so on the Exile tour and it was an altogether fantastic show. From that point on, I became much more appreciative of how strong his earlier material was, as it has made a nice transition to his heavier, more guitar-oriented sound.
I think Reznor would benefit from a dash of Numan’s pop sensibilities and Numan would likewise benefit from Trent’s production capabilities and ear for intereresting, non-repetitive sounds.
Just like Al’s upcoming synthpop solo record, this one will be interesting if nothing else.
I had to copy this entire post because I pretty much agree with all of it.
There is SOME good material from the mid-80s through the mid-90s, but not a full album’s worth.
Aspergers is the new black.
And I think Numan was better at influencing others than he was at making music himself. By the sounds of it, he’d probably agree with that. I do like that ‘Berserker’ song though.
i don’t have a problem with their collaboration. at all. it’s history.
i don’t have a problem with their collaboration. at all. it’s history.
it was good. not amazingly midblowing though.
did introduce the “industrial” world to johnny 5
[reply]
Speaking as someone who’s been diagnosed multiple times, I think Asperger’s is a fucking joke. It’s practically the new ADD. Just an excuse to make people feel special and for pharmaceutical companies to make bank.
Eeesh.
You hit the nail squarely on the head!
Late,
grmpysmrf
[/reply]
Chalk it up to half of my grade school education being spent in both gifted and spec. ed. programs (one of the many, MANY reasons why I love teachers, but HATE the mo’fuckers running schools), having a mother who takes care of special needs people for a living, and working with these people on occasion. I sure as hell know the difference between full-blown autistic and a kid who simply hates being touched and REALLY likes Nintendo.
Sometimes, a kid is weird because he’s fucking WEIRD.
I’ll agree Asperger’s, being such an ambiguous condition with a multidude of ‘symptoms’ on the Autism spectrum scale, in prone to being misdiagnosed to line the wallets of pharmaceutical companies…
…but I think it does exist. My friend is… trust me, if you knew him, you’d wonder. Everything he does is in line with the ‘symptoms’. Talking to him and engaging him, I shit you not, is a strategic process. It took me a while to get used to, but it worked.
And once you take the time to do that, they open up and the lines between their problem and ‘normality’ are effaced. From my experience alone, I am an ardent proponent of the value of human contact and understanding, over the perceived ‘value’ of pharmaceuticals, when approaching this condition.
Pre-fuckin’-CISELY.
Human interaction, patience, and understanding are PARAMOUNT to dealing with anyone on the spectrum.
The key word is “difficult.” You’re dealing with a mindset that works just a tad… “off” from the rest of us, with varying degrees of “off”-ness. You just kinda got to work with rather than work against… and way too many of these miserable parents and psychiatrists take the easy way out by doping these kids up and shutting them out.
…
Back on topic.
Gary Numan? Never heard.
Totally inclined to agree with you Ice.
Let’s join forces and kick a whole bunch of arsehole Psychiatrists in their collective scrotums and labiae and show them how it’s done.
Mmm… Asbergers has always made me hungry. Seriously, just imagine Homer Simpson with that one…
‘mmm… asbergers… glarrrghghghg’