Pure - Gary Numan

Advantages: A classic rock anthem
Disadvantages: Maybe not for electric Numan fans

...year that brought us the Pure album. During this time Gary Numan was also indulging in his love of flying, taking part in aerobic displays and his well documented round the world flight that almost ended in disaster. In 1992 he met the girl fan he was to marry in 1997. And so to Gary Numan’s latest offering. Pure And so twenty-two years after his debut Gary Numan comes back to hit the listening public squarely between the eyes with a classic. ...
...almost angry avalanche of guitars. Pure finishes with I Can’t Breathe and we are hit by thrashing guitars mixed in with quiet piano sections. It certainly finishes the album with a bang. The whole album is a mixture of sounds from quiet passages to thrashing guitars, in fact it is has such a range of sounds that it shouldn’t work, but it does very well. Lyrically Numan talks about religion, mentally deranged people and I think some of the rest ... Read review

Advantages: Some stunning tracks, it's an incredible effort considering where he came from
Disadvantages: A few dull moments, but I still can't wait for the next one

...just rehash the NIN formula. Pure has more synth tunes and less guitar noise – I suppose if you really wanted to you could call it New Romantic Industrial. And then of course you have NuNuman’s voice, it’s a voice that you could very easily call ‘unique’ and you’ll probably be wondering just how well it’s transferred to his new career. Well, quite well – at times he verges on sounding like a demented ...
...bad thing. Instead it gives Pure a, well, a ‘unique’ sound. * Pure * Opening with a quiet synth melody before some industrial sounding distorted drums come crashing in for a moment, then a moments quietness and then the song sets off, propelled along by chugging guitars. The best moments of the song though are the short quiet sections that come before the chorus and give the whole song a huge sense of building up. Top stuff, NIN and ... Read review

Advantages: Just a fantastic album. Sheer quality.
Disadvantages: none.

Last year Pure saw Eighties King, Gary Numan, make a triumphant entry into the new millennium. No retro- eighties stylings here, rather a full circle of influences taking him to a new place. 15 years ago Numan was inspiring the likes of Trent Resnor, Burton C Bell, and a whole raft of other people, who then spun off into the dark 'n' heavy hinterland, well away from the shiny pop world Numan had started out in. The turn of the century spun the wheel ...
...in collaboration with the guys of Industrial-metal behemoths Fear Factory to produce the truly stunning cover of Cars. If you've seen the adverts for American Express Blue card recently - you've heard the beginning of that cover version. Halloween 1999 he made a guest appearance at Fear Factory's gig to perform it live at the Brixton Academy - and to someone who saw him do that, it sounds a lot like he went home that night and started writing Pure. ... Read review