Pure - Gary Numan

...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 ...
...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 ... more

The turn of the millennium brought about a rebirth of the king of eighties synth.
After a dire early decade in the nineties in which Gary Numan Albums more or less disappeared into obscurity, he returns not only with an excellent new album but a new style.
A style that in my opinion his voice is far more suited to. Gone are the overpowering synth’s of the eighties to be replaced by rocking guitars backed by synth and drum machine that seem much more at home than out on their own.

A brief history of the Numan

Gary Anthony James Webb AKA Gary Numan first burst onto the music scene way back in 1978 with Tubeway Army on the album of the same name, and then Replicas from which the classic Are Friends Electric single was taken. This was recently covered by the Sugarbabes with their smash hit Freak Like Me.
Shortly after this, Cars was released as Gary Numan’s first solo single. A remix of this was used some time ago on the American Express adverts.
His first solo album Pleasure Principle followed a classic album and one of my all time favourites.
Telekon brought in the 1980’s and was followed by seven more albums over the next decade. The 1990'’ brought four more albums culminating in the highly acclaimed Exile in 1997.
The year two thousand was the 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.
Pure reintroduces heavy guitar’s to Gary Numan’s music, going back too early the Tubeway Army style.
Numan also seems to have taken influences from collaborations he had with Fear Factory and Trent Reznor of Nine-Inch Nails, giving this album a much heavier, rockier sound. The introduction of heavy industrial sounds adds to the heavy feel of this masterpiece.
As soon as the album starts with the title track the industrial feel immediately as it starts with long low industrial sounds being joined by keyboards and eventually the guitars hit in with an almighty crash that sets the tone for the rest of the album. Walking in Shadow follows along the same musical theme but at a slower pace with Numan’s vocals have a slow and almost of a hypnotic flow to them.
Rip starts with rasping whispered lyrics from Numan before he does let rip, the song follows this pattern with rasping verses interrupted by raging choruses against a backing of thrashing guitars and bass line. Doesn’t really sound much like a description of a Gary Numan track does it?
One perfect lie brings us back a bit more to the Numan we know and love, much more melodic more synth and quieter guitar. After Rip it is a fitting track to bring the listener back to ground, it doesn’t last long though My Jesus brings us yet another twist in our journey of sound. This one has almost ballad like qualities at the start hardened by industrial sound effects building into a crescendo of chorus before smoothly descending back to ballad level again in a pattern that is repeated in many of the songs on the album.

Fallen is a strange one, by far the shortest song at just over two and a half minutes. It acts like an interlude. It is musically repetitive and the whispered lyrics are almost unintelligible.

So to what could be called the second act. It doesn’t come in with the now expected bang but with the more melodic Listen to my voice. The religious references continue in this song as they did in the first half with this song talking about heroes and Angels. A prayer for the unborn continues in the same vein and I think is the strongest track vocally on the whole album.
After the respite of the last two tracks Torn hits us, it starts innocently enough with quiet almost chanted lyrics backed by a drum and guitar beat. It keeps you in suspense as to when it is going to explode, and then when it doesn’t you are left wondering why not.
Little invitro is my personal favourite song on the album, having personal connotations to me. It is a sad song talking about the loss of a child. It starts quiet and melodic and remains so until near the end when we are hit by a smashing 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 of it may be personal to himself.

So that’s Pure, an album that has propelled Gary Numan into the mighty halls of top class rock music. A bit of an overstatement? I don’t think so because in my opinion this is a classic album that should get the recognition it deserves.

The Info bit.

Lyrics by Gary Numan.
Produced by Gary Numan and Sulpher
Pure is still available on Eagle records at Amazon price £7.97 and at most good music stores

If only if only
Miracles happened everyday
If only if only
I could believe in something

Little Invitrio
Gary Numan
 

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