Gary Numan – The Pleasure Principle – 1979
If Kraftwerk met Tangerine Dream, had a few drinks, then went back to a slightly dingy hotel for a night of synth-laden but highly melodic robot sex, the resulting offspring would probably sound a lot like Gary Numan’s The Pleasure Principle.
You know it as “the one with Cars on it”. But it’s much much more than that.
Gone almost completely are the guitars replaced by minimoogs, polymoogs and other synth sounds coupled with some really pretty piano tracks (“Tracks”) and the requisite distant cold lyrics. Gardiner’s bass is fluid and marries so well to both the electronic sound and new drummer Cedric Sharpley.
But how are the songs?
Terrific.
“Observer”, “My Conversation”, “Cars”, are just some of the terrific and highly paranoid songs of humans not making contact, withdrawing into their own exile, just plain afraid.
“Metal”, “M.E.”, “Tracks”, these are some of the prettiest of Numan’s catalog so far and also some of the most lovely pieces of music to come from the era. It’s still the 70s, but The Pleasure Principle is ABSOLUTELY a record for the coming decade, dripping with 80s post-punk, post-disco rhythms and distance.
One of the reasons I think Numan’s trilogy of “machine” records (Replicas, The Pleasure Principle, Telekon) work so well is Numan himself. He was young, barely in his 20s when he started recording and producing. And he was, although not diagnosed for another 20 years by one of his fan club members (whom he later married), a person suffering from Asperger’s syndrome.
He has talked about it quite frequently and said it gave him much relief that he could finally understand why he was often described as arrogant or distant. By definition someone with Asperger’s would be distant and that distance, in a world that prides contact so highly, could easily be misinterpreted as arrogance. It helps to explain Numan’s worldview and informs his songs and production, especially when coupled with the era (late 70s denoument) and his adoration for Sci-Fi.
The Pleasure Principle is one of the best records of its type. If you are looking for one Gary Numan record to see if he is something that might interest you, then start here. It doesn’t get any better.
Grade: A+
ASide: Cars, M.E., Tracks,
BlindSide: Metal, Airlane, Complex,
Downside: —–
