Reviews (page 7 of 8)
Too much Gary Numan all at once. Love Cars obviously. On Broadway was a super fun cover. I like the overall sound, but listening to the album all at once is just too much.
Synth-pop/new wave pioneer. Years before any Human League, Duran Duran etc. 80s music in the late 70s. Pop music. But too weird to be pop music. He really has a sound… Some of the more missable tracks on the album sound like the big hitters. Blends into one but not in a conceptual way, more of a lack of ideas way. Boring. Big tunes nonetheless. S.O.T: -Metal -M.E. -Cars 3.5/5
Un album qui rappelle un peu certains projets de Sparks. Il n'y a pas de hasard, leur musique s'inscrit dans le courant débile-pop.
Allt í lagi. Þekkti Cars og ekki 1 annað lag.
This is definitively not my favorite genre, but this album gave me pleasant sensations. Like listening to some lo-fi compilation on youtube or something like that.
That's a very heavy dose of New Wave. Glad I listen to it but I problem won't ever again.
There are definitely some good elements to this album and some nice sonorities and all. But I feel that some beat can be a bit repetitive sometimes and I was not 100% of all the atmospheres that were present. Small 3.5 tho
Album feels like he ran out of ideas and just repeated M.E. and Cars
I only really knew “Cars” before this, the album is kind of more of the same, which is not necessarily a bad thing
7/10
Not my style, but some okay stuff.
Cars is a classic but the rest of this album felt like a riff on a twilight zone intro song, and that isn't exactly a complaint, but in terms of this being a pleasure principle, there wasn't a lot of pleasure being had. Sorry Gary.
I think the guy who wrote the blurb on Apple Music must be a huge fan, describing it as this seminal proto-new wave project. I mean I get it, but it's just not terribly exciting. It's a cool album for sure, lots of robotic synth-y stuff going on, but most of the tracks drone on at the same pace for a bit too long. A couple tracks I dug, but nothing that really stopped me in my tracks. Favorite tracks: Metal, Complex, Random. Album art: Really, really love this. Honestly I was looking forward to getting this album since I first saw the cover. Future man contemplating The Shape. Like a sterile, retrofuturistic version of pondering the orb; reminds me of that picture of Trump and the Saudi's whatever orb they had going on. Gary looks terrified of the power of the pyramid on his desk. 3/5
When I first saw this album I was annoyed because it looked like another boring one however the songs were diverse and I did not expect the variety of them. I didn’t hate!
There is plenty of ear honey here and it's quite revolutionary but it also becomes boring at times.
Trodde jag skulle tycka om det mera men helt solid ändå
Chill och swag
Didn’t expect to like this but I did.
OMG when i saw this i got so excited !! mother has fed us today god bless
very consistent, but unfortunately so much that every song sounds identical
• Airlane was a cool sounding instrumental track • The album has a consistently strong bass throughout • Only three tracks in but every song has a distinct tone, with Complex having a markedly different sound to the first two songs • M.E. sounds like a lot of other songs, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it inspired or was sampled by other artists. • I like the melody in Conversation • I have heard Cars before listening to this album, though I’m not sure where (Edit: The Simpsons). I really like this one. • Oceans sounds like a Mario Galaxy song, while Asylum sounds like it’s from the Mario & Luigi series Favourite song: Cars
Had some cool electronic moments. I preferred the intstrumental songs. OK but I used to like Gary Numan more a couple years ago compared to now. I dunno why.
A very average album, from the vocals to the production to the almost off beat drumming to the forgettable songs.
Definitely can hear the influence of this album in the typical synth pop in the 80s. Doesn't make this album necessarily more than average for my own taste but can appreciate the inclusion of it.
I like it, some solid synth tunes.
“Cars” is in every 80s movie
just ok
my better halves auntie is a Gary Numan Fanatic. i never knew that was a thing, but yeah it is. credit where its due to Gaz Man this is a lot more than just cars + a load of 80s synth shite where someone jabs at a keyboard with the 80s tones set to 11. still doesn't explain the fanaticism.
Gary Numan vs Gary Oldman is a battle that has captured the imagination of the world for decades. Finally a winner has been declared.
Some classics, but a little repetitive after a while.
Numan at his best, some absolute bangers on this album, just not as good as some of the other albums I've listened to
Looks interesting… The album’s opener airline is a really interesting instrumental track that works great as a way to show all the sounds to expect in this album. Then it all stops for metal and it’s initially slow drowning synth part that slowly builds into a fully formed pop song but I wasn’t a fan of his vocals here (and I usually like unique sounding singers). It takes a while for complex to get going and his vocals are still not for me but the instrumental bits are interesting. Films is indeed a dark and brooding track in comparison to the first ones Numan is still sounding shit but there isn’t much singing on the song so I guess that’s good even though I much prefer songs with vocals. I’am very skeptical about the lyrics to M.E. but i’am guessing that’s the purpose, his singing is slightly better but still not my cup of tea. Tracks starts off as the lest robotic then gradually builds up quite nicely, while I don’t like this album much I quite like this as side 2 track 1. Ba ba ba, ba ba ba,ba ba ba is the only real thing I got from observer. Then is over 7 minute long epic conversation and well…zzz this is boring. Cars is a good single I can’t take that away from it! Engineers closes the album off with some great drumming, this is certainly one of the better tracks lyrics are sucky but they all are so good song I guess! It’s a 3 for 3 reasons 1) cars 2) engineers 3) for the time this was pretty cool and unique. But if cars/engineers weren’t here the album might as well be a 1 which is such a shame.
Really stripped-down, deliberately no-personality. Pretty interesting experience!
It was like the most typical New Wave album ever. Lots of keyboard synth with the typical singing voice. I’ve never heard of him before but it was cool to read up on the history of him and his influence.
Ik waan me in GTA Vice City. Leuk voor de afwisseling
Firmly stuck in the 80s and doesn't stand the test of time. Great for the era but it's time to archive this work and for good.
difficile de distinguer les chansons les unes des autres mais j'imagine que c'est ça qu'on appelle la consistance ?¿
This reminds me how far back electronic-based pop goes. I hadn't heard most of these tracks -- honestly, probably only Cars because I remember the video from MTV's very early days -- and I am surprised by how contemporary it sounds in many ways. Sure, the moogs sound very much from their time -- my goodness, the sheer number of film and tv scores for years around this period that used those instruments -- but harmonically and melodically, it all sounds fresher than I would've guessed. He's a really interesting songwriter and composer, and the performances are great. The sound gets a bit redundant after a while, but that's true of a lot of albums. This is a good one.
3.5/5 Always loved the song “cars” and this album has a few more great songs. I enjoyed it very much.
Niet zo memorabel. Was wel verbaasd dat ik 2 nummers kende
A pretty enjoyable listen. Drumming surprisingly good and its mixed very well for its time and of course the synths can be excellent at time as you would expect for a synthpop album. For me the issue is that the songs are all very similar so it drags a lot on the back half. Cars is a legendary single but it doesn't really come together as an album as most of the tracks are forgettable. Highlights: Airlane, Tracks, Cars 3.5
Decent album, but why oh why end it with that pants version of Broadway? Hope it wasn’t on the original release. One star off for that.
Good not great
New age synth album not bad, had heard Cars before
that good new wave
A other level of new-wave music. (6/10) FT: Cars
I always wondered if anyone that loved the song, Cars, had actually listened to the rest of the album? To be honest, I hadn't and I was kind of surprised how low-key and less commercial sounding the rest of the record was. Very synth-new wave-ish with a full synthetic sound (no guitars!) definitely a robotic feel, not really too surprising considering "Cars" robotic sound...the sound of the future? "Cars", came out at a time when me and friends were getting our drivers licenses and spent many a night car cruising to that song blaring out the open windows, so this song has a real nostalgic connection.
Numan's The Pleasure Principle is likely one of the pioneering records for what is now the big synth movement of the 80s. Was not expecting the M.E. track, it was quite distracting though, I kept expecting Basement Jaxx to yell out in my headset. And I really enjoyed Asylum, it had a dark haunting quality that would be home in a good sci-fi show or movie. Best: M.E. ; Asylum Worst: Oceans
6/10/2022 - ALBUM #134 Today's Album: "The Pleasure Principle" by Gary Numan - It's quite unfortunate that this album had to quickly follow up the Pet Shop Boys because by comparison, this new-wave album simply does not hold up. As I researched this album, it seemed like it was one of those albums that was super influential for the invention and progression of electronic music, but as I listen to this thing I really just cannot force myself to like it. There are some very admirable things in here like the aforementioned usage of synthesizers and I have to say there are a lot of cool synth sounds being used here. The way everything is mixed is pretty mediocre, with a lot of things feeling like they speak too loudly in the mix or the thing overall just feeling a bit too cluttered or messy, but I do think that everything is really well produced in terms of the actual sound of most of the instruments. It makes it feel even the slightest bit grand or important. However, I think that all of it is ruined by some pretty lousy performances across the board. Not only are the vocals nearly unbearable, but the synth work is pretty sloppy, the drum beats and basslines are poorly done and fairly basic, and the instruments sort of don't feel like they mesh together very well, both meaning that they do not synergize well together and they often are not really on time together (feeling like it's dragging). The track Cars is probably the only redeeming part about this album, being a pretty solid 80's synth bop, but besides that there is really so little to write home about with this album. There are a lot of songs where the sound of it is pretty cool or at least listenable, but often times it's just looped too much to be very interesting to me or the vocals sort of ruin the experience. Overall, this is an important album in the progression of music, but it doesn't hold up very well today and the shoddy vocals are not really made up for by any other musical performance. Listen to cars and then I would drop this album outside of that, unless if you really dig new wave and want to dive really deep into it's history. I see the value in it, but it just isn't for me. Highlights: Conversation, Cars Score: 5.5/10 Probably super impressive for it's time, but doesn't hold up well today
Gary's electronic/synth sound is great. It's not as dated as I expected and all the songs are pretty easy to enjoy... though the lyrics are pretty sparse and forgettable (even Cars which seems to have the most words, on retrospect, is also pretty shallow). Engineers was the only "ouch" track (weird and unnecessary sound effects).
A pleasure to listen to this. Coherent exploration of a sound - cold, mechanical nostalgo-futuristic. I was only familiar with Cars (which was played to death on TV when I was a kids) so glad to hear the rest of the album
okay but the whole album not totally my style.
Retro futuristic. I understand the impact this had on mainstream music, but Gary's voice can kind of start to get grating. Still, fun to dance the robot to. Favorite track: "Cars"
Begin van de plaat was best tof, maar dat kale syntesizer geluid begint op een gegeven moment wel een beetje suf te worden. Maar vanwege 'Cars' toch nog 3 sterren.
Rating: 6/10 Best songs: cars
3 1/2
Eh. It's robotic and kind of cool but very repetitive and not very evocative
Wel prima, niks bijzonders
kinda weird and cool definitely had an influence on later artists 3.5
He might be a robot. This is probably what it sounds like if KORG Synths or a ZX Spectrum was trying to flirt with you. Best Tracks: Metal; M.E.; Cars
Weirdly I have never listened to this album in full but for years was familiar of Gary Numan though his Living Ornaments 79 and 80 live albums. Most of the songs on The Pleasure Principle were featured on them and they stand out better live with more energy plus added guitars. Nonetheless, you still get some great songs here with Cars, Metal, M.E. and Complex. There a couple of duds though, particually Engineers and Conversation.
Nice post disco bump...
This feels really ahead of the time for a 1979 album. I recognize several tracks: Cars and M.E.. I like this album because it's still recognizable to me, but I don't believe it's one I will listen to again as it's not my preference.
Interesting but a little bit boring
This was fine, nothing special, average. A lot of synths, and very new-wavy.
So much damn synth.
Something new and a unique style to me. Feels like an intense movie score throughout most of the album. "M.E." and "Oceans" my favourite tracks. Though the album does feel quite repetitive after a while.
Quite a fun album; Numan makes some good synth-pop. Some of the songs dragged on for too long, such as 'Conversation,' and when the songs drag on for too long you can really feel the repetitiveness of some of the music, which detracts from the experience. Interesting and a great demo for what it spawned, but I don't see myself listening to the album again.
Yllättävä. Tykkäsin aika paljon. Kraftwerk ja Jarre -vibat paikoitellen. 3/5
Filmsin alku on siisti! Muutenkin hienoja synkkiä synapop-soundeja levyn täydeltä. Ei kuitenkaan mikään biisi iskenyt kuin miljoona volttia, joten loppuarvio ehkä 3.5 approx. 3/5
Nokkur mjög skemmtileg lög og nokkur ekki skemmtileg lög tbh
Synthy and wavey goodness, though I find the album to not be all that engaging.
Очень однообразно
A good listen and much more variety in it than I was expecting. Thought it was just electronica but a great mix of instruments too.
Better than I thought.
Electro Punk in the wild.
Great sound with some real good songs on here. I can see how it’s on the cusp of the 80s scene.
Great 80’s. Sound
It was ok, I remember the CAR song
I hear the Kraftwerk influences and appreciate the real percussion and strings, tasteful additions. Cars didn't quite wow, but was an easy favorite.
Abided by in an Aristotelian fashion
I appreciate what he did for the advancement of synth in music - but the album as a whole wasn't my cup of tea.
A tantalizing record
Interesting, and I can see how it was seminal.
Couldn't get through it all but Cars is a good jam 2.6
Revolution in Sachen Instrumentierung oder besser gesagt ihrer Synthetisierung. Eigendenk dessen übersehe ich gerne die recht flachen Song-Gebilde, die selten wie beim übergroßen „Cars“ schillernde Tunnel-Tiefe erreicht. Auch super: 3-chord Post-Punk Variation „M.E.“ 3.3
Classic 80’s synth pop. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
I'm not a big new wave guy, but this album was decent
interesting electronic sound, kinda of ambient but a bit more funky. Its a nice sound i hadnt heard before. But the album doesnt deviate much from this along the album which makes it a somewhat boring case. Nevertheless decent track
Thought I’d like this more. Dunno why but it just doesn’t ring. It’s not bad though.
Hard for me not to love this record. The cover art is really great. Reminds me a little of Led Zzeppelin's Presence, in that it has this ominous figure (a pyramid instead of an obelisk in this case). Musically, things can get a little repetitive but it's all balanced out by the great synth sounds for me. Sounds like soundtrack music a little bit. But the singles are memorable and nostalgic. In this moment, I want to give this a 4, but in reality, I think it probably only deserves a 3 given the company. Still, if Jane's addiction can secure at least three albums on this list, it seems like this should be rated as a 6.
I found this charming overall. Was familiar with "Cars." Many of the songs sounded super similar to each other, which became a problem in combination with the album length.
Good enough. Weird synthy, but I've always had a soft spot for "Cars." This whole album has that feel, and is worth listening to. I don't think I enjoyed it enough to call it 4 stars, but it's a solid 3.
Can't fault it
Really interesting record. Definitely out of my comfort zone since I'm typically a fan of guitar-based music. I can see why this is on the list from that perspective. The music is very sort of sparse and cold feeling. Apparently a big influence and Industrial music like Nine Inch Nails later on. Sometimes the synths sound cool and kind of square wave, other times it's a bit too... not sure the right term... orchestral maybe? It's a cool record. I liked it from an intellectual perspective but I didn't really connect to it otherwise. An interesting listen but not something I'll likely come back to.
IT WAS FINE. OK?! IT WAS JUST FINE.
I think that many of the songs on this album blend together. Great Freud reference though. Definitely had a defining sound for the 80's.
Interesting to hear the song sampled by Basement Jaxx
It's the Gary Numan sound that this album has in its favour (and Cars), but that can only go so far. Which is fine.
Kind of cool but got a bit ‘one trick’ pretty quickly. Fun to hear the ‘Where’s your head at’ sample.
3/5
Sounds good today - imagine it in context.
Pretty intense and spaced. Not bad, but need to be in the right mood to listen to this!
Typical Numan. It was alright, just not my thing. 3*
I kinda liked it. Had a Talking Heads vibe
Saved Prior: Cars Off Rip: Airlane, Metal, Films, Random* Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Pretty good early obtuse synth music. The Basement Jaxx flip of M.E. is iconic, and the beat to Cars is so good he uses it twice on the album. In general the album has cool ideas that he takes and uses, but nothing transcendent comes of these cool new ideas that others will master. Don't want to know what kind of parties they were throwing back in the late 70's-early 80's where this could've been thrown on aux though.
Most of this sounds the same. Though M.E. is incredible, I could listen to that time and time again. I know people swear by this album and I'm well aware of GNs contributions to this space, but I wouldn't be able to listen to this much more than I have.
Pure synth. Not bad. Good for focusing.
It's alright. I like what it will influence over the next decade, and track 1, 9, 13, 14 are my favorites.
Synth Cars
Album nije loš, možda mi je došao u krivi trenutak da ga više razumijem, ali što sam čuo, prolazan je. Dobar. Mislim ima pjesmu Cars koja mi je obilježila djetinjstvo zbog toga što je bila u nekoj igri s autima, to moram potražit točno koja, e od tada znam to. M.E. pjesma mi je sjela odmah na prvo slušanje, a također i Conversations (iako je u početku sporo krenula), međutim je do kraja pjesme pogodila promjene i postala je zanimljivija. Album je dobar, samo nisam imao više vremena da ga preslušam.
Želim više slušati, 3.5
блять что же это если не прародитель ебаного жанра? ММ??
Enjoyable listen lots of funky 80’s beats
Yet another band/artist/album I have never heard of until that one song that everyone knows. lol. Pretty good overall.
Some iconic tracks. Primed for samples.
Pioneering I suppose but sounds a bit basic now
I mean I liked this one a lot, a very pleasurable listen, and it's not weak at any moment but it neither has any particularly strong moments.
Its different. Never heard the synth used as a hook so much. Reminds me of death metal, but instead of riffs its the synth. All that said still not my cup of tea, even though I kinda liked it
cars is ok
Added barely any tunes to the playlist but it's interesting enough for a 3
Cars" Released: 21 August 1979 "Complex" Released: 16 November 1979
Buen pop instrumental y con abuso (indiscriminado) de sintetizadores. Temas un tanto relajantes. Invitan un poco a desconectar
Man this week has been very average
buen experimento
starts very well then it becomes headache synth music
Pop sintético. Cosas interesantes.
I dig it. Had only heard “Cars,” before this and wasn’t expecting those cool ass instrumental tracks. Some of these tunes sound a little too much alike to my ears, but I really just want to know if Andy also saw people fucking at a Gary Numan show because I feel like that would make sense.
Obviously influential, but feels cheap and plastic compared to some of its progenitors.
La neta tiene tres o cuatro rolas muy chidas y luego tiene todas las demás muy pinche fumadas pero en el mal sentido. ¿Qué pedo con Oceans? ¿Por qué nos tenemos que chutar esos malviajes? Tres estrellas porque las chidas sí están muy chidas.
I'm not sure I ever listened to a Gary Numan song other than Cars before this. New Wave was THE new music of my youth and I retain an affection for it from that. The cover art for this album is superb.
Some great synth work here - tracks tend to drag on a bit longer than they should but it's easy to see why this LP was revolutionary
2.6
Barnsligt och kul
Feels like the soundtrack to an 80s movie. As synth-pop is pretty cool but not really my thing. Cars is a classic and probably my favorite song on the album. 5/8, respect its popularity but not my thing.
while technically interesting, it eventually meshes into one sound/tone for me
Haha den är kul ändå
I thought I would hate this. It's not terrible. Best track: Cars
This is a review, I’m writing it right now. I love to write reviews online. Take that to the melody of Cars and slap some basic synth melodies and you have this album
Trååååkigt
A future where all the songs sound similar to Cars
fav songs: observer synths, electronic, pop 40/100
I looked forward to this bit of nostalgia, unfortunately it sounded very dated and like one long song. I get it that fans of electronica love this, but it’s not for me.
It’s quite boring and in instrumentally really basic, if not bad, in my opinion. It’s probably an important album for some kind of new wave / synth tradition which I don’t want to diminish. I still don’t think it’s necessarily good …
This album asked the question, “How much do you like synthesizers?” A lot? You’ll love this album. Hate them? Don’t even think about listening to it. I fall somewhere in the middle, so this was ok until I got tired of it. Which didn’t take long. But Cars is on here, so that’s something.
Cars has long been one of my favorites. I think a couple more of the songs on this album could be a favorite, too. But the album as a whole is too same-y.
Much like Revenge of the Nerds, this album has not aged well, very much a product of its time. Heavy electronic sound, other than Cars pretty bland.
Interesting songs, but a lot of the same. And in my opinion way too long
Funkade inte riktigt för mig.
Tröttnar rätt snabbt på soundet och rösten. Pipigt. Men kan rekommendera det lite senare albumet I, Assassin och i synnerhet låten Music For Chameleons. Mycket mer fretless bejs
synthmaxxing
cars is a banger and M.E is a theoretical banger. rest i cba
Songs all sound similar
Gary Numan is older than Gary Oldman - It's a fact... look it up.... mind blown? From the 'Robert Dimery Dictionary' Must: verb. - def a. Do something if you choose to do it. Don't do it. It doesn't matter. Context. 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. - Listen to these albums or don't. Up to you. You don't need to. Strange that this album claims to have 17 songs when I only heard 3 played over and over again
(3/7) more mid synthesizer music
Pretty much as expected here. Never been a fan, but I don't dislike it. The famous ones are ok, but that is about it.
I feel like I def already reviewed this, but then I went on vacation for 2 weeks and here I am listening to it again. 80s synth electronic. I almost lost it when I thought it was yet another Randy Newman album. But yeah, nothing special, all the same.
Honestly, I got bored and didn't really listen to it all. Seems a little interesting, but not enough to listen to fully.
I understand this is important, but it’s not really my thing. 5/10 Decent
Not for me
I'm sure this hit super hard in 1979
Not for me. Listenable but I found it boring. I will give it two stars because I did the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV meme when the track sampled in “Where’s Your Head At” started playing.
It all started to sound the same. Didn't love it
I guess obviously a huge influence on things that followed. But might go in the one-and-done pile for me.
I've always hated the stupid song Cars and this album was no better. Like an 80's caricature of futuristic music. Or Elroy Jetson learns the keyboard.
Nonsense weird background noise
mid excess album, i didn´t liked a single song in the entire record... im sorry, this is a 2 stars for me.
It feels like there's 10 different versions of the same song on this album. Same instrumentation, same 2-3 chords, all of which sound like they are in the same key. "Cars" is the best offering, imo. It's the greatest sum of its parts.
Beetje zagerig
Juste une chanson qui est bien…
Most of these songs, They sound Cars, Like Cars, But not All, Like Cars, Observer certainly does, Sound Like Cars, Like cars. Why does it sound Like cars
No es mal album, tiene algunas canciones buenas, la mejor para mi Cars
Area 51-esque tunes Favourite track: M.E
It's incredibly invariable. I've heard the song Cars hundreds of times and I thought every song was Cars at some point. He knew what he liked and stuck to it I suppose.
Do you like the song Cars, that late 70s, early 80s classic? Well here’s an album where every song takes one of the musical elements of Cars and expands upon it in a super repetitive fashion for each individual song, some of which are seven minutes long. Once they all come together in Cars, you have the rest of the album, which can only be described as the songs that the Casio Keyboard engineers used to pull all of their weird samples from to create the sound effect button you played with as a kid.
18/05/2026 I appreciate it was innovative for the time... it was boring and just not for me. Spotify listeners: 1.2 million
In the beginning, you think "this is cool, Kraftwerk-esque but with acoustic drums and bass". By the third or fourth song, you think "I think I heard this before" In the latter half, you think "this is repetitive as fuck, end soon please". And then come Cars, a song that sticks in your head, making the audition a little bit less torturing. Definitely, not for me. I understand the hype and the cult, but didn't enjoy.
Ein Album das mich fraglich zurück lässt. ich höre zu aber es ist irgendwie gut nicht gut
I thought I recognized a song, then realized I was thinking of Cars from this same album when it came on. Which is also about where I was done with this album.
didnt like it
not for me
Not my thing. It wasn't horrible. I was going to give it a 1, but I like Cars.
Perus synapoppi, ei mitään kummempia tunteita herättävä, eikä oikeen mun makuun, 2/5 ei kuitenkaan huono albumi
I'll give points to the instrumentals cause I'll always be a fan of synths, and especially in this album they give off a cool spooky vibe, but wow those vocals completely ruined it for me. Usually I can look past bad vocals if the rest of the music makes up for it but not in this case unfortunately...
I don't much like post punk, I don't like New Wave, and I've never much liked Gary Numan's voice. So this doesn't bode well. But I have nevee heard this album, so I'm going to give it a solid, 6 inch chance. This is certainly groundbreaking. But it's more evidence that groundbreaking doesn't equal good. It may well have sounded futuristic at release, but it now sounds dated AF. All it reminds me of is the synth interludes which played over animated sequences in the cheap educational TV shows they made me watch in Primary school in the 80s. And it's definitely influential, but influenced nothing better than a whole load of electronic crap which has plagued the airwaves in the decades since. Numan is not a great singer and doesn't have a great voice. While most songs have something worth hearing, that something is usully heard inside the first minute and isn't built upon. The complete songs feel like momentary experiments fraudulently stretched to radio friendly length. So yes, it should be on the list. But it isn't very good.
Cars //
not bad for synth pop
I'd heard, of course, that Gary Numan was practically the father of synth-pop and electronica, but I knew nothing of his work beyond his biggest hit, "Cars." So, when this record came up today, I was really curious to see what else the artist would have to offer. Bottom line: you don't need to listen to the whole album; every song on it sounds like "Cars," only worse. The cold, robotic sound turns this music into pure background music for me. There's background pop for shopping at H&M, and this background electronica for a tour of some car factory (pun intended) or production facility. I don't understand how anyone can listen to it consciously now; obviously, in 1979, after all the blues and other psychedelia, this was a novelty, but now the album sounds like AI-slope. Nevertheless, "Cars" is still a good song with a pleasant melody — it's the only thing that saves the album from a one-star rating. You need to be more humane!
This didn’t actively annoy me, but also didn’t do anything for me.
Not that exciting.
:/ not so much my style
Not my type at all
Cars was about the only jam on this… but a few others were interesting
Man, he really likes that one synch line doesn’t he. This was fine but incredibly repetitive. I did learn this is where Basement Jaxx got the sample for Where’s Your Head At though, so that’s something.
it's not the worst thing i've ever heard but i guess it just feels very empty. too much synth and would have rather had more singing
infumable, al menos me ha servido para darme cuenta de que poco a poco voy sabiendo más de música. 1 estrella extra porque la portada está inspirada en un cuadro de magritte
3/10
Noooot my vibe
There are moments I like. The songs with those moments go on too long, though. And I dislike most of the songs, even Cars which is super famous. There's worse new wave stuff out there, but this one definitely wasn't for me.
It was ok. Interesting at times, but became quite repetitive. Standout songs: Tracks Cars
Honestly, all these songs sounded the same to me.
eh, its okay
Not much to say about this one. Not really my cup of tea.
I'm tired of New Wave. Nothing about this stood out as a must listen. I'd give it one star, but that's just because it's the 10th New Wave album that's mostly the same.
First thought. I hope this improves. Second thought, ok. A little better. But Could there BE more synthesizers? 80s just before 80s. Third song… get on with it. Where are we going? Vocals are somewhat robotic. Failing to find much depth. By M.E. I am annoyed. This is not good. Observer sounds familiar. This must be the “hit.” I can’t wait for this to be over. I’ve heard the future… and this is not it. Oh wait… Cars! Now I know why Observer sounded familiar. It’s the same riff. There is certainly a consistent sound on this album. I’ll give it that. Otherwise this album sux.
Heard Before: No Standout Tracks: Tracks, M.E., Cars Would I Listen Again: Probably Not When listening to the album, the tracks seemed to overstay their welcome and drone on a bit too long. Which would have been okay if it were just one or two, but not cool when checking the runtime of almost every song to see if it was ending soon. Rating 1.5* (round to 2)
Repetitive, boring, annoying, uninteresting
No heart or soul in this. Completely robotic. Never understood why Cars was such a big hit. Bad new wave.
Quite a pleasant and smooth listening experience, but feels being on repeat a noticeable amount. Good enough to not stop listening if this album pops up, but also not good enough to start it by myself.
this reminded me of the janet album of the same name in that i can recognize how influential they were for the genres they are in but i don't think this did much for me
ok was shook that this is the song that WHERE'S YOUUURRRR HEADDDD ATTT ATTTT sampled from. but this album is still boring as hell lmfao and very late 70s synth
One of my principles (no pun intended) is never to Google anything by the artist before listening, so I cannot be unduly influenced. The negatives of that is you are stuck with my less than encyclopaedic musical knowledge and I just tell you what I think about the album. What I know about Gary Numan is two songs essentially - Are Friends Electric and Cars, both fine enough in their own right (I much prefer the former, but I believe that was Tubeway Army, so I think this is his debut album). I also know that he is actually older than Gary Oldman. Obviously you hear a lot of influence of the likes of Kraftwerk but also recalls David Bowie and you can see some influence on certain future rock bands . Cars is the penultimate track and easily the most radio-friendly. 'M.E.' sounds immediately familiar as it's what Basement Jaxx used (and improved upon) for 'Where's Your Head At' 20 years or so on. I felt I detected future samples elsewhere too but couldn't put my finger on what they were. It's obviously a synthesiser-fest but somewhat psychedelic also. I have a feeling it may be a concept album of some sort, but I generally can't really understand a word he is saying in most songs so don't quote me on that. This isn't offensive or anything but just sounds like background music in a 1980s computer game kind of thing, not sure you'd add it to your favourites.
not my thing
New wave synth type stuff that I am not into.
This album is soooo boring to me. 2 stars or D-.
Nice —————————————— Liked: — Metal — M.E. — Tracks — Observer — Cars
Nope. Hated this genre then, and a strong dislike lingers. Simple grade-school fancy. Gary’s vocals are the highlight, but the music is pure Radio Shack. Funny… the bonus live tracks on Apple Music are much more appealing. Still not saying much, but it keeps the album off the bottom tier.
Just no.
Airlane - pretty boring intro Metal - fine Complex - cool Films - 🥉 M.E. - 🥈, cool I wish the whole album sounded more like this Tracks - fine Observer - fine Conversation - fine Cars - 🥇, big single for reason I guess Engineers - bit too loopy Random - loopy interlude is fine unless it goes into another long loopy interlude Oceans - said long loopy interlude Asylum - chrono trigger boss music is cool but what is it doing on an album with songs like cars Overall - 2/2.5, obviously super influential and has a lot of cool stuff going on, but I think the cool factor wears off, wouldn’t really go back to anything on it but Gary seems cool enough and the fact everything is electronic makes the album in a concept cooler than the music
This album is why we don't let people use synths anymore. Cars is an all-time classic, so I can give him some credit for that, but an entire album is tough to enjoy.
A couple of decent radio hits surrounded by very gimmicky composition. Interesting as a proto-techno/EDM sound, but shows a lot of the same repetitive and uninteresting pitfalls in a lot of places. A few tracks are at least fun to bob along to, but there's a lot of skippable music on this album. Top tracks: Conversation, Cars
eh
This album is interesting and great background music. It weirdly kind of sounds like most of the songs are just versions of the same song but it's still a fun listen.
He gets 2 stars for Cars
Uh yeah hated this too. Maybe im the problem
Nice soundtrack for autumn weather.
Certainly would have sounded more like the music that came after it than before it. Not for me though
Lots of electronic synth bliss! I recognize their pioneering of sounds, but also not a sound I really enjoy to listen to. Recognize ME and Cars, but not something I would repeat.
Nice
Een elbum waarop gitaren verboden zijn.. Aldus de omschrijving van apple music. Tevens; een verzameling van aanstekelijke machineklanken. Ik moet toch eerlijk zeggen, dat is nou geen omschrijving die mijn vette hart sneller laat kloppen.... gelukkig is het maar een uur en 8 minuten, potverdikkie! Zo wilde ik niet het weekend in. Oke, het lijkt mee te vallen; een basgitaar is namelijk vrij duidelijk wel toegelaten tot dit album. Verder vallen de machine klanken tot nu mee, het is gwn een leuke synthesizer! Oke, het was echt een stuk beter dan verwacht, laat ik dat voorop stellen. Echt wel leuke stukjes tussendoor. Maar zoals wel vakaer als het toch net niet helemaal mijn ding is, duurt het dan toch net ff te lang en begin ik mij weer te ergeren. Halverwege zat ik aan een 3 te denken, maar helaas. Dit wordt toch een 2 voor mij. Zelfs voor 1970nogwat is dit te experimenteel.
P445.1979. 2 stars. Late 70s Brit electro pop. Not as painful as expected, and still surprisingly fresh. Set against that, a lot of the songs sound the same ("Observer" is almost a clone of "Cars") plus he's got an annoying voice.
Feels like 10 variations of the same idea with the standout being "Cars".
So so
2/5. Я слишком ребенок для таких дедовских музык.
Meh, not a huge fan of synth stuff and this album is all synth.
Not a fan, but it wasn't unpleasant either. I probably won't come back to it.
I really like how this sounds, but once youve heard the first couple of tracks you've heard everything this album has to offer (albeit Cars, arguably the hest implementation of this recipe, comes later). I have a gut feeling this is most significant because of its influence - it is a pretty wild sound for '79.
2.5
Wasn’t thrilled to see this, as I was afraid it would be a bunch of songs that sound like ‘Cars.’ Turns out, it was just a bunch of songs that sound like ‘Cars.’ Goddammit, Gary.
Cars is kind of fun, so rounding this 1.5 up to 2.
This was so repetitive and not very good. The track 2 before “Cars” (the only Numan song I know) sounded just like it — I thought the first 30-45 seconds were a long album intro into his biggest (only?) hit.
I gotta be in the right mood for this kinda beeps and boops but they are good beeps and boops for when i am
Nothing really stood out here for me. Didn't love it nor hate it. Felt like every song sounded exactly the same. 2/5
A very deliberate dive into what would turn out to be the sounds of the 80's. Feels like a less experimental sonic relative of an album we had not too long ago, Another Green World by Brian Eno (one of my favorites of all time). Just as much, it feels like a progenitor for all things Rush; Gary Numan and Geddy Lee sing in a similar register. Most all of these songs are very straightforward in their compositions/arrangements. I do wonder if it wasn't so simple at the time though, no genre had been completely washed in electronics or given the "synth-____" prefix yet. Many tracks here just do the bare minimum by todays standards. "M.E." is cool but damn does it go on for too long. I imagine it was pretty neat to hear a synth lead go crazy like that towards the end of the song at the time of it's release, but I just hear a song that overstays it's welcome. Most every other song is passable at best, painfully simple at worst. I got no problem with little albums that have no real message or monumental achievement attached to them, but this one doesnt seem to set out to do much of anything. "Conversation" at 7:36 minutes long? come onnnnn. The hit "Cars" is unfortunately representative of this aalbum as a whole - the song doesn't have anything inherently wrong going for it, but man it feels like an 8th seed playoff team hat snuck into the postseason due to a weak division. "Random" is my pick from this project, I did appreciate the gated synth on loop. Just because an album constructed foundations for a genre doesn't make it's music any more gilded with age. Not mad about the music at all, mad about it's inclusion on this list. 2/5
Would I have liked this more if I had listened to it...IN CARS?? Probably not.
This album started over and I literally didn't even notice except that I felt like I had endured enough. It was not very good...
Gary Numan was absolutely no relative of Gary Oldman! A mistake Len Houmous so famously made during that infamous awards ceremony! 2.2 5/13 M.E
OK. 2/5
I guess it was innovative in 79.
Quintessentially 80's. All synth all the time
Synth late 70s - early 80s. I've never liked this type of music. Debated between 2 and 3. Felt 2 was more appropriate.
Very 80s. In cars
Not bad more rocky
Seems like this was the right song at the right time. Numan's songwriting is basic and repetitive, although he has a knack for catchy hooks and more willingness to leave space in his arrangements than most folks tend to. Still, it's basically one synthesizer patch (aptly called Vox Humana from a Moog), and it's basically the same song again and again. Interesting in its moment and the cutting edge of the '80s, but it doesn't hold up well out of context.
So I got this right after Bowie's "Low". Coincidence? There was definitely influence from "Low" here. Too bad none of the talent came over with it. This sounds like an AI tried to copy Bowie. There's no emotion here at all. Unless vaguely unsettling is an emotion. Cars saves this from getting a 1. It's actually a decent track.
Another charter member of the one hit wonders Club. Even in its era this kind of music was just okay. Now 40+ years removed it has not aged well at all. How did we go from the Beatles to this shit in a decade?
This was really dull, didn’t really have anything going on
A bit boring to be honest. Too much synth.
Typical synth overload … the one song in his own voice was best imho
Not bad, just not for me.
It had some okay songs on, but overall I found it quite dull
5/10. I think there are a couple of iconic songs on this record which are indeed very fun and the style is quite unique, but the thing that mainly beat me down with this as a whole album is that it feels SOO samey. The rhythm, the melodies and even the timbre felt like it could've been all one song instead of seventeen (17!). I definitely think there's some cool stuff going on and I can see how it really influenced some of the stuff I love today but as a whole album it felt like a fairly mid experience for the above reasons.
I only listened to a few of these songs and it ain't for me. Sorryyyy.
Very synthy with some nice bass lines. Lyrics and vocals are very 70s. Feel some similarities to Bowie’s Berlin trilogy, but I don’t feel the same heart (soul?) in these.
This seems ahead of its time and innovative for 1979. I liked parts of it, but over time the textures wore on me and vocal affectation of an androgynous cyborg grew irksome. I liked the song that sounded like “Cars” better than “Cars”.
I can see where this influenced a lot of other subsequent synth groups. Very raw sounding though. The synth is pretty one dimensional, but I'm guessing that's more a symptom of the limitations of the technology at the time. The drums and backing beat is right on though. In the end, not really my thing though. The vocals really grate on me. Side note: I checked out some of their recent stuff, and it's really interesting.
This was a bit of a weird album, so I assume people would have to be on drugs to fully enjoy it, or just have it in the background, although it's not really just a simple listen, but it's a bit intense. Everything sounded very repetitive, really nothing exciting, but I guess people were experimenting with making that kind of music at the time, so I understand why it sounds pretty meh nowadays.
Fun to listen to after all these years. But probably the last time. 2.95
Synth synth synth synth synth synth synth synth synthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Bwubwubwubwubwubwubwubwubwubwub There's some enjoyable moments within the sameness here, and Cars is a banger, but overall it's hard to distinguish between many of its tracks and Numan's vocal performance doesn't stand out enough to help the cause.
I prejudged this guy. I took one look at the album cover and thought he was gonna be a crooner (guess I missed the eyeshadow). At first, I was happy to be wrong. How interesting! But… every song is exactly the same. So this album is at least twice as long as it needs to be.
Paar goede nummers maar de rest is wel kut zeg
Turns out that I'm a fan of the guitar. Not having one on a synth-rock album for an hour is an interesting decision.
not my thang
Nicht schlimm, aber super langweilig
Cars and M.E are ok. The rest is just all the same
Too much of the same synth sounds made it a bit boring for me.
In a nutshell: Kraftwerk's #1 fan. One music critic described Gary Numan as "part androgynous Bowie meets Kraftwerk robot". Appropriate. There are variations in some arrangements, such as strings on Complex. For the most part, there is limited range to the analogue synth and Moogs. It sounds monotonous when the same notes are recycled through the album. IMHO, it's good, but it's more of 1001 Songs submission (for Cars or Are "Friends" Electric from Numan's previous project Tubeway Army) than a 1001 Albums entry. Overall: 4/10
Adventurous but feels like too much...there's a niche here but it's not my thing.
Good singles but not as good as Kraftwerk.
I prefer Kraftwerk. I just can't get into New Wave
Do I hate new wave? Maybe I hate new wave.
I’m sure when it was released it was groundbreaking, now it’s just boring
Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle For a genre that's called "new wave", it kinda does nail that on the spot, although it sounds very technical a lot of the times. Gary Numan presents this album with a lot of electronics and rarely any instruments that sound human at all. While it was revolutionary back then when it was released (1979) and also appreciate the ideas that Gary Numan was trying to put on the table, it sort of ends up going from one ear to the other, as it stales at times over the course of just 10 songs. I wish I could've enjoyed this because the concept of it sounds cool enough, but the music alone doesn't justify it, mostly songs made with an 80's feel, but overall, this is decent. 1.- Airplane = 5/10 2.- Metal = 7/10 3.- Complex = 6/10 4.- Films = 7/10 5.- M.E. = 8/10 6.- Tracks = 7/10 7.- Observer = 5/10 8.- Conversation = 5/10 9.- Cars = 8/10 10.- Engineers = 7/10 FINAL SCORE: 6.5/10
Pretty cheeks if you ask me
IMO, all the songs sound way to similar. That early synth sound. It's okay, but I won't come back to this again.
Nicht schlimm, aber super langweilig
This album just takes everything that's amazing about Kraftwerk's music, and just makes it really annoying. You can really tell that synths were this really new thing, and that electronic music was in its infancy just by how overused synths are in this album. It's all good and well for a song or two, but they all just sound exactly the same.
Do you like synth? This is for you! I can appreciate how experimental and out there this album is, and it reminds me od other songs I like (Random for example giving me shades of One of These Days by Pink Floyd). But overall this misses the mark with me, the only song I recognize is Cars, and even then it was a journey to get there. The latter of the albun doesnt improve much for me either.
Not sure how people can listen to this genre for pleasure. Unless you're a Tesla robot. Couple of songs (the most popular) were a good listen but could have left the rest.
80s synth, not for me but not bad
not for me
Nichts besonderes in meinen Augen. Viel gleiche Sounds mit wenig Lyrics. Songs der Playlist hinzugefügt: Keine
I listened to the entire album—it's not the worst thing I've ever heard, but definitely way too repetitive for me. It's a shame 'cause I'm usually really into synths. 2.5/5 stars
eh
Was vibing a bit. Thought this was for sure like late 80’s, ahead of his time.
It's a fun vibe, but a lot of these songs sound the same tbh... Prefer my New Wave to have a little more dancey or a little more post-punky vibes Faves: Cars
Synth pop, apparently. Mostly instrumental, not super interesting
a whole lotta synth I think if it weren't for the connection from this album's M.E. and Basement Jaxx's Where's Your Head At I'm not sure I would have really enjoyed anything besides Cars which or course was a pretty big hit
Pretty good synth pop music. I have never heard the whole thing, only "Cars". The album is pretty good with a few other catchy songs. I don't know if I will listen to the whole thing again but I'm glad I heard it.
I understand why this album is on the list, and I can hear the influence it had, but I’m underwhelmed. Admittedly, this is far from my favorite genre, but the songs really started to sound the same after awhile. I didn’t hate it, though. This is honestly a 2.5 for me, but I’m rounding down.