Enjoyed this more than I thought I would. New wave stuff just generally isn't my thing but this was really cool. "Metal" has some next level atmospheric sound design for its time. "Complex" has a really nice hook played by strings. "Films" is groovy as hell. Also a nice surprise to suddenly realise that "M.E." serves as the sample for Basement Jaxx's "Where's Your Head At". All in all a very interesting sounding album that kept me engaged throughout.
Feels kind of dated in this day and age. Not bad, but most of the songs are a bit underwhelming.
This is wild. Love the retro-futuristic feel of those synths. “Cars” has been my only touchpoint for Gary Numan, but the rest is pleasantly surprising, connecting maybe even better than that single? I love how “Complex” delivers an emotive twist with the addition of strings and similarly “Tracks” uses more traditional sounding keys (or is this a real piano?). These juxtapositions do a lot for me, especially coming in with the assumption that this would be samey. I mean, it *is* very much of the same flavor, but Mr. Numan works it. Also, he reminds me a lot of Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes (who I love), so there’s probably a bit of backwards compatibility going for me there. Overall, TPP is a synthy textural feast with some rock solid drumming and organic accents. Sign me the fuck up for more. 4
Good album. Of course I knew Gary Numan, but never listened to a full album. Observer sounds *very* similar to Cars. Funny that they're only 2 tracks apart. The thing that's stopping this from being a 5 is that some songs are same-y. 4/5
I have a friend who loves Gary Numan and has seen him multiple times (he’s also much older than me), but I only really knew him for Cars. So this is new for me, and I love it? The synth work is really expressive and singular, even if it’s primitive compared to later new wave. That’s arguably part of the charm, though, and Numan comes up with some killer hooks. I don’t think that we needed the 7 minute track, but I otherwise had a lot of fun and will def come back. B
The sound of this album captures this era of time so well for me. So many great obvious and subtle synth sounds. There's times when I can't tell if some of the backing tracks are stringed instruments with effects or synthesizers made to sound like stringed instruments.