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- Date Released: April 1, 1979
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Style: Post-Punk, New Wave
- Label: Beggars Banquet
A lurching synth-pop masterstroke.
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We Say...
Listening to the almost-ridiculous, toytown-beepy synthesiser introduction to "Me, I Disconnect From You," it would be hard to imagine Gary Numan inspiring a radical phalanx including Nine Inch Nails, Blur, Beck, Hole and Marilyn Manson. But stick with Replicas and you'll soon hear how this (then) self-styled one-finger synthesiser novice got under the skin.
Partly, it’s the bleak simplicity of lurching riffs like "Are ‘Friends’ Electric?" or "Down in the Park"; partly it’s his rough, but rather more skilled, guitar offsetting the elementary keyboards — kind of funky on "The Machman," kind of punky on "It Must Have Been Years." Crucially, it’s the gold seam of pop tunesmithery he’d struck and the way he twisted that sing-in-the-shower appeal with lyrics that signpost Numanworld, a weird place "peopled" by man/machine robots, machmen and downstats. Here, civilisation’s a bust. In the park, machmen enjoy a killing spree and restaurants offer customers use of "a rape machine." Numan’s imaginative coup is to invest his ambiguous humanoids with the human pain of philosophers comprehending Weltschmerz — or teenagers feeling lonely: "You know I hate to ask/ But are ‘friends’ electric?/ Only mine’s broke down/ And now I’ve no one to love." -
They Say...
By the release of their second album, Replicas, Gary Numan was the undisputed focal point and leader of icy electro-punkers Tubeway Army. And the move proved to be massively successful back home in the U.K., where both the album and the single "Are 'Friends' Electric?" topped the charts. The band had made a conscious effort to streamline the sound heard on its 1978 self-titled debut -- the distorted guitar riffs were played on Moog synthesizers instead, and Numan had perfected his faux-space-age persona. And the paranoia that is very evident in the lyrics and vocals on Numan's next release, The Pleasure Principle, can be detected on Replicas. Another near-perfect album by the band, highlights are many -- "Me! I Disconnect from You," "The Machman," "You Are in My Vision," and one of the most underrated new wave/synth-driven compositions of the whole era, the chilling ballad "Down in the Park." And out of all the Gary Numan/Beggars Banquet reissues, Replicas contains the strongest bonus tracks, such as never heard outtakes from the recording sessions, including "The Crazies," "Only a Downstat," and the B-side to the original "Are 'Friends' Electric?" single, "We Are So Fragile." [Note: In addition to bonus tracks, all of the Gary Numan/Begggars Banquet re-releases contain classic photographs and informative liner notes by Numan biographer Steve Malins.]
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| 01. |  |
Me! I Disconnect from You |
3:22 |
|
| 02. | |
Are 'Friends' Electric? |
5:25 |
|
| 03. | |
Machman |
3:08 |
|
| 04. | |
Praying to the Aliens |
4:00 |
|
| 05. | |
Down in the Park |
4:24 |
|
| 06. | |
You Are in My Vision |
3:15 |
|
| 07. | |
Replicas |
5:00 |
|
| 08. | |
It Must Have Been Years |
4:02 |
|
| 09. | |
When the Machines Rock |
3:15 |
|
| 10. | |
I Nearly Married a Human |
6:31 |
|
| 11. | |
Do You Need the Service? |
3:39 |
|
| 12. | |
Crazies |
2:54 |
|
| 13. | |
Only a Downstat |
3:36 |
|
| 14. | |
We Have a Technical |
8:04 |
|
| 15. | |
We Are So Fragile |
2:56 |
|
| 16. | |
I Nearly Married a Human (2) |
6:38 |
|
16 Total Tracks, 70:09 Total Length
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Credits
- Gary Numan - Guitar // Gary Numan - Guitar // Gary Numan - Guitar // Gary Numan - Guitar // Gary Numan - Piano // Gary Numan - Piano // Gary Numan - Piano // Gary Numan - Piano // Gary Numan - Keyboards // Gary Numan - Keyboards // Gary Numan - Keyboards // Gary Numan - Keyboards // Gary Numan - Vocals // Gary Numan - Vocals // Gary Numan - Vocals // Gary Numan - Vocals // Gary Numan - Main Performer // Gary Numan - Main Performer // Gary Numan - Main Performer // Gary Numan - Main Performer // Paul Gardiner - Bass // Jess Lidyard - Drums
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