The Pleasure Principle (Gary Numan album)

Structure and release

Numan completely abandoned guitars on the album. This change, coupled with frequent use of synthetic percussion, produced the most purely electronic and robotic sound of his career. In addition to the Minimoog synthesizer employed on his previous album, Numan made liberal use of the Polymoog keyboard, particularly its distinctive "Vox Humana" preset. Other production tricks included copious amounts of flanging, phasing and reverb, plus the unusual move of including solo viola and violin parts in the arrangements. Numan was also influenced by Kraftwerk; the track "Cars" had the same musical "glides" as "Autobahn" and both songs used the same synthesizers.

Notable tracks included "Airlane", the lead-off instrumental; "Metal", sung from the perspective of an android longing to be human (covered by Nine Inch Nails on Things Falling Apart and Afrika Bambaataa on Dark Matter Moving at the Speed of Light, and used as backing for Planet Funk's "Who Said"); "Films", acknowledged by Bambaataa as an important influence on the U.S. hip hop scene; "M.E.", told from the perspective of the last machine on Earth (later used as backing for Basement Jaxx’s "Where’s Your Head At?"); the electronic ballad "Complex", a UK number 6 single; and "Cars", a worldwide synthpop hit. "Cars" reached number 9 in the U.S. and number 1 in Canada, helping make The Pleasure Principle Numan's strongest stateside showing, but lack of a strong commercial follow-up resulted in him being tagged as a one-hit wonder there.

Tour

Numan toured throughout the world in support of the album with a huge stage set including banks of neon lights and twin pyramids which moved across the stage via radio control. The live show was captured on record as Living Ornaments ’79 and on video as The Touring Principle. The support act on the UK leg of the tour was Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. An expanded version of Living Ornaments '79 was issued on CD in 2005, and the final show of The Touring Principle was captured on the CD Engineers (released exclusively through Numan's official website) in 2008.

Numan performed a special gig dedicated to the album at Manchester Academy on 21 November 2009, similar to Numan's previous tours for Replicas and Telekon. Numan had been scheduled to play the 2010 Coachella Festival in Indio, California but was forced to cancel, due to the Icelandic volcano eruption that disrupted air travel. To make up for this, Numan embarked upon a 16-date mini-tour of the U.S. that August, in which he performed The Pleasure Principle in its entirety.

Reissue

Of the bonus tracks later included on CD reissues, "Random" and "Oceans" were instrumental outtakes from The Pleasure Principle sessions, originally issued on vinyl with other previously unreleased tracks in 1985, while "Asylum" was the instrumental B-side of the "Cars" vinyl single. The live versions of "Me! I Disconnect From You" and "Bombers", which appeared as B-sides of "Complex", were recorded on tour and later made available in their original context on the expanded Living Ornaments '79 CD, along with "Remember I Was Vapour" and "On Broadway". The latter two tracks were first released as a promotional single shipped with early pressings of the album Telekon in 1980; Numan's cover version of the classic "On Broadway" was dominated by a characteristic synthesizer solo by then-former (and soon-to-be-again) Ultravox band member Billy Currie.

Album art

The album art references The Pleasure Principle (Le Principe du Plaisir), a painting by René Magritte. Magritte's title referred to Sigmund Freud's 1920 psychoanalytic essay, Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Jenseits des Lustprinzips).

Reception

AllMusic's Greg Prato rated The Pleasure Principle 4.5 of 5 stars. He explained that "there is not a single weak moment on the disc" and that "the quality of the songs gets stronger and stronger as the album progresses". He concluded: "If you had to own just one Gary Numan album, The Pleasure Principle would be it." Robert Christgau rated the album a B, saying that it was where "metal machine music goes easy-listening." He also stated, "This time he's singing about robots, engineers, and isolation. In such a slight artist, these things make all the difference."

Track listing

All songs written by Gary Numan, except where noted.

1. "Airlane" – 3:18
2. "Metal" – 3:32
3. "Complex" – 3:12
4. "Films" – 4:09
5. "M.E." – 5:37
6. "Tracks" – 2:51
7. "Observer" – 2:53
8. "Conversation" – 7:36
9. "Cars" – 3:58
10. "Engineers" – 4:01

1. "Random" (demo) – 3:49
2. "Oceans" (demo) – 3:03
3. "Asylum" (B-side of "Cars") – 2:31
4. "Me! I Disconnect from You (Live)" – 3:06
5. "Bombers (Live)" – 5:46
6. "Remember I Was Vapour (Live)"* – 4:46
7. "On Broadway (Live)" (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil) – 4:48

30th Anniversary Edition

To coincide with The Pleasure Principle 30th Anniversary Tour, a special edition of the album was released on 21 September 2009.

1. "Airlane"
2. "Metal"
3. "Complex"
4. "Films"
5. "M.E."
6. "Tracks"
7. "Observer"
8. "Conversation"
9. "Cars"
10. "Engineers"

1. "Airlane (Demo Version)"
2. "Metal (Demo Version)"
3. "Complex (Demo Version)"
4. "Films (Demo Version)"
5. "M.E. (Demo Version)"
6. "Tracks (Out Take Mix)"
7. "Observer (Demo Version)"
8. "Conversation (Demo Version 2)"
9. "Cars (Demo Version)"
10. "Engineers (Demo Version)"
11. "Random (2009 Re-Master)"
12. "Oceans (2009 Re-Master)"
13. "Asylum (2009 Re-Master)"
14. "Photograph (2009 Re-Master)"
15. "Gymnopedie No. 1 (Demo Version)"
16. "Conversation (Demo Version 1)"
17. "M.E. (Out Take Mix)"

Disc three (Bonus tracks only available on the 3CD version available from the Numan website)

1. "Down in the Park" (The Live EPs – 1980)
2. "On Broadway" (The Live EPs – 1980)
3. "Everyday I Die" (The Live EPs – 1980)
4. "Remember I Was Vapour" (The Live EPs – 1980)
5. "Bombers" (The Live EPs – 1980)
6. "Me! I Disconnect from You" (The Live EPs – 1979)
7. "Conversation" (The Live EPs – 1979)
8. "Metal" (The Live EPs – 1979)
9. "Down in the Park" (The Live EPs – 1979)
10. "Airlane" (Living Ornaments '79)
11. "Cars" (Living Ornaments '79)
12. "We Are So Fragile" (Living Ornaments '79)
13. "Films" (Living Ornaments '79)
14. "Something's in the House" (Living Ornaments '79)
15. "My Shadow in Vain" (Living Ornaments '79)
16. "Conversation" (Living Ornaments '79)
17. "The Dream Police" (Living Ornaments '79)
18. "Metal" (Living Ornaments '79)

Personnel