1979’s Replicas by Gary Numan is an engaging piece of New Wave music with sci fi/dystopian themes that helped to launch his career and influence the direction of music for the next decade.
What Is It?
This new wave album came out in 1979 before “Cars”–from The Pleasure Principle–would skyrocket Gary Numan into one-hit-wonder fame in the United States. Replicas offered a collection of songs inspired by a set of inter-connected short stories he had been writing about a future dystopia. The very Terminator-like setting he established (five years before the James Cameron movie came out) depicts a nightmarish world where humanity is in decay and people have allowed the machines to take control to sort out the mess. But the machines decide that the root of the problem is humanity itself, and set out to slowly eliminate them.
Artist: Gary Numan and the Tubeway Army
Original Release: 1979
Legacy:
The album presents a dark and moody set of synth-pop songs in a science fiction setting that deal with themes of alienation, isolation, paranoia, and disillusionment and helps establish the sound that Gary Numan would become famous for. And it’s a pretty enjoyable bit of New Wave sci fi music to boot that also had a notable influence on popular music.
A Closer Look:
Gary Numan may be known the world over for his song “Cars”, but he is definitely more than a one-trick-pony. He was an early pioneer of synthesizer music and the New Wave movement and then continued to reinvent himself in the 80s, 90s, and 00s while still recording to this day. Replicas is where he developed the sound he would become famous for (his previous work was more guitar-heavy with hints of punk) and he had considerable chart success in his home country of the UK with the album. Often dismissed by many as “android rock”, the fact is that his early music had a deep humanness beneath its cool, mechanical trappings. Alienation, isolation, and loneliness play an important part of his early songs (and became a running motif throughout his career) and his explorations into those dark territories definitely made this more than a collection of throwaway synth-pop songs. Plus, his early experimentation with the synthesizer would have a heavy influence on pop music into the 80s and beyond.
The dystopian setting of Replicas will definitely be of interest to genre fans, especially with its similarities to the future we would later see in the Terminator movies, and to an extent Blade Runner. The sci fi elements aren’t always as pronounced in the songs, but they are there for those who want to dig into the lyrics. The setting it establishes is a near-future world in which cities have become isolated from each other. In the city that the album focuses on, control is given over to a machine by the humans in order to pull it out of a state of anarchy. The machine, though, decides that humans are the problem and devises a plan to eliminate them, starting with the weakest and least intelligent.
The Machmen (which are androids with cloned human skin) are used to keep the general public pacified while the machine carries out its plan. They look human except for the fact that they have a black bar through the pupils of their eyes. Some act as a super police force while others act as friends for the humans. Numan cited the work of Philip K. Dick–particularly Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?–as an inspiration and the Machmen do have similarities to the Replicants we would later see in Blade Runner. He had planned on writing several short stories in this world but never completed that.
This album contains two songs that some may recognize: “Are Friends Electric?” and “Down in the Park” (the latter has been covered by many groups, most notably The Foo Fighters and Marilyn Manson). For those not familiar with Numan’s larger catalog, Replicas is very much in the vein of the “Cars” sound and he would continue with this style for one more album after The Pleasure Principle (Telekon) before starting to expand the direction of his music. All three of these albums are worth checking out (as is much of his discography), and sci fi fans may want to start with Replicas because of its strong genre themes or go straight to his later dark, industrial albums (which began with 1994’s Sacrifice) because these could easily act as soundtracks to genre films.
Not Just a One-Hit Wonder:
Gary Numan is primarily known in the United States for his 1979 hit “Cars”, but he had a much more successful career overseas which continues to this day. “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” from Replicas was his first Number 1 hit in Britain and he would see more of his songs and albums chart there and in other European countries into the 80s. He then followed the synth/dance pop trend of the 80s (which he helped start), though he had less success the later half of that decade. In the mid-90s, Numan reinvented himself–borrowing from artists like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson who cited him as an influence–to create a darker and more industrial sound. He would have some success with that in Europe, and most recently he has expanded from that to an epic, more cinematic sound. He continues to tour worldwide, playing his new stuff as well as his most popular music from the “Cars” era.
Interesting Facts:
Gary Numan discovered his trademark synthesizer sound by accident. His early work with the Tubeway Army was more guitar-driven quasi-punk. But he was looking for a different direction because he didn’t feel this sound fully expressed the musical vision he was trying to achieve. Then–according to his autobiography Praying to the Aliens–one day he walked into the studio and found the previous group had left a mini-moog synthesizer behind. He played one note on it and the way it had been tuned immediately struck a cord with him. He commented that “if it had been pre-set on a horrible, tinny, bleep sound I probably wouldn’t have given it a second thought”. So that was a pivotal moment in music history and a different setting on that synthesizer could have altered his career direction and the New Wave movement as well!
Gary Numan is an accomplished pilot who successfully flew around the world in the early 80s, though his first attempt was cut short in India because he was arrested on suspicion of spying and smuggling.
Where Can You Find the Album?
Replicas is widely available on CD, MP3, and vinyl as is much of Gary Numan’s discography. He has put out nearly two-dozen studio albums over his career (including those with the Tubeway Army) and has quite a number of live albums available as well.
The first 3 albums are ridiculous but pretty good.