Listening Post - Gary Numan -Pure

Gary Numan - Pure - 2000

Numan wasted little time building on the success of Exile. Okay, three years. But what a nice three years those must have been.
Numan excoriated many of his fans' beliefs on Exile, attacking God and had his biggest success in a while. So, after touring and rebuilding on that success he went back in the studio and came out with.....
A Nine Inch nails record.
Angry. Industrial. All of what we love about Trent and Marilyn and you know what? Why the fuck not? After all, Corgan, manson, Reznor all count Numan as a major major influence. If he's going to be relevant he might as well emulate and learn from those who learned from him. It would be stupid and mean to expect him to be as forward a thinking innovator as he was 30 years ago. I mean, come on, the guy practically invented electro-New Wave. Howzabout he just apply what those who learned from him to his own style and see what he can come up with?
"Rip" sounds like "Closer" part two. And, guess what? It was a hit. Yep. Gary was back on the (UK) charts with this NIN rip. But, as NIN rips go, it's pretty awesome.
There are no suprises on Pure and it's hard for me to fully recommend because it's pretty damned repetitive. I was listening to "Rip" and it seemed to go on FOREVER. After it was over I realized that I had two copies of the song on the iPod and it played them back to back and I never noticed that one song ended and other began.
That's not great. But, it's still progress, Pure is. From Sacrifice to Exile to this.
The album really gets going toward the end. "Listen to my Voice" is a lovely melody sung in that nasal Numan tone we loved so long ago.
"Prayer for the Unborn" and "Little In Vitro" are songs that deal in some way with what Gary and his wife, Gemma, were going through, with miscarriages and IVF as they attempted to have children. They have been successful. And so are the songs.
You won't be surprised by Pure. You might not even like it. You might think Numan is doing himself and us a disservice in his slavish adoration of Reznor and Manson.
I say it's pretty damned good. All things considered, suffering through the likes of Warriors and Machine + Soul to get here was well worth it.

Pure - Gary Numan

Grade B-
ASide: Pure, Rip
BlindSide: Listen to My Voice, Little In Vitro
DownSide: