Whilst your reviewer really can't get overly enthusiastic about SUGABABES' "Freak Like Me", he's still damn glad they made the record for one reason: the fact that the track downloads great chunks of GARY NUMAN'S "Are 'Friends' Electric?" has thus helped to further bolster his reputation as an influential artist again in what is effectively his silver jubilee year. Funny how life comes full circle…
"Exposure: 1977 - 2002" though, is the one we've been waiting for to pig out on: an extensive 2-CD career overview set that comes in just shy of 30 tracks, simultaneously awesome and serving as an acute reminder why GARY NUMAN/ TUBEWAY ARMY was/ were/ are regarded with such fervour by some of the most devoted fans…ever!
Broadly, "Exposure" fulfils three wish lists. Firstly, it includes NUMAN'S still virtually unimpeachable "Greatest Hits" selection. I mean, the dark, dramatic "Are 'Friends' Electric?" utterly fascinated your reviewer as an impressionable pre-teen and still fires his imagination as an impressionable 30 something. And then there's "Cars", "We Are Glass", "I Die, You Die" - perfect machine rock in excelsis each time - not to mention the under-rated "Complex", where NUMAN adds strings and piano to the increasingly sophisticated plot.
Meanwhile, I'd probably agree with Gary that some of his (slightly) later hits (i.e from 1981-82) haven't aged quite as gracefully. "She's Got Claws" and "We Take Mystery (To Bed)" both suffer from the hackneyed dance rhythms, LEVEL 42-style fretless bass pulses and too much saxophone, although "Music For Chameleons" air of mystery remains as pervasive as ever.
Secondly, NUMAN'S lengthy list of album track "cult favourites" is well represented here, much to this writer's delight, with "Exposure" featuring the likes of "Films" and "Metal". These both demonstrate that while NUMAN is rightly credited as a major player in the rise of synthesisers, he - like "Heroes"-era BOWIE previously - didn't forget the importance of a crack (live) rhythm section either. "Metal"s ace drumming even features a proto-breakbeat.
Meantime, "Me! I Disconnect >From You" and "We Are So Fragile" (along with "We Are Glass" and "Everyday I Die") remind you NUMAN always had a foot planted in the rock camp. Indeed, these tracks benefit enormously from their chugging, heavy flanged guitars, reminiscent of the JOHN FOXX-era ULTRAVOX. Best of all, though, are the solitary, chilling "Remember I Was Vapour" and - of course - "Down In The Park": perhaps my ultimate NUMAN tune. Its' pretty, but otherworldly glacial keyboard shifts and that ace line: "I was in a car crash or was it the war? But I've never been quite the same…" somehow capturing the very essence of NUMAN'S short-circuited android image.
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"Exposure" also culls a goodly proportion of tracks from his post-1994 period, since when NUMAN'S career has gradually taken off again. This writer's a little more hesitant about some of his advances here, with the likes of "Pure", the KERRANG chart-topping "Rip" and "Listen To My Voice" pushing him perilously close to the US stadium Goth scene, although MARILYN MANSON'S obvious debt has undoubtedly helped open Stateside doors for NUMAN.
However, the recent tracks also include the likes of the ultra-spooky, quasi-religious "My Jesus", the histrionic, detractor-baiting of "Voix" and the elegiac "A Prayer For The Unborn", all of which suggest NUMAN is doing a convincing job in updating his icy, cavernous sound for the 21st century.
In any case, compared with most of the undiluted genius (yes, that word really is applicable here) of "Exposure"s contents, such petty gripes soon crumble to dust and you're just grateful to be reconnecting and revelling in one of rock's most singular and distinctive back catalogues from the past 25 years.
"Plug me in and turn me on," bleats Gary during "Metal." Seems like very sound advice to me.
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