Thursday, March 7, 2013

Tubeway Army - Tubeway Army (1978)

I've been on a post-punk kick lately and have been mildly obsessed with Gary Numan (it's happened before).  This often overlooked first record by the Tubeway Army features all the staples of Gary Numan greatness: science fiction themes, classic analog synths run through guitar pedals, and angular rhythms.  This record is also decidedly more punk than Numan's later solo output, but still has the obvious signs of what is to come.  Gary Numan has also been an outspoken atheist for much of his career, although he has some interesting contradictory beliefs (go figure) made clear in this Fortean Times interview:
FT:  You are on record as being an atheist... does that rule out belief in other kinds of strange phenomena for you?
GN:  I believe in pretty much everything apart from God. I believe aliens are real, demons, possession, poltergeists, all of that. I believe in ghosts but I do not believe in Heaven; to me, a ghost is just one of nature’s tragic mistakes. They shouldn't be there, but they are. It does indicate some kind of life after death, but that has nothing to do with a Heaven. If you believe in one God creating everything then I don't understand why the idea of many Gods is so laughable. None of the God ideas make any sense to me but one God is perhaps the most ridiculous of all.
So you believe in demonic possession but don't believe in God or deities?  How would demons manifest without a theological system to assert their existence?  Unless they were independently asserted demons divorced of their theological sources, the beliefs would be contradictory.  You're a fucking weirdo Gary Numan, but I love you.

Tubeway Army
  1. "Listen to the Sirens" – 3:06
  2. "My Shadow in Vain" – 2:59
  3. "The Life Machine" – 2:45
  4. "Friends" – 2:30
  5. "Something's in the House" – 4:14
  6. "Everyday I Die" – 2:24
  7. "Steel and You" – 4:44
  8. "My Love Is a Liquid" – 3:33
  9. "Are You Real?" – 3:25
  10. "The Dream Police" – 3:38
  11. "Jo the Waiter" – 2:41
  12. "Zero Bars (Mr. Smith)" – 3:12
N = R^{\ast} \cdot f_p \cdot n_e \cdot f_{\ell} \cdot f_i \cdot f_c \cdot L

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