Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room Gary Numan

He doesn't believe in God - you might have guessed! Yet the subject continues to fascinate him - he's spent far too many albums now banging on about it, starting really with Sacrifice in '94, although that balanced out well between the questioning of God and the more Tolkein and Clive Barker-inspired songs about magic and demons.

He fully explored the existence of Heaven and Hell on my favourte album, 1997's Exile. And losing family members and suffering a miscarriage (well, his wife did), inspired a lot of the writing on 2000's Pure.

On the one hand it's become a tiresome subject, on the other, he was already singing about this right back in 1980. Just look at the opening lines to "This Wreckage": 'But what if God's dead...'

...so I'm really looking forward to hearing how his sound has developed since Jagged and where he is at lyrically - despite the title, I don't think that all of DSR is about not believing in God, since some tracks deal with relationships or have a sci-fi influence.

His autobiography, Praying to the Aliens is a really good read. It covers every era of his career in depth; not glossing over things as some tend to do. he also talks a lot about his position on faith etc in it too.

Back to DSR - this was posted on NuWorld:

We are pleased to announce that Gary Numan returns this autumn with a new album Dead Son Rising. The new album developed out of a set of demos the singer had left from previous projects, but as he explains: ‘The original ideas that sparked off these songs are now barely visible. It’s grown into another animal, something more experimental.”

Produced and co-written by Ade Fenton ( Numan’s collaborator on 2006’s Jagged), the material ranges from the heavily anthemic ‘The Fall’ (written about ‘an old friendship gone bad’) to the Arabic and ghostly ‘We Are The Lost’ and one of the standout moments, the brooding ‘Dead Sun Rising’. The latter both contain elements from a sci-fi fantasy story Numan has been writing over the last few years. Meanwhile, troubled relationships are explored on ‘For The Rest Of My Life’ and Not The Love We Dream Of’, and there’s also room for two instrumentals (‘Resurrection’ and ‘Into Battle’), showcasing some of the ‘soundtrack-type’ material that Numan and Fenton have been working on recently. It all adds up to one of Numan’s most atmospheric albums – one for those who loved his B-side experiments in the past but also containing some very direct, streamlined electronic rock in the likes of ‘Big Noise Transmission’, ‘The Fall’ and ‘When The Sky Bleeds, He Will Come’.

Dead Son Rising is available exclusively through the Official Shop on September 12th in three formats and is available to pre-order now:

SUPER DELUXE EDITION: £84.99
Dead Son Rising CD
DVD with ‘The Fall’ promo video, interviews, exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, gallery and slide show.
48 Page ‘Art book’
Each copy is numbered
Signed Gary Numan Print
Gatefold Vinyl of Album
Exclusive 12 inch single containing remixes of The Fall by Motor and South Central

DELUXE EDITION: £21.99
Dead Son Rising CD
DVD with ‘The Fall’ promo video, interviews, exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, gallery and slide show.
24 Page hardback booklet

STANDARD DIGI-PACK: £9.99
Dead Son Rising CD


...I've ordered the normal deluxe edition.

...and there's a short interview here, where you can also listen to the title track of the album, which to my ears, sounds pretty good!

http://thequietus.com/articles/06755-gary-numan-dead-sun-rising

A close friend made a moving video using Numan's "A Child With the Ghost", to try and reach out to his two estranged sons. I'm posting this on his behalf, hoping to boost it's rating and viewing figures, as today it's one of his sons' birthdays.

YouTube link

Unbelievable yet another Numan track with "God" in the lyrics!!!!

Track does nothing for me whatsoever.

Sorry to say it, but I'm with you Gary.

I'd not heard this track before, and it sounded exactly as I expected it would.
That's not to say I didn't like it, but it doesn't really go anywhere or suggest that Numan has anything different to offer... I must be missing something because I know it's billed as different and atmospheric and experimental, but that doesn't come over in this track at least.

Is that a bit harsh? Maybe, but it seems like a bit of a let down after all the 'on-off maybe later' status of this album over the past couple of years.

Similar kind of *shrug* that I felt listening to Credo

From the 3 or 4 previews I've heard, the album does sound diverse. Also not forgetting that this album is made up of previously unfinished tracks, some of which date back to Pure.

The production sounds really good; crisp and clean, not muddy and muffled, like Jagged was. And it sounds like there is more variation in style and tempo, again, unlike Jagged, which plodded endlessly along at 170bpm.

Personally I really like the sound of it, and as most Numan fans would hopefully agree on, it's simply good to finally have some new songs. We've been waiting long enough! I think this album will be a strong transitionary album in the run-up to Splinter, which he's regarding as his next 'proper' album, but in a very different style. Let's see if that'll actually be the case!

http://thequietus.com/articles/06755-gary-numan-dead-sun-rising



There's no disputing the context of the forthcoming album, and I agree with you Alex about its place and reasoning, but that track above just leaves me feeling flat, the hiatus has drained it of power, hopefully Gary's recharged the batteries for Splinter...

He's obviously made it clear that these tracks have been developed from abandoned ideas from past albums, and that he even canned the whole thing at one point. So I guess style-wise we know it'll be a bit more of the same. I would say this album is one more for the hardcore Numanoid.

Jagged's sticking point was that it hardly changed tempo, plodding along at around 170bmp for far too long. ALthough Numan has never been known for 'fast' songs, I do hope there's more variety in this respect!

I would say that every new album of original material is for the hardcore Numanoid! For most casual fans, Numan stopped being interesting circa 1982 when he went all "funk" with that godawful slapbass, wailing sax and female backing vocals style that he seemed to persist with for the next decade. Even his current style of hardcore/industrial/electro/whatever it's called, seems to have been going on for several albums now.

That said, against my better nature, I've been persuaded by my brother to see him in concert on the forthcoming tour. We're going to the Leeds gig on 19 Spetember - anyone else going?

At just gone 9am this morning there on the BBC's Breakfast telly news programme was our Gary sat on a sofa. I never really watch the news, its a guaranteed bad start to the day, but I digress. Gary was promoting Dead Son Rising and being lightly grilled by the intrepid BBC man and woman duo in corporation suit's. Gary meanwhile, equipped only in his likable self-deprecating manner, commented on his 'Friends Electric' debut period, and about how his self-consciousness regarding his big teeth was misinterpreted by the media as a cold-hearted snarl.

The BBC presenters put further pressure on Gary, slowly opening a small black bag and taking out a cloth bundle, the BBC man and woman unwrapped it to reveal some shiny surgical instruments and proceeded to ask Gary if he'd have taken part in the XFactor if it were onscreen back then. Gary replied confidently that he's indifferent to that show, he neither hates nor likes it, and besides, he cant sing, unlike those XFactor winners.

Seizing the opportunity the BBC woman tried but failed with her hand at some lame humour over the forthcoming tour and Garys 'cant sing' admission. Fortunately for humanity and synth-hero lovers everywhere the result was thus:

Gary Numan - 1.

BBC men and women in corporation suits - 0.