Savage (Songs from a Broken World)

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Even some image consulting might help; Numan has clearly always been a big Bowie fan, but where Bowie changed entire personas, Numan lately just changes outfits.

Gary Numan on the making of ‘Savage (Songs Ade Fenton and Gary Numan on the making of ‘Savage (Songs

Well I guess it was kinda inevitable, I absolutely adore the early work of Gary Numan (including Tubeway Army), and I have gained a growing, if remote, interest in what this fine musician has been up to in the past few years. Soon the whole world could look like this and the cul­ture of the bedouin is going to become pretty main­stream.There’s an Ethno World plugin that has some lovely Arabian vocal samples, but it’s quite difficult to find stuff that sounds really good. I watched The Old Grey Whistle Test last night - Gary Numans session on there was that good I had to get this CD - I’ve just finished listening to it and it was just brilliant. We’re both quite passionate about our opinions, so there was definite friction, but with Savage there was none at all. He scored a third number one album in 1980 with Telekon, and more hit singles and albums until the mid 1980s when his popularity waned. Like most Numan albums the songs are somewhat interchangeable but there are a lot of neat little unique bits from one song to the next.

Savage (Songs from a Broken World) by Gary Numan Savage (Songs from a Broken World) by Gary Numan

This latest body of work transmits a thoughtful concept, centred around the modern-day issues that would seemingly put into question the survival of the planet. As a whole I'd say this is his most sweeping and cinematic album yet, plus there are some neat Middle Eastern-flavored touches which fit into the album's storyline. His decision to directly incorporate these less familiar (to the western ear) musical mores into his already alien-sounding style pays off. Bed of Thorns” has an almost Middle-Eastern feel (as does the epic, almost hymnal “Broken”), with sparse electronic percussion complimenting the female vocalizing that runs through the track.The industrial-inflected sound Numan has explored since Sacrifice remains a bedrock, but "Bed Of Thorns" and "Pray For The Pain You Serve" realise the concept neatly, blending crunchy synth riffs and brooding choruses with fragments of Arabic melody. I would have given this album an 8 if it weren’t for the last 2 songs of the album, which are very lackluster, boring and not very different from what’s already been done on the album prior.

Savage (Songs From a Broken World) by Gary Numan (CD, 2017) Savage (Songs From a Broken World) by Gary Numan (CD, 2017)

If you have never listened to Numan, try a punt, you will not regret it, in the future , hopefully more to come. None of the pri­or albums, includ­ing 'Savage' was made for pop radio sta­tions; although 'My Name Is Ruin' is most def­in­itely the catch­i­est song here. But there's a strange dichotomy at the core of this album whereby it functions as both Numan's most political and engaged release to date while also being his most fantastical. Indeed, science fiction's shiny visions of high tech futures are always shadowed by apocalyptic undertones, which has been there in the more gothic elements of his work all along. The Billboard dance/electronic chart's number one position for September 15 was held by Calvin Harris, whose album, Funk Wav Bounces Vol.I did the song “Bed of Thorns”, which ended up on the Ghost In The Shell soundtrack album, but that was just a demo. All of the drums on Savage are electronic – there are no acoustic or acoustic-sounding drums at all. For Savage, the song “Ghost Nation” has loads of sound design and, to me, one of the most exciting parts of production is when you get something that’s really working and you’re not just throwing it in for the sake of it. Not really a standout track in the bunch ("My Name is Ruin" makes for a fine single, though I have to give it a bit of side eye for essentially reprising the chorus of "Love Hurt Bleed"), but then again, there ain't a weak one either.