''I, Assassin'' is the fourth solo

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by the English new wave musician

Gary Numan Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the New wave music, new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two st ...

, released on 10 September 1982 by

Beggars Banquet ''Beggars Banquet'' is the seventh studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 6 December 1968 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and London Records in the United States. It was the first Rolling Stones album pro ...

. It peaked at No. 8 on the

UK Album Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Offici ...

. Three singles were released from the album: "

Music for Chameleons ''Music for Chameleons'' (1980) is a collection of short fiction and non-fiction by the American author Truman Capote. Capote's first collection of new material in fourteen years, ''Music for Chameleons'' spent sixteen weeks on the ''New York T ...

", " We Take Mystery (To Bed)" and "White Boys and Heroes", all of which reached the UK Top 20 ("We Take Mystery" peaked at No. 9, and is Numan's last Top 10 single to date).

Overview

Following Numan's previous studio album, ''

Dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

'' (1981), ''I, Assassin'' is described as "a record fiercely propelled by powerful rhythms in songs laced with an earthy cynicism." Numan recalled that an important factor during the album's recording was the contribution made by fretless bassist

Pino Palladino Giuseppe Henry "Pino" Palladino (born 17 October 1957) is a Welsh musician, songwriter, and record producer. A session bassist, he has played bass for a number of acts such as the Who, the John Mayer Trio, Gary Numan, Paul Young, Don Henle ...

: Most of the album was written and recorded between January and March 1982 following Numan's round-the-world trip in a small aircraft. The 24 year old Numan stated that the round-the-world flight and the experience of a near-death plane crash helped him shape a new opinion of himself and gave him a strong self-confidence that he had not previously had. Later in his career Numan said of ''I, Assassin'': "I still think it's one of the best albums I've made."Gary Numan, I, Assassin , The Arkive
Beggars Banquet The heavily percussive sound made songs such as "

" and a special US remix of "White Boys and Heroes" unexpected successes in the American club scene, and in October 1982 Numan embarked on a US tour.I, Assassin Tour US 1982
nureference.co.uk

Critical reception and chart performance

The album received poor reviews in the British music press. ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand ...

'' reviewer

Neil Tennant Neil Francis Tennant (born 10 July 1954) is an English singer, songwriter and music journalist, and co-founder of the synth-pop duo the Pet Shop Boys, which he formed with Chris Lowe in 1981. He was a journalist for '' Smash Hits'', and assist ...

wrote: ""Music for Chameleons" still retains an air of mystery and some evening appeal but most of this album is as dismal, empty and bereft of ideas as the music of older doom merchants

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

and their peeling "

Wall A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or serves a decorative purpose. There are various types of walls, including border barriers between countries, brick wal ...

"." The album peaked at the 8th position, spending 6 weeks on the UK charts, making it less successful than Numan's previous studio albums.

Releases

''I, Assassin'' was originally released on vinyl album and cassette in 1982. It was released on CD in 1993, as a double CD packaged with Numan's 1980 album '' Telekon'' (Beggars Banquet had reissued all eight of Numan's studio albums that were released on the label, including the two

Tubeway Army Tubeway Army were a London-based new wave music, new wave band led by lead singer Gary Numan. Formed at the height of punk rock in 1977, the band gradually changed to an electronic music, electronic sound. They were the first band of the elect ...

albums, as double CD sets). ''I, Assassin'' was released on CD by itself in 2002. Both CD releases contain seven bonus tracks.

Track listing

All songs are written by

. Side A # "White Boys and Heroes" – 6:23 # "War Songs" – 5:05 # "A Dream of Siam" – 6:13 # "

" – 6:06 Side B #

"This Is My House" – 4:52 # "I, Assassin" – 5:26 # "The 1930's Rust" – 3:55 # " We Take Mystery (To Bed)" – 6:10 CD bonus tracks #

"War Games" – 3:55 # "Glitter and Ash" – 4:42 # "The Image Is" – 5:55 # "This House Is Cold" – 5:27 # "Noise Noise" – 3:49 # "We Take Mystery (early version)" – 5:58 # "Bridge? What Bridge?" – 4:22 * "War Games" was originally released as a B-side on the 7" and 12" single versions of "White Boys and Heroes." * "Glitter and Ash" was originally released as a B-side on the 12" single version of "White Boys and Heroes." * "The Image Is" was originally released as a B-side on the 7" and 12" single versions of "We Take Mystery (To Bed)." * "Noise Noise" was originally released as a B-side on the 7" and 12" single versions of "Music for Chameleons." * "Bridge? What Bridge?" was originally released as a B-side on the 12" single version of "Music for Chameleons." * "We Take Mystery" (Early version) was originally released as a B-side on the UK 12" version of "We Take Mystery (To Bed)." It is presumably the version of the song that was recorded during the ''Dance'' sessions and was originally intended for inclusion on that album.

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the ''I, Assassin'' liner notes. *

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

;

synthesiser A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

* Roger Mason – synthesizers *

–

fretless bass A fretless bass is an electric bass guitar whose neck lacks frets and thus is smooth like traditional string instruments, and like the neck of an acoustic double bass. While the fretless bass is played in all styles of music, it is most common in ...

Chris Slade Chris Slade (born Christopher Slade Rees; 30 October 1946) is a Welsh drummer, who is perhaps best known for playing for Manfred Mann's Earth Band from its inception in 1971 to 1978 on eight albums, and AC/DC, for which he drummed from 1989 to ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

;

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

* John Webb – percussion * Mike –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

;

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

David Van Day David Van Day (born David Paul Day, 28 November 1956) is an English singer, songwriter and politician who was formerly a member of the pop vocal duo Dollar. He was also in the 1970s vocal group Guys 'n' Dolls (with his Dollar partner Thereza ...

– handclaps on "Noise Noise" * Thereza Bazar – backing vocals on "Noise Noise" * Nick Robson – backing vocals on "Bridge? What Bridge?" * Michelle Adams – backing vocals on "Bridge? What Bridge?" *

Mick Karn Andonis Michaelides (Greek: Αντώνης Μιχαηλίδης; 24 July 1958 – 4 January 2011), better known as Mick Karn, was a British musician who rose to fame as the bassist for the art rock/ new wave band Japan. His distinctive fretles ...

– uncredited (& unpaid) fretless bass on: " We Take Mystery to Bed " early version 1981 + drunken backing vocals on "Bridge? What Bridge?" Production and artwork * Gary Numan – producer * Nick Smith – engineer * Sean Lynch – assistant engineer * Geoff Howes –

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

References

* *

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

External links

* {{Authority control Gary Numan albums 1982 albums Beggars Banquet Records albums