''The Pleasure Principle'' is the debut solo studio album by English new wave musician

Gary Numan Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two albums with the band, he released his d ...

, released on 7 September 1979 by

Beggars Banquet Records Beggars Banquet Records is a British independent record label. Beggars Banquet started as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin and is part of the Beggars Group of labels. History In 1977, spurred by the prevailing ...

. The album came about six months after ''

Replicas A 1:1 replica is an exact copy of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without claiming to be identical. A ...

'' (1979), his second and final studio album with the band

Tubeway Army Tubeway Army were a London-based 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 sound. They were the first band of the electronic era to have a synthesiser ...

. ''The Pleasure Principle'' peaked at No. 1 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

Recording

Following ''Replicas'', Numan recruited a permanent drummer and a keyboard player and demoed an album's worth of new material in April 1979. This was before the single "

Are "Friends" Electric? "Are 'Friends' Electric?" is a 1979 song by the English band Tubeway Army. Taken from their album ''Replicas'', it was released as a single in May 1979 and reached number one in the UK Singles Chart, staying there for four weeks. It was writt ...

" from the previous album had been released. A second session that yielded four further songs followed some weeks later. The day after "Are "Friends" Electric?" reached number one on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, Numan and his band recorded four of the new songs in a session for

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

, credited to Gary Numan and dropping the group name Tubeway Army. By the time ''Replicas'' reached number one on the albums chart ''The Pleasure Principle'' was being recorded at Marcus Music Studio, London.

Composition and release

''The Pleasure Principle'' has been described as featuring

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

and new wave throughout. Numan completely abandoned electric guitar on the album. This change, coupled with frequent use of synthetic percussion, produced the most purely electronic and robotic sound of his career. In addition to the

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first pop ...

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

employed on his previous album, Numan made liberal use of the

Polymoog The Polymoog is a hybrid polyphonic analog synthesizer that was manufactured by Moog Music from 1975 to 1980. The Polymoog was based on divide-down oscillator technology similar to electronic organs and string synthesizers of the time. Histo ...

keyboard, particularly its distinctive "Vox Humana" preset. Other production tricks included copious amounts of

flanging Flanging is an audio effect produced by mixing two identical signals together, one signal delayed by a small and (usually) gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces a swept comb filter effect: peaks and no ...

phasing A phaser is an electronic sound processor used to filter a signal, and it has a series of troughs in its frequency-attenutation graph. The position (in Hz) of the peaks and troughs are typically modulated by an internal low-frequency oscil ...

and

reverb Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abs ...

, plus the unusual move of including solo

viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

and

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

parts in the arrangements. Lyrically, the album continued the

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

-themes of the previous album. While not a theme album the way ''

'' was, Numan has described the songs as "more of a collection of thoughts I'd had about the way

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scien ...

was evolving and where it would take us." Notable tracks included "Airlane", the lead-off instrumental; "Metal", sung from the perspective of an android longing to be human; "Films", later acknowledged as an important influence on the U.S. hip hop scene; "M.E.", standing for "Mechanical Engineering" and told from the perspective of the last machine on Earth, the electronic ballad "

Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

", a UK No. 6 single; and "

Cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, people in ...

", a worldwide

hit. "Cars" reached No. 9 in the U.S. and No. 1 in Canada, helping make ''The Pleasure Principle'' Numan's strongest North American showing, but lack of a strong commercial follow-up resulted in him being tagged as a

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...

there.

Title and cover image

The title of the album was taken from the

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

painting ''The Pleasure Principle'' by

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bound ...

.Gary Numan ''(R)evolution: The Autobiography'', Hatchett 2020, Chapter six: 1979 Subtitled ''(A portrait of Edward James)'', it depicts a seated figure whose arms rest on a wooden table upon which lies a small stone, and a ball of light obliterating the figures head. The cover image of Numan's album is an adaptation of the painting with Numan seated in the same position dressed in a similar suit, but replacing the natural materials (wood and stone) with shiny and glowing artificial objects and futuristic shapes.Judith A. Peraino "Synthesizing difference: early synth-pop" in ''Rethinking Difference in Music Scholarship'', Cambridge University Press 2015, p.290 According to Numan it was "a clear nod towards technology. Where Magritte had a rock on a desk, for example, I had a glowing purple Perspex

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilate ...

Tour

Numan toured throughout the world in support of the album with a huge stage set including banks of neon lights and twin pyramids which moved across the stage via radio control. The live show was captured on record as ''

Living Ornaments '79 ''Living Ornaments '79'' (1981) is a live album by British musician Gary Numan recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon on 28 September 1979. It was also released as a limited edition box set with '' Living Ornaments '80'' (1981). An expanded (21-t ...

'' (1981) and on

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) sy ...

as ''The Touring Principle''. The support act on the UK leg of the tour was

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are an English electronic band formed in Wirral, Merseyside, in 1978. The group consists of co-founders Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboards, vocals), along with Martin C ...

(OMD). An expanded version of ''Living Ornaments '79'' was issued on CD in 2005, and the final show of ''The Touring Principle'' was captured on the CD ''Engineers'' (released exclusively through Numan's official website) in 2008. Numan performed a 16-date mini-tour dedicated to the album across the UK and Ireland during November and December 2009, similar to Numan's previous tours for ''

'' (1979) and ''Telekon'' (1980), performing the album in its entirety. Numan had been scheduled to play the 2010

Coachella Festival The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly called the Coachella Festival or simply Coachella) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. It ...

Indio, California Indio ( Spanish for "Indian") is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley of Southern California's Colorado Desert region. It lies east of Palm Springs, east of Riverside, east of Los Angeles, 148 mil ...

but was forced to cancel, due to the Icelandic volcano eruption that disrupted air travel. To make up for this, Numan embarked upon another 16-date mini-tour of the U.S. that August, in which he again performed ''The Pleasure Principle'' in its entirety.

Reissue

Of the bonus tracks later included on CD reissues, "Random" and "Oceans" were

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...

outtakes from ''The Pleasure Principle'' sessions, originally issued on vinyl with other previously unreleased tracks in 1985, while "Asylum" was the instrumental

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

of the "Cars" vinyl single. The live versions of "Me! I Disconnect From You" and "

Bombers A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an aircra ...

", which appeared as B-sides of "Complex", were recorded on tour and later made available in their original context on the expanded ''Living Ornaments '79'' CD, along with "Remember I Was Vapour" and " On Broadway". The latter two tracks were first released as a promotional single shipped with early pressings of the album '' Telekon'' in 1980; Numan's

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song relea ...

of the classic "On Broadway" was dominated by a characteristic synthesizer solo by then-former (and soon-to-be-again)

Ultravox Ultravox (earlier styled as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was ...

band member

Billy Currie William Lee Currie (born 1 April 1950Ultravox.org.uk
) is a ...

Critical reception

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'' described ''The Pleasure Principle'' as "'' Metal Machine Music'' goes

easy-listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, no ...

," continuing: "This time he's singing about robots, engineers, and isolation. In such a slight artist, these things make all the difference." In a retrospective review,

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 Music ...

's Greg Prato opined that ''The Pleasure Principle'' was distinguished by the consistent quality of its songs and the presence of drummer Cedric Sharpley, who "adds a whole new dimension with his powerful percussion work." Prato concluded, "If you had to own just one Gary Numan album, ''The Pleasure Principle'' would be it."

Track listing

All tracks written by Gary Numan, except where noted. Side one # "Airlane" – 3:18 # "

Metal A metal (from ancient Greek, Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, e ...

" – 3:32 # "

" – 3:12 # "Films" – 4:09 # "M.E." – 5:37 Side two #

"Tracks" – 2:51 # "Observer" – 2:53 # "Conversation" – 7:36 # "

" – 3:58 # "Engineers" – 4:01 CD bonus tracks #

"Random" (demo) – 3:49 # "Oceans" (demo) – 3:03 # "Asylum" (B-side of "Cars") – 2:31 # "Me! I Disconnect from You" (Live) – 3:06 # "

" (Live) – 5:46 # "Remember I Was Vapour" (Live)* – 4:46 # " On Broadway" (Live) (

Jerry Leiber Lyricist Jerome Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and composer Michael Stoller (born March 13, 1933) were American songwriting and record producing partners. They found success as the writers of such Crossover music, crossover hit songs ...

Mike Stoller Lyricist Jerome Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and composer Michael Stoller (born March 13, 1933) were American songwriting and record producing partners. They found success as the writers of such crossover hit songs as " Hound Dog" ( ...

Barry Mann Barry Mann (born Barry Imberman; February 9, 1939) is an American songwriter and musician, and part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil. He has written or co-written 53 hits in the UK and 98 in the US. Early li ...

Cynthia Weil Cynthia Weil (born October 18, 1940) is an American songwriter who wrote many songs together with her husband Barry Mann. Life and career Weil was born in New York City, and was raised in a Conservative Jewish family. Her father was Morris Weil ...

) – 4:48

30th Anniversary Edition

To coincide with ''The Pleasure Principle'' 30th Anniversary Tour, a special edition of the album was released on 21 September 2009. Disc one # "Airlane" # "Metal" # "Complex" # "Films" # "M.E." # "Tracks" # "Observer" # "Conversation" # "Cars" # "Engineers" Disc two # "Airlane" (Demo Version) # "Metal" (Demo Version) # "Complex" (Demo Version) # "Films" (Demo Version) # "M.E." (Demo Version) # "Tracks" (Outtake Mix) # "Observer" (Demo Version) # "Conversation" (Demo Version 2) # "Cars" (Demo Version) # "Engineers" (Demo Version) # "Random" (2009 Remaster) # "Oceans" (2009 Remaster) # "Asylum" (2009 Remaster) # "Photograph" (2009 Remaster) # "Gymnopedie No. 1" (Demo Version) # "Conversation" (Demo Version 1) # "M.E." (Outtake Mix) Disc three (Bonus tracks only available on the 3CD version available from the Numan website) # "Down in the Park" (''The Live EPs – 1980'') # "On Broadway" (''The Live EPs – 1980'') # "Everyday I Die" (''The Live EPs – 1980'') # "Remember I Was Vapour" (''The Live EPs – 1980'') # "Bombers" (''The Live EPs – 1980'') # "Me! I Disconnect from You" (''The Live EPs – 1979'') # "Conversation" (''The Live EPs – 1979'') # "Metal" (''The Live EPs – 1979'') # "Down in the Park" (''The Live EPs – 1979'') # "Airlane" (''Living Ornaments '79'') # "Cars" (''Living Ornaments '79'') # "We Are So Fragile" (''Living Ornaments '79'') # "Films" (''Living Ornaments '79'') # "Something's in the House" (''Living Ornaments '79'') # "My Shadow in Vain" (''Living Ornaments '79'') # "Conversation" (''Living Ornaments '79'') # "The Dream Police" (''Living Ornaments '79'') # "Metal" (''Living Ornaments '79'')

40th Anniversary Edition

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the release of ''The Pleasure Principle'', a special edition of the album, ''The Pleasure Principle: The First Recordings'' was released on 11 October 2019. Released on 2 LP coloured vinyl and 2 CD editions. CD 1 # "Cars" (Demo Version 2) # "Films" (Demo Version) # "Complex" (Demo Version) # "Random" (Remastered 2009) # "M.E." (Demo Version) # "Conversation" (Demo Version 2) # "Tracks" (Demo Version 1) # "Cars" (Demo Version 1) # "Metal" (Demo Version) # "Airlane" (Demo Version) # "Trois Gymnopédies No.1" (Demo) # "Observer" (Demo Version) # "Conversation" (Demo Version 1) # "Engineers" (Demo Version) # "Asylum" (Remastered 2009) # "Oceans" (Remastered 2009) # "Photograph" (Remastered 2009) CD 2 # "Airlane" (''BBC Peel Session'') # "Cars" (''BBC Peel Session'') # "Films" (''BBC Peel Session'') # "Conversation" (''BBC Peel Session'') # "Tracks" (Outtake mix) # "Complex" (Outtake mix) # "M.E." (Outtake mix) # "Engineers" (Outtake mix) # "Airlane" (Outtake mix) # "Cars" (Outtake mix)

Personnel

Credits are adapted from ''The Pleasure Principle'' liner notes. *

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

;

s (

); synthetic percussion *

Paul Gardiner Paul Andrew Gardiner (1 May 1958 – 18 February 1984) was a British musician who played bass guitar with Gary Numan and Tubeway Army, as well as creating material under his own name. Biography Paul Gardiner was born in Hayes, Middlesex. In e ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

* Chris Payne – keyboards (Minimoog, Polymoog,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

);

Cedric Sharpley Tubeway Army were a London-based 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 sound. They were the first band of the electronic era to have a synthesiser-b ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Billy Currie William Lee Currie (born 1 April 1950Ultravox.org.uk
) is a ...

– fadeout

on "Tracks" and "Conversation" * Garry Robson –

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are ...

on "Conversation"

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Legacy

"Metal" was covered by

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN and stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band ...

on ''

Things Falling Apart ''Things Falling Apart'' is the second remix album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by Nothing Records and Interscope Records on November 21, 2000. It is the companion remix disc to the band's third studio album, '' The ...

'' (2000),

Thought Industry Thought Industry, formerly known as Desacrator, was an American progressive metal band. It was founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1989 by vocalist/bassist Brent Oberlin, drummer Dustin Donaldson (who formed I Am Spoonbender in 1997), guitarist ...

on ''

Recruited to Do Good Deeds for the Devil ''Recruited to Do Good Deeds for the Devil'' is the fifth album released by Kalamazoo-based progressive metal band Thought Industry. It is a compilation album featuring previously unreleased songs and live tracks. Track listing # "Hello, Lovey ...

'' (1998) and

Afrika Bambaataa Lance Taylor (born on April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influence ...

on ''

Dark Matter Moving at the Speed of Light ''Dark Matter Moving at the Speed of Light'' is a 2004 album by Afrika Bambaataa, released on Tommy Boy Entertainment Tommy Boy Entertainment is an American independent record label and multimedia brand founded in 1981 by Tom Silverman. The l ...

'' (2004), and used as backing for Planet Funk's "Who Said"). "Films" is acknowledged by Bambaataa as an important influence on the U.S. hip hop scene; "M.E." was used as backing for

Basement Jaxx Basement Jaxx are an English electronic music duo consisting of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe. The pair got their name from the regular club night they held in Brixton, London, UK. They first rose to popularity in the underground house sce ...

's "

Where's Your Head At "Where's Your Head At" is a song by British electronic music duo Basement Jaxx. It was released as the third single from their second album, ''Rooty'', on 19 November 2001. The song is based on samples from Gary Numan's songs " M.E." and " This ...

References

Bibliography

External links

''The Pleasure Principle''
(

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Flash ...

) at

Radio3Net Radio 3 net is the former ''Radio România Tineret'' (or Radio 3). More than 20,000 albums are stored on Radio 3 net. A few of the prominent features available on the website are "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die ''1001 Albums You Mus ...

(streamed copy where licensed) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pleasure Principle, The 1979 debut albums Atco Records albums Beggars Banquet Records albums Gary Numan albums