"I Can't Stop" is a song by English 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 ...

, which was released in 1986 as the second single from his eighth studio album '' Strange Charm''. It was written by Numan, and produced by Numan and the Waveteam. "I Can't Stop" reached No. 27 in the UK and remained on the charts for four weeks.

Music video

A music video was filmed to promote the single. The nightclub performance footage was shot at Kadek TV (adjoining

Shepperton Studios Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England, with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group. During its early existence, the studio was branded as Sound City (not to be confused ...

) and the footage of Numan flying his Harvard plane was filmed at Duxford Aerodrome. Speaking to ''

Sound on Sound ''Sound on Sound'' is an independently owned monthly music technology magazine published by SOS Publications Group, based in Cambridge, United Kingdom. The magazine includes product tests of electronic musical performance and recording devices, ...

'' in 1986, Numan said: "The flying sequences were done with a minicam attached to the engine cowling of the plane and pointing into the cockpit. I had a trigger in one hand to start the camera shooting."

Release

The first 15,000 copies of both the 7-inch and 12-inch formats came with a free flexi disc promoting Steve Braun and Hohokam, two of Numan's signings on his label Numa.

Critical reception

On its release, Mark Jenkins of ''

'' considered the single to be Numan's "best for a long while". In a retrospective review of ''Strange Charm'', Ned Raggett of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

commented: "...even those cuts that derive all too clearly from the ''

Berserker In the Old Norse written corpus, berserker were those who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word ''berserk'' (meaning "furiously violent or out of control"). Berserkers a ...

'' aesthetic, like 'Unknown and Hostile' and 'I Can't Stop,' come across as more unsettled and unexpected, making ''Strange Charm'' an imperfect but still noteworthy success." Speaking of Numan's 1989 live album '' The Skin Mechanic'', Scott Kahn of ''MusicPlayers.com'' wrote in 2006: "Tracks like 'I Can't Stop' and '"New Anger' really came to life with Numan's live band compared to the studio tracks that were marred by rigid and heavily quantized drum beats."

Track listing

7-inch single #"I Can't Stop" - 3:23 #"Faces" - 4:42 12-inch single #"I Can't Stop (Extended Mix)" - 6:48 #"Faces" - 4:42 12-inch single (picture disc) #"I Can't Stop (Picture Mix)" - 5:50 #"Faces" - 4:42 12-inch single (UK promo) #"I Can't Stop (Special Club Mix)" - 6:32

Personnel

- vocals, keyboards, instrumentation * Mark Railton - guitar * Mike Smith - keyboards * Linda Taylor, Rrussell Bell - backing vocals Production * Gary Numan - producer * The Waveteam - producers * Tim Summerhayes - engineer * Arun Chakraverty - mastering Other * Francis Drake - artwork

Charts

References

{{authority control 1986 songs 1986 singles Gary Numan songs Songs written by Gary Numan