GARY NUMAN - REPLICAS [LP]

A1        Me! I Disconnect From You
A2        Are ‘Friends’ Electric?
A3        The Machman
A4        Praying To The Aliens
A5        Down In The Park
B1        You Are In My Vision
B2        Replicas
B3        It Must Have Been Years
B4        When The Machines Rock
B5        I Nearly Married A Human

By the release of their second album, Replicas, Gary Numan was the undisputed focal point and leader of icy electro-punkers Tubeway Army. And the move proved to be massively successful back home in the U.K., where both the album and the single “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” topped the charts. The band had made a conscious effort to streamline the sound heard on it’s 1978 self-titled debut – the distorted guitar riffs were played on Moog synthesizers instead, and Numan had perfected his faux-space-age persona. And the paranoia that is very evident in the lyrics and vocals on Numan’s next release, The Pleasure Principle, can be detected on Replicas. Another near-perfect album by the band, highlights are many – “Me! I Disconnect from You,” “The Machman,” “You Are in My Vision,” and the chilling ballad “Down in the Park.”