The Pleasure Principle

Interesting songs, but a lot of the same. And in my opinion way too long

never heard of Numan, and never heard Cars. neat songs. veers samey all too much.

Some great songs but it's pretty samey

Ummm, I love Gary Numan and am not sure how I’ve not discovered him until now.

While not having as many hits as the Tubeway Army debut The Pleasure Principle is just as solid a presentation. Numan does not massively change up the formula, rather tweaks and refines it. It still has those herky-jerky keys and vocals which are used to remarkably similar effect, often in unison, but there is an extra level of shine and polish. I’m delighted that Cars gave him enough of an unqualified hit to kick start his whole career.

New wave-versjonen av Kraftwerk, men definitivt noe eget. Har hørt mest på Replicas, men det er små marginer mellom PP og Replicas.

I feel like I def already reviewed this, but then I went on vacation for 2 weeks and here I am listening to it again.
80s synth electronic. I almost lost it when I thought it was yet another Randy Newman album.
But yeah, nothing special, all the same.

It's simple and odd and early electronic stuff but it's great background music for getting stuff done around the house on a Sunday as I found out. I enjoyed it as a whole pretty well. I've listen to it prior and I think the latter half of the album is stronger.

I vaguely know Gary Numan as an early synth pop guy but apparently have not ever saved anything of his on Spotify. Kicking off, this once again sounds like the soundtrack to a cheesy 80s sci-fi movie. Or maybe the soundtrack to an 80s-futuristic ride from the early days of EPCOT Center. I don't necessarily dislike it, in the right mindset I think this would be really fun to listen to. Like maybe the fourth or fifth album on a long car ride.
Ahh yes, everyone knows Cars. Classic song for sure. I knew all of this sounded more familiar than I was expecting.
I ended up really liked this album, oddly enough. It's not something I would normally be in to but I think it just hit right today for some reason. I can see how this was an important record in the development of synth pop and synth music in general, lots of budding 80s music in here. And I actually really like his voice which is kind of weird. This album surprised me a bit, not with content but with how much I liked it and I do think I would play this now and again. 4/5

Great album, really pioneering in the synth pop genre. I love the sci-fi imagery and sounds. I think I've grown to appreciate this one more over the past few years - it seemed a bit quaint when I first listened to it in my teens. M.E., Cars, Engineers, and the first 3 songs are all bangers.

After countless hours pondering the mysterious glowing red pyramid that crashed through his bedroom window from the cosmos, Gary went to the studio to invent the 1980s.

Though it ran a little long, I enjoyed listening to this album. Pretty solid new wave album, a genre that’s incredibly hit or miss for me. This is one of the hits.

Catchy robot music!

I’m in London and am in the middle of a pretty strong yet latent mental breakdown!! This album’s pretty cool though. Idk. Synthpop’s obviously not really my thing, especially when it relies so heavily on this mechanical darkness that in this album’s case most of the time ends up more of a detriment than anything else. Numan sounds like Tom Verlaine but David Bowie, and omg I’m in some random fucking Airbnb I didn’t ask for this get me out of here oh my fucking actual G-d. Sorry about that this is getting to me. 5 more days. 5. More. Days. Anyway uhh the vocals are incredibly unimpressive and when they’re actually good it just makes the bad ones stand out even more. None of the songs are necessarily bad they’re all just so robotic that they’re just kinda standing there. Obviously a lot of them stand out to an extent, and the monotonous style of the album does actually give it a lot of consistency, even though it’s fairly unimpressive most of the time. Additionally, certain songs, such as the absolutely spectacular “Conversation” (which stands out for all the right reasons, being the longest and also the most personally resonant song on this album) help this still stand above the line of mediocrity, even if just barely. AKA it’s pretty alright now I’m gonna go listen to the Lex Walton jawn like Isabelle’s been telling me to do.
7.0/10

Pretty cool

Standout tracks: M.E., Cars

Hmm interesting! I like Gary a great deal and think he’s done some great work in his time. This is very early synth stuff here, so often a bit boring but when it hits, it REALLY hits.

This was fun

Ok, so for 1979, this sounds pretty groundbreaking. Almost robotic sounding, but I guess that was the intention. It wasn't incredible, I can't say I enjoyed it that much, but it was an ok listen.

The Good: This album is about principle
The Bad: One man’s pleasure isn’t necessarily another man’s pleasure…
The Ugly: … I got nothing…

About a month ago I switched from using Spotify to using Apple Music. My reasoning was that, out of principle, I should use a streaming service that pays artist better, and which has better sound quality… Using one’s principle should be a good thing.
Then you find out that there are other streaming services which pay artist even better, and might have even better sound quality… and then you start adding one and one together, to question all principles, yet again.

This album, however, showed me one reason why it is more fun to use Apple Music over Spotify, and that has to do with the fact that while the album was playing, Gary’s fingers on the album cover were moving every-now-and-again…

What does all of this have to do with this album? Nothing.

The album was okay, but at times it was painful to listen to. The big song, Cars, was lovely, and I even found myself in some computer induced trance while listening to this album.
However, just the thought that I would have to listen to this album more than once a year would make me very uncomfortable… thus, regretfully, I can’t give this album more than 3*

“Cars” und einige weiter Songs die Ihrer Zeit voraus waren aber auch nicht immer ganz ausgereift waren.