Gary Numan – Dance

Mick Karn all over this. Great listen. i highly recommend!

Without a doubt his best album, and possibly the best album ever released. While Numan's last record, Telekon, has him directly confronting his anxiety with becoming a major pop star, and his next one, I, Assassin, would have him growing more comfortable with the job, Dance has him caught in a deeply emotional middle point and uses this to reflect and vent out about the building pressure all around him, giving us a collection of songs unlike anything else, with the talent of beautiful artists like the late Mick Karn and Nash the Slash.

An iconic album. Numan's finest hour. Never repeated. Never bettered. https://museumhead.wordpress.com/2020/06/02/purple-reign/

Source for the release date? Albums were generally released on Mondays in the UK in the 1980s, not Fridays.

Numanoid funk of the highest caliber! Actually a very minimalistic, slow, introspective album.

Brilliant use of the CR-78, hypnotic rhythms throughout. Vastly underrated album.

Perfect self-indulgent synth funk psychedelia, if looking for Numan's genius, this is the album that proves it. Telekon was brilliant, but Dance is giant steps into new territory.

The strangest offering from 'early' Numan, but for this long standing fan, it is among my favourites. The shrill, metallic coldness experienced on Tubeway Army, Replicas and The Pleasure Principle was warmed slightly with Telekon, and then this shows his music take an unexpected twist. The only single offered from this 11 track disc originally was She's Got Claws, an electronic jazz style track which certainly gave a good indication of what to expect here.

The opener, Slowcar to China has an odd feel to it as it progresses, appearing melodic and melancholic throughout which leads me to visualise a very angry Gary Numan somehow managing to shout silently in slow motion(?) Slowcar is 1 of just 4 tracks on Side 1 which holds an impressive 25mins+ runtime. Night Talk, used previously as the B side to Stormtrooper in Drag, is a choppy number, co-written with long time friend Paul Gardiner and A Subway Called 'You' returns you to what is most definitely Numan territory. The side ends with perhaps the least appealing track of all to the ears of a casual listener, Cry the Clock Said, but oddly enough, for me, it has emerged as one of the highlights on the album. A stark percussion-led track which lasts for over 9mins, that seems to open a door and allow you to look at, or at least hear, the darker side of Gary Numan. (Although the line "I'll just slide out of Sydney.." does offer a humorous double entendre if ever there was one!

Side two opens with the previously mentioned She's Got Claws, and then bursts into life with a track that many feel ought to have been a single, Crash, possibly the most commercial / radio friendly track on the album. Back then into the world of weird I suppose then, with Boys Like Me and Stories, the latter giving the impression it was written much earlier as it gives the impression, to me anyway, that it belongs with the Replicas sessions (although I'm probably wrong). My Brother's Time is most certainly the weakest track on offer, but once again the album bursts into life with the final two tracks. You Are You Are gets the blood flowing rather more freely with it's soaring chorus and Moral, a musical reworking of 1979's Metal is a fine end to the album with the fitting lyric "the exhibition now is over".

The CD versions of Dance are blessed with the B sides from the time, I Sing Rain is definitely one for the most devout fan, and Exhibition is certainly wasted as the extra track on the Claws 12" single. Stormtrooper in Drag, credited to Paul Gardiner but sung by Numan is an excellent addition as is Face to Face which originally appeared as the bonus track on the Love Needs No Disguise 12". The previously unreleased 'title track' Dance, makes an appearance as a bonus for us Numanoids, and as a body of work, the CD is complete.

I don't think Dance would pull in a new generation of followers, but it is essential, occasional listening, even now, 35 years on for Boys Like Me, and it stands up very well if you take his entire back catalogue into consideration. It's most certainly one of my top 5 Numan albums, and is always worth another listen.