Product Description

Gary Numan's most commercially successful album is, perhapsunsurprisingly, his least representative disc. Powered by the hit single "Cars", arguably the first British synth-pop song to dent the US charts (M's "Pop Muzik" came out around the same time), THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE is a striking turnaround from the guitar-powered, Joy Division-like post-punk of his old band Tubeway Army. Aside from Paul Gardiner's bass and some percussion, every instrument is electronic.
To denote their futuristic simplicity the album's 10 songs are given one-word titles; they're all built on the same layers of analogue synthesizers and futuristic, dystopian lyrics. The album's resulting numbing quality is also pretty much its point. This Cleopatra reissue has seven bonus tracks, including demo outtakes, live tracks, B-sides, and, oddly, a song from a seven-inch single given away with the first pressing ofNuman's next album, TELEKON.

Track Listing

1. Airlane
2. Metal
3. Complex
4. Films
5. ME
6. Tracks
7. Observer
8. Conversation
9. Cars
10. Engineers
11. Random
12. Oceans
13. Asylum
14. Me I Disconnect From You
15. Bombers

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11788 in Music
• Released on: 1999-12-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Customer Reviews

The machines rock
Having set a dark, broody yet musical tone with Tubeway army & 'Replicas' Mr. Webb goes it alone for the 1st time and produces his finest work. Stripped of absolutely anything superfluous and with the paranoia turned up to 11 'The pleasure principle' still stuns, entertains and repays repeated listening. It may be that 'Cars' is the only track you recognize but amongst this company even that classic single is not the best on offer here. For someone who's signature was to be his voice it was a brave move to open his first solo effort with an instrumental but 'Airlane' sets the tone nicely. Track 2 'Metal' is my favourite of all Numan's work. A relentless electrobeat insinuates it's way into your brain as the already used theme of the non-human's wish to feel & live is straight from sci-fi guru Cordwainer Smith's legendary short story 'Scanners live in vain'. The tone builds to a final crescendo and nearly 30 years later still sounds like a cry from the future.
Other highlights include the huge 'Films' who's massive surge of white noise even outdoes 'cars'. 'Conversation' continues the bleak theme of alienation started in 'Replicas' and echoes the insecurity & slide into insanity sung about in 'complex'. In truth there is little here to criticize and although an easy target for the crowd of critics at the time Numans influence is now both recognized and appreciated. The odd thing is that 'the pleasure principle' both launched him and forever damned him. With 'cars' being such a big hit it set him up as yet another pop peddler but his his refusal to join the mainstream confused then angered the critics who simply slated everything he released thereafter.
Those with a mind of their own however and who too feel the not-quite belonging Numan sings of recognise not only this albums importance but continue to enjoy it for the class piece of music making that it is.
This comes with some extra tracks which is nice but frankly detracts from the austere atmosphere created.
Numan still refuses to sit still and both live & in his releases he's pushing boundaries but this is his magnum opus as wave after wave of analogue synth. transport the listener to a bleak and fearful future.

Numan at his best
The Pleasure Principal Review

Having owned "the Pleasure Principal" on original pre-recorded cassette
way back circa 1980, I decided one day during a nostalgia trip that I
would seek out a CD version for old times sake.

I had seen the "Digitally re-mastered" claim, but mostly ignored this as
far too often this is used to sell old material and quite frankly I can
detect no real quality improvement over the original recording.

Well, the first thing I noticed upon inserting the CD into my player was
the quality of mastering done with this album. I was blown
away! I had remembered the poor somewhat muffled playback of my original
cassette release and thought that this was as good as it got. This album
sounds like it could've been recorded yesterday! Full marks go to the
record label for the sterling work done on restoring this 25 year-old
material to its best (Other record labels take note).

The album itself is fantastic. I've also purchased "Replicas" and
"Telekon", but I would have to say that this one is my firm favourite.
If you remember Gary Numan for his "Cars" track, then this album is the
definitive "Cars" era sound with the great analogue synth sound that he
epitomised in this album. His earlier work with Tubeway Army with the
album "Replicas" was more guitar semi-punk/newage effort with hints of
what was to come. His 1984 "Telekon" project had developed into a more
organic sound.

Both "Replicas" and "Telekon" have had the same beautiful re-mastrering
done to make them sound equally superb.

Favourite tracks on "The pleasure Principal"(amongst others) include "Airlane", "Metal", ""Films","Tracks" and the excellent live "Bombers".

If you like (or even liked) Gary Numan then this is a MUST have CD. It
sounds fantastic!

Fastastic sounding album.
My favourite Gary Numan album. Replica's and Telekon are also great, but apart from bass and drums, it is purely synth's. The primary instrument on this album - Moog Polymoog - get's it's best show case here. The sound is just incredible. Metal, Films, Observer and Engineer's are my favourite non-single tracks. Cars is a top hit single. But my number one favourite was Complex. I just love the whirling sound of the ARP Odyssey in this song. It added a haunting quality to it. Quite addictive and a bench mark synth album.