Product Description

As early as 1977, English pop savant Gary Numan was crafting forward-looking new wave rock that was light years ahead of the punk being offered by his contemporaries. Bravely going against all current musical fashion, Numan blended sciencefiction themes and tales of urban paranoia into concise popsongs that combined Kraftwerk-like electronics with glam-era Bowie. REPLICAS, his second album, was his first recordingto fully incorporate a synthesizer into the pop/punk guitarframework that he explored on his debut, TUBEWAY ARMY.
REPLICAS is the album on which Numan's reputation and retrospective acclaim is built. While it does not include "Cars" (that song was the highlight of his next album), REPLICAS is Numan's true masterpiece. In its reissued form, the album offers plentiful bonus tracks and extensive liner notes. Highlighted by the frosty pop and deliciously vintage analogue electronics of "Down in the Park" and "Are Friends Electric", REPLICAS is a nostalgic look at a rock future that never happened. It is also one of the few artifacts of the new wave era that sounds as fresh today as it did when it was first issued in the 1978.

Track Listing

1. Me! I disconnect from you
2. Are 'Friends' electric?
3. The machman
4. Praying to the aliens
5. Down in the park
6. You are in my vision
7. Replicas
8. It must have been years
9. When the machines rock (instrumental)
10. I nearly married a human (instrumental)
11. Do you need the service?
12. The crazies
13. Only a downstat
14. We have a technical
15. We are so fragile
16. I nearly married a human (2) (instrumental)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3493 in Music
• Released on: 1999-11-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording remastered, Extra tracks

Customer Reviews

Numan's Concept Masterpiece
...and coming so early into his recording career - only his second released album at that time. At its release in 1979, its substance as a classic concept work was probably lost in the hype surrounding his sudden and meteoric fame which lasted for the next three or four years. But what substance! the dystopian future containing androids, clones, replicants, psyches gone wrong; for a sci-fi fan like me it was then and still is manna from heaven. I'd list the stand-out tracks but they're all so good.

Included on this disc are not only the b-sides I treasured at the time of their release on Are Friends Electric? and Down in The Park, but also the three tracks which never made the cut for Replicas and forgotten about until 1985 when The Crazies, Only A Downstat and We Have A Technical were released by Beggars Banquet on a vinyl EP. I couldn't fathom why they didn't make it onto the Replicas album as they were all very much in keeping with the album, especially the dark and epic We Have A Technical. Perhaps if Replicas had come along as his fourth rather than his second offering we may well have seen a double album and greater freedom to record even more tracks....

What continues to surprise me is just how well it wears its age, not just musically but also the lyrics thanks in the main to the fact that they were ahead - or at least out of their time. Its tone-rich anologue synthesizers and raw guitars mate so well with crisp drums, Gary's vocals and lyrics blend perfectly well even with some admittedly odd lyrics and vocabulary. Every song has its story to tell, rather than a jumble of pompous and pretentious phrases which other bands or lyricists use. And like any great concept album the songs stand on their own, adding to the overall vision Gary created for us.

I can't say how a novice to Gary Numan would perceive it, but as a fan for many years, it's never left my list of top ten albums of all time.

A Must for all not just Numan fans.
I remember when i first heard the song ' are friends electric' i was hooked in a second, everything about it seemed alien and not quite right!!!, then i went a bought the album it came from 'Replicas' and discovered a whole new world of electronic music; every song on this cd is a real winner, and proves he was way way way ahead of his time, my favorite tracks are 'Replicas' 'The Machman' and of course the enigmatic and powerful 'Down in the Park' but all are good.
if theres one thing that lets this album down is that it ends :(... so i just restart it hehehehehe. this is the album that got me into electronic music and i've loved it ever since. while i love all of numans albums this is the one that gives me many ideas when i'm stuck. if i'm sat trying to write a song and get stuck, i put this on the player and just sit and listen.
buy this album you will never regret it.

Portent for the 1980s
When 'Are Friends Electric?' hit number one in thick of 1979 new wave, it announced the coming of the synth-age. These days, you realise that the track is quite distinct in feel to the era it presaged. Conventional drums, guitar and bass are still prominent on Gary Numan's breakthrough hit and album. It has aged well, though, remarkable considering it took a critical battering even when it was released. At least Numan was candid about his admiration of Ultravox! and the fact that he'd borrowed heavily from the John Foxx's luckless outfit. Where Foxx tackled the current state of the world with gravitas, however, Numan created his own world, a nightmare vision of the future that took Huxley's 'Brave New World' to gloomier depths. This fantasy, comic-book realm connected, with its 'Machmen', robot companions and killing machines.
'Replicas' tends to be at its best on the beatier material, particularly 'Me, I Disconnect From You' and the b-side bonus, 'We Are So Fragile'. Of the slower tracks, the hit and 'Down In The Park' with its lumbering 'footstep' percussion are the best. Otherwise, Numan's drawl cn be a bit wearisome. Even so, this album is full of good melodies and chilling atmospherics. Still an entertaining listen.