Pure (Gary Numan album)

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Professional reviews
Pure

Studio album by Gary Numan
Released	November 7, 2000
Recorded	Alien Studios, London 2000
Genre	Industrial Gothic
Length	55:15
Label	Eagle
Producer(s)	Gary Numan, Sulpher
All Music Guide link NME link PopMatters link
Gary Numan chronology
Exile (1997)	Pure (2000)	Jagged (2006)

Pure is a 2000 album by Gary Numan, the follow-up to 1997's Exile. Though commercially no more successful than its immediate predecessor, it was perhaps Numan’s most highly-praised new release to date.

Lyrically, Pure was seen as continuing the composer’s attacks on Christian dogma but in a somewhat more personal fashion than on Exile.^[1] Many critics considered it Numan’s most aggressive album musically, with its prominent guitar work, as well as one of his strongest vocally. The recording featured an expanded group of collaborators after the largely one-man efforts of Sacrifice (1994) and Exile. The Sulpher team of Rob Holiday and Monti contributed guitar and drums, respectively, as well as keyboards and additional production.

The opening/title song was typical of most tracks on the album, beginning with ethereal strings and piano effects that gave way to an industrial metal guitar riff before breaking into a thunderous chorus. It was described by Numan as an attempt to explore the mind of a rapist and murderer.^[2] "Walking With Shadows" started with a scenario similar to the early Tubeway Army song "The Life Machine", that of a man in a coma, but one who, rather than wishing to return to his loved ones, wanted his loved ones to join him.

"My Jesus", "Listen to My Voice" and "Rip" expanded upon the atheistic/heretical themes that were introduced on Sacrifice and which dominated Exile. "I Can’t Breathe" inhabited a world similar to Sacrifice’s "Deadliner", that of a waking nightmare. "Fallen" was the composer's first instrumental in a number of years, full of distorted effects. "A Prayer for the Unborn" and "Little Invitro" were relatively gentler numbers inspired by personal tragedy,^[3] specifically the recent miscarriages suffered by Numan's wife Gemma and the couple's many unsuccessful IVF attempts up until that time.^[4]

Pure's style was compared to that of other industrial/gothic acts, such as Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, who had themselves acknowledged Numan's earlier influence on their own music. Whilst some critics and fans professed themselves weary of a third record apparently obsessed with (anti) religious themes, others such as The Sunday Times described Pure as Numan’s best album since his classic 1979/80 period.

Numan toured extensively in support of the new album, captured in the Scarred live recording issued in 2003. A number of the tracks were also remixed for the Hybrid collection, released the same year. Unlike the three previous albums, no 'Extended' version of Pure was ever officially made available, though a bootleg of dubious authenticity exists. The only single, "Rip", was released 18 months after the album; it reached number 29 in the UK charts, making it Numan’s first new single to hit the Top 40 since "No More Lies" with Shakatak’s Bill Sharpe in 1988.