Machine + Soul

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Machine + Soul
Machine + Soul cover
Studio album by Gary Numan
Released September 1992
Recorded Late 1991-1992
Genre Funk
Synthpop
Pop rock
Length 47:09
Label Numa Records
Professional reviews
Gary Numan chronology
Outland
(1991)		 Machine + Soul
(1992)		 Sacrifice
(1994)
Alternate cover
1999 UK reissue cover
1999 UK reissue cover
Alternate cover
1998 U.S. reissue cover
1998 U.S. reissue cover

Machine + Soul is a studio album released in 1992 by electronic music pioneer Gary Numan. It is known for being a career low-point for Numan, released primarily in an attempt to pay off the artist's debts during the commercial nadir of his career. Machine + Soul was the culmination of Numan's bid to make his music more "radio-friendly," and Numan's final album before his musical style would turn in a much darker and more industrial direction.

Numan's two previous studio albums, 1988's Metal Rhythm and 1991's Outland, had been released through IRS Records. However, Numan's relationship with the record label had become strained, leading to Numan quitting IRS and reactivating his own label, Numa Records, through which he had released his studio albums from 1984 until 1986. Numan would release his studio albums from 1992 to 1994 through Numa Records - the first of these albums being Machine + Soul.

Musically, Machine + Soul carried on with the synth-rock/funk style of Metal Rhythm and Outland; in fact, the two Prince covers, "U Got the Look" and "1999" (the latter of which was relegated to B-side status), were recorded during the Metal Rhythm sessions and at one point were set for inclusion on Outland. Like Outland, Machine + Soul features movie vocal samples (for example, a line from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory can be heard at the beginning of the album). However, Numan strove for a much more commercial sound with Machine + Soul, influenced by the work of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis as well as by Prince. In many of the album's songs, Numan's voice is almost lost under overproduction, excessive instrumentation, bouncy rhythms, and overpowering female backing vocals; the album's first single, "Emotion", is rather obviously influenced by two David Bowie songs, "Fame" and "Fashion". However, the overt opportunism of the music is arguably offset by Numan's typically dystopian, poisonous and emotionally-desolate lyrics. A decade after Machine + Soul's release, Numan had little difficulty describing his feelings for the album:

“ I convinced myself [that Machine + Soul] was all right, that it was a 'clever' mix of funk, pop, rock and electronics. I almost convinced myself that I liked it. Not long after it was released though, I had to admit, only to myself for a while, that it was not what I'd hoped. There was nothing wrong with it as such, it just doesn't have much of me on it - not playing-wise, but emotionally. It is the most 'non-Numan' Numan album I've ever made, for my style, sound and character are completely missing. Whatever people think about my music, it's always been very personal. So, at a time when I was experiencing extreme lows in my career and private life, the last thing I felt like making was a shiny, polished pop record. But that's what I'd done.[1] ”

Numan later said that in 1993, "Nothing was right...That music, those clothes, that haircut. Imagine falling off a ship in the ocean, knowing if you stop swimming you're finished. That's what I was doing then. I was trying not to die."[2]

Machine + Soul reached #42 on the UK album charts. Three singles were released from the album: "Emotion", which did not chart; "The Skin Game", which reached #68; and "Machine + Soul", which reached #72. Over a year after the album's release, Numan embarked on the 14-date "Dream Corrosion Tour" of October-November 1993, from which the live album Dream Corrosion was released. Recorded at the Hammersmith Apollo, London on 6 November 1993, and released in August 1994, Dream Corrosion reached only #86 on the UK Album charts, however, it has been cited as the template with which Numan relaunched his career, preparing him for his return-to-form album Sacrifice in 1994. With Sacrifice, Numan dispensed with the dance rhythms and female backing vocals, in favour of a back-to-basics approach, more introspective lyrics, and a darker musical sound.

Three songs from Machine + Soul (the title track, "Emotion" and "U Got the Look") were included on the 1996 remix album, Techno Army featuring Gary Numan.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

All tracks written by Gary Numan except where noted.

[edit] Original release

  1. "Machine + Soul" – 5:56
  2. "Generator" (Numan, Kipper) – 6:14
  3. "The Skin Game" – 6:18
  4. "Poison" – 5:05
  5. "I Wonder" – 4:35
  6. "Emotion" – 5:37
  7. "Cry" – 4:42
  8. "U Got the Look" (Prince) – 4:01
  9. "Love Isolation" – 4:41

[edit] Bonus tracks on 1998 US reissue

  1. "Hanoi" ("Emotion" b-side) – 2:07
  2. "In a Glasshouse" ("Emotion" b-side) – 4:13
  3. "Wonder Eye" (demo version of "I Wonder") – 4:04
  4. "Cry Baby" (demo version of "Cry") – 4:21
  5. "The Hauntings" ("Machine + Soul" b-side) – 4:09
  6. "1999" ("Machine + Soul" b-side) (Prince)– 4:39
  7. "Dark Mountain" ("The Skin Game" b-side) – 3:13

[edit] Bonus tracks on 1999 UK reissue

  1. "Hanoi" – 2:07
  2. "Dark Mountain" – 3:13
  3. "The Hauntings" – 4:09
  4. "1999" (Prince) – 4:39
  5. "Cry Baby" – 4:21
  6. "Wonder Eye" – 4:04
  • the album's original sleeve was discarded for both the 1998 US and the 1999 UK reissues. Both editions featured entirely new covers, utilizing photographs from Numan's Metal Rhythm era.

[edit] Machine + Soul extended (1993)

  1. "Machine + Soul" (same as Mix 3 on "Machine + Soul" CD single) — 7:33
  2. "Generator" (Numan, Kipper) — 9:51
  3. "The Skin Game" (same as Lycra Mix on "The Skin Game" 12" single) — 7:41
  4. "Poison" — 6:39
  5. "I Wonder" — 6:33
  6. "Emotion" — 8:00
  7. "Cry" — 7:31
  8. "U Got The Look" (Prince) — 3:57
  9. "Love Isolation" — 6:30
  10. "Dark Mountain" — 3:09
  11. "The Hauntings" — 4:06
  12. "In a Glasshouse" — 4:12
  13. "Hanoi" — 2:03

[edit] References

  1. ^ Praying to the Aliens: An Autobiography by Gary Numan with Steve Malins. (1997, André Deutsch Limited), pp.232-233
  2. ^ interview in Uncut #130 (March 2008), p.21
v • d • e
Gary Numan
Albums with Tubeway Army
Studio albums
Collaborations
Automatic (with Bill Sharpe) • Human (with Michael R. Smith)
Live albums
Living Ornaments '79 • Living Ornaments '80 • White Noise • Ghost • The Skin Mechanic • Dream Corrosion • Dark Light • Living Ornaments '81 • The Radio One Recordings • Scarred • Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire • Hope Bleeds • Fragment 1/04 • Fragment 2/04 • The Complete John Peel Sessions • Jagged Live • Engineers
Soundtracks
The Radial Pair
Compilations
Exhibition • The Premier Hits • The Mix • Exposure • Hybrid • Resonator
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