| Machine and Soul | ||||
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| Studio album by Gary Numan | ||||
| Released | September 1992 | |||
| Recorded | Late 1991 - Mid 1992 | |||
| Genre | Funk, pop rock, dance-pop, industrial rock, Dark Wave | |||
| Length | 47:09 | |||
| Label | Numa | |||
| Gary Numan chronology | ||||
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| Alternative cover | ||||
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1998 reissue cover
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| Singles from Machine and Soul | ||||
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
Machine and Soul is the 14th studio album, and 11th under his own name, by electronic music pioneer Gary Numan, released in 1992. 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 and 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. He continued to release albums under the label until closing it down permanently after Sacrifice.
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Musically, Machine and 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 Outland sessions and at one point were set for inclusion on that album. Like Outland, Machine and Soul features movie vocal samples (for example, a line from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory can be heard at the beginning of the album). However, Numan strove for a much more commercial sound with Machine and 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. However, the overt opportunism of the music is arguably offset by Numan's typically dystopian, poisonous and emotionally-desolate lyrics. A decade after Machine and Soul's release, Numan had little difficulty describing his feelings for the album:
| “ | I convinced myself [that Machine and 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.[2] | ” |
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."[3]
Machine and 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 the title track, 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 and Soul (the title track, "Emotion" and "U Got the Look") were included on the 1996 remix album, Techno Army featuring Gary Numan.
Machine and Soul was reissued in 1998 in the US and 1999 in the UK. The album's original sleeve was discarded for both releases. Both editions featured entirely new covers, utilizing photographs from Numan's Metal Rhythm era.
All tracks are written by Gary Numan except where noted.
All timings are approximate and will vary slightly with different equipment.
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