Gary Numan / Dead Son Rising

Gary Numan
Dead Sun Rising
(Mortal Records)
* * * * *

The original title for the album was, appropriately enough, ‘Resurrection’. Gary Numan has always been greatly admired, but as ‘Dead Sun Rising’ was entering its final stages of completion, suddenly the most contemporary pop icons of the day were singing his praises (Lady Gaga: “Numan proves that music has always been really inventive for the masses”), while the untouchable mafia dons of the 20th century were discussing him in deity-like terms (Prince: “There are still people trying to work out what a genius Gary Numan is”).

All of that certainly rings true when you’re dealing with an artist who sounds this good thirty years into their career. ‘Resurrection’ is now the name given to the opening of the record, pulling down the curtains strongly on ‘Big Noise Transmission’. There’s been talk of Numan’s current similarity to prime time Nine Inch Nails – there is some truth in that, just as there is truth in NIN being influenced by Numan, but ‘Big Noise Rising’ also completes a circle with Bowie in the ring; it feels like an exciting cousin of ‘I’m Afraid Of Americans’, with its distorted whisperings and panicked catchiness.

‘When The Sky Bleeds He Will Come’ has an appropriate title: its addictively dark chorus depicts both the fever and fear afforded to the resurrection theory, while cutting and pasting Biblical language into the lyrics. Equally dark but leaning heavier on the hooks is ‘The Fall’, a luminous dancer-rocker, strapped in tight to deliver the most iconic riff of the album.

The best composition is saved for the final phase of the album however: ‘For The Rest Of My Life (Reprise)’ takes an earlier epic sci-fi hymn and strips it down to a gently confused piano, as if portraying the silence and confusion of the immediate aftermath of a bombing. Numan is confident enough not to shy into a happy ending too: closer ‘Into Battle’ is perversely fascistic and alien, the sound of limbs being forced to move against their will.