Tubeway Army [Gary Numan]: Tubeway Army [First Album] (1978)

So, that's a truly awful photo. Not enough light :(

Station boys keep their hands on steel
Tubeway days now seem quite unreal
It's always so close but never quite arrives

- Listen to the Sirens, Gary Numan

Gary Numan's birth name, according to Wikipedia, is Gary Anthony James Webb. He was born in 1958. I'll take both of these statements as true.

The first pressing of this LP was released on November 24, 1978 in an edition of 5000 copies on blue vinyl and it was just called Tubeway Army, with no mention of Gary Numan on the front cover. Numan was listed on the back cover along with Paul Gardiner and Jess Lidyard. Not surprisingly, copies of this record are now very expensive.

Repressings came out in in 1979 (after the success of Replicas, the second Tubeway Army record), and 1981, and subsequently with different covers, some of which had First Album printed on them while others did not. I have the repressed 1981 edition with a white jacket and First Album printed on the cover. In typical Discogs fashion, that release is listed, not as a self-titled record called Tubeway Army, but as: "Tubeway Army Featuring Gary Numan ‎– First Album." WTF!

I guess one could argue that the record label intended First Album to be the title of the reissue, but I have to believe that it was intended simply as a clue to the record shoppers that this was the first album and that Tubeway Army included the now-famous Gary Numan. I have a hard time believing that the intention was to entitle the record First Album. Beyond the cosmetic differences, the contents are identical.

Gary is, without question, one of the pioneers of synth pop. As Allmusic writes: "his dark, paranoid vision, theatrically icy alien persona, and clinical, robotic sound were echoed strongly in the work of many goth rock and (especially) industrial artists to come." [source] I can agree with that, and it is interesting to note that he is good friends with Trent Reznor, and Reznor has cited him as an influence.

Interestingly, Numan began his career in punk music, and some of these early tunes are collected on the LP The Plan, released in 1984. In the film I Dream of Wires, Numan discusses his chance encounter with a Moog synthesizer, which led to a new direction in his music, though it should be mentioned that there is lots of guitar on this record as it is really still in the punk realm with mostly guitar, bass, and drums, but with some keyboards.

This debut record is quite amazing, though I will confess that I heard the record after I heard Cars, from The Pleasure Principle. I think Allmusic gets it right:

"Numan & the Tubeway Army were one of the first new wave/punk bands (along with Kraftwerk and Devo) to successfully fuse robotic synthesizers with rock & roll. Gary Numan's guitar riffing is more prominent here than on any other of his albums, which gives the tunes a splendid Ziggy Stardust feel at times." [source]

And, it's not just the music. As others have noted, there is a science fiction dystopian element in his lyrics. On this record, there are themes that might have offended back in the day. The track Friends is about male prostitution and Every Day I Die focuses on teenage masturbation:

The problems of need
I need you
Obscene dreams in
Rusty beds
No one came here
Tonight
I pulled on me
I need to

I unstick pages and read
I look at pictures of you
I smell the lust in my hands
Everyday I die

Her favorite trick
Was to suck me inside
Oh so very
Art nouveau
Completely false
Feelings of love I don't
No one knows, but that died
Years ago

I unstick pages and read
I look at pictures of you
I smell the lust in my hands
Everyday I die

The record is uneven, with side one being better than side two, but this is a fascinating record.