Dance

The strong opener, "Slowcar to China" clocks in as one of the longest Numan pieces. It is atmospheric and jazzy, one of his best pieces. "Night Talk" has wonderful rhythms, awesome bass, and soaring synthesizer. The lyrics "Boys like me aren't supposed to cry, but it's so easy to do." Another gem of musical perfection. "A Subway Called 'You'," as the reader may surmise from other customer reviews, is well-liked, and rightly so. It continues in the same vein as the first two: atmospheric, complex rhythms, music that floats in space, beautifully engineered recording. "Cry the Clock Said" is quite simply Numan's most introspective song ever, not to mention beautiful. After a leisurely introduction that features reverberant electric piano, Numan sings cryptic, despondent lyrics, fragmentary, and sufficient to evoke a sense of disappointment and longing.

"She's Got Claws" features some of Numan's vicious, somewhat misogynistic humour, accompanied by sly sax and quirky rhythms that go right back to "Cars." "Crash" is even more evocative of "Cars," but Numan's tenor was never so unleashed as here. "Boys Like Me" revisits a theme introduced in "Night Talk," and ends with a woman's ad-lib in spoken Italian. The content is mainly incomprehensible, but obviously sexual, and at the end she asks, innocently, "Is that okay?" "Stories" sounds like a carnival song in slow motion. The woman who sits alone asks, "Isn't it odd? You remind me of songs that I'd rather forget." "My Brother's Time" is much slower and moody, a contrast to the manic "You Are, You Are." The original album ends with a slow march, very much in keeping with the subdued tone overall of this excellent work. Some of the bonus tracks are superb. "Stormtrooper in Drag" is great, with a catchy beat. "Take that smile off your face," Numan sings out. I quite agree with other reviewers that "I Sing Rain" is a real loser, an irritating improvisation that is mercifully short, but so what? I always let it play, and the next song, "Exhibition" more than makes up for it, another gem that has more the sound of Telekon than Dance. "Loves Needs No Disguise" is another excellent bonus track, a rhythmic and melodic song that fits in well with the feel of Dance.

It isn't Mick Karns album however, it's a great piece of work by Gary Numan with some of his most original songs. "Crash" still sounds tough and the two slow 9 minute songs "Slowcar to China" and "Cry the Clock Said" still makes me feel like there's no world outside my own head. "Dance" lacked any real hit songs allthough "She's got Claws" sold pretty well. It is one of the two songs on the original album that could have been released as a single in my opinion. The other one is "You Are, You Are" which reminds me a bit of Ultravox at the time. The real hit single on this CD however is one of the extras: "Stormtrooper in Drag". A great song with the most interesting song title ever. The other extras are good too and the song "Dance" had never been released before this CD came out. "I Sing Rain" however should never have been released.

If you are new to Numan buy this CD. It does not sound like "Pure" or "Exile". It does not sound like "The Pleasure Principle" or "Telekon" either. It is kind of in a style of it's own. Don't get to disapointed if you don't like it that much the first time you hear it though. It's the type of music that gets better after hearing it some times. And don't expect to dance to it. The title of the album must be one of the most misleading ones in history.