It's cold outside and the paint's peeling off of my walls
Continuing my trip back through the 1979 album charts.
05/08/79 : Replicas - Tubeway Army
Not one I've ever heard, but having read the reviews of Gary Numan earlier this year that said his solo stuff wasn't as good as Replicas, I have high hopes for it.
Yeah - I didn't mind this at all. It feels like it needs multiple listens, but on first listen, it seems to have a bit more variety than The Pleasure Principle did. And it's got "Are 'Friends' Electric?" on it, and you really can't argue with that now, can you? I don't really have anything else to say about it, but I'm hoping I get round to giving it another go at some point.
We're at #4 in the chart this week on their tenth week of a 28 week run, with it having hit the #1 spot in its seventh week (as part of a four week run in the top two). The rest of the top five this week were TBDAITW, ELO, Supertramp and Blondie with the highest new entry being The Sex Pistols (#6) which surprised me because I thought they only had the one album - and they did because this is just a load of interviews with the band members. And it got to #6?!?
Wikipedia tells us this is their second and final album before Gary went solo (initially with the same musicians) - apparently it's "set in a not-too-distant future metropolis where Machmen (androids with cloned human skin) and other machines keep the general public cowed on orders from the Grey Men (shadowy officials)" and Gary is dressed as a Machman on the album cover. Critically, it was well received (Smash Hits gave it 8/10) and commercially it did OK in random places getting to #11 in Australia and #8 in New Zealand, but only #124 in the US - it's also charted here in '08 and '19.
discogs.com tells us you're gonna have to shell out six quid to get a decent version, making it one of the pricier albums of the year - the most expensive copy is a whopping £605.97, but there's absolutely no indication of what more you're getting for your money there. This was another fine first listen though - 1979 is turning out to be quite an interesting year.
29/07/79 - Interesting but not immediate
12/08/79 - Pretty decent
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