Gary Numan – The Fury

Thee Fury is one of those albums that may require many listenings to appreciate these days. Since you need to conduct a small research project to fully review Numan's catalog (20 studio albums or so), something like The Fury can go unnoticed while one gets through the classic early discs or the re-charged later material. In fact, The Fury and its surrounding albums often get hated on.
Please ignore the atrocious cover art, which has absolutely nothing to do with the material inside. In fact, Numan himself stated what a bad choice it was to have him in a white tux, dickey and red bowtie on the cover.
The sound is still electronic, with a heavier focus on [gasp] female backing vocals and saxophones. The Fury goes for a poppier and dancier sound than Berserker. The synths are still there, though showing signs of being buried in other production. As usual, though, the album has at least a few gems and (also-as-usual) it's either 'horrible' or 'Numan's best'. The opener Call Out The Dogs, Miracles, The Pleasure Skin, and God Only Knows are my faves here. GOK is often cited as one of the most underrated Numan songs, a very cool and icy number with massive synths in a dark song about...a close call the singer had in his 'other' job, namely flying airplanes and nearly killing himself in the process.

The Fury sees Numan fully consumed by the PPG Wave synthesizer, which was heavily used on Berserker. Apparently, this album was totally written in the studio, with perhaps an overreliance on the technology...a practice that Numan would later regret (following his career plummet). The sound is a bit cold, hard, and 'shiny'...only the deep synth riffs that accent some tracks like God Only Knows provide any warmth. Still, where there are tunes, meaning the effortless hooks Numan pulls off with his unique voice, they are good ones.
Again, ignore the ludicrous cover art. Instead, imagine a mid-80s sci-fi flick in the mold of Blade Runner...one with very dated elements but with some timelessly dark ones. This is a good album that takes time to grow on one.

In a word, “wow!” This is a great, lively mid-period Numan album; my favorite from the Numa 80s. It starts out with one of his best tracks, “Call Out The Dogs,” replete with Bladerunner samples and a great arrangement. Numan has shifted to PPG Wave synth here and the punchy sound he favors is a million miles away from the Polymoog sound that made his name or the dissolute, slurred funk he then moved on to. “This Disease” features a killer Dick Morrissey sax break over a relentless rhythm bed.

“Your Fascination” features –gasp- an outside producer – Colin Thurston of Bowie/Duran fame but you’d be hard pressed to notice much sonic difference. I’d always wanted to hear Numan with an outside producer (he’s produced virtually all of his recordings himself and the insularity gets a little much sometimes) and on this rare foray it really didn’t seem to matter.

The thunderous percussive sampled sounds of “The Pleasure Skin” are a delight to hear. Like on the previous album, this is Numan with femme backing vox – you have been warned. But I had no problem with the format as of this outing. Your mileage may vary. “God Only Knows” is not the Brian Wilson classic, in case you were wondering. Instead it’s a great ballad to end the album proper with. This album is a well-balanced outing for Numan which plays to long term strengths – composition and arrangement, primarily. The petty lyrics of the Beggars Banquet years seem to have been truly been left behind at this point. And I –liked- the female vocals by Tessa Niles. There came a time when it was time to move on, but this wasn’t it.

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