GARY NUMAN Dance (reissue, 1981)

BEGGARs ARKIVE 6/10 Synth star’s grand folly given the deluxe vinyl treatment Dance tends to be seen as the album that marked the beginning of Gary Numan’s long decline, but he threw himself off that particular precipice when, aged 23, he announced his retirement from live performance with a run of lavish farewell shows at Wembley Arena in April 1981. To the public, the Numan of “Cars” and Tubeway Army had expired, and his return in September that year with the mannered synth-funk of Dance would perplex his remaining fans and become his first album to fall short of No 1. Newly styled as an opium-den ’30s gangster – plausibly an outcome of his dalliance with glam cabaret troupe Shock – Numan channelled his admiration for the art-school poise of Japan, Eno and Roxy Music into this more theatrical, New Romantic direction. Flush with cash, he enlisted Queen drummer Roger Taylor and Japan’s Mick Karn on sax and bass, indulging in two nine-minute pieces, the airless slink of “Slowcar To China” and “Cry, The Clock Said”, on Side One alone. There’s no shortage of Numanian melody on Dance, but the refined production and his nuanced delivery of gauche lyrics expose the material’s shortcomings. Pretentious and challenging, Dance is the sound of Numan slipping gracefully into the void.

Extras: 5/10 Like the 1999 CD remaster, this pressing includes “Stormtrooper In Drag” and “I Sing Rain”, non-album cuts that became classics.