Cars (1979) Still Numan’s most dramatic and influential single, this pioneer of new wave is what JG Ballard would sound like if he wrote music instead of words. “Here in my car ... will you visit me please, if I open my door?”
I Die, You Die (1980) This is what happens when a pop star starts to hate being a pop star and it’s glorious: angry, vengeful and violent. “Hear them laugh, watch them turn on me” says Numan, who by this point was dealing with a pop press starting to swing against him.
Down In The Park (1979) Released under the name of Numan’s band Tubeway Army, there aren’t many singles that better represent the death of punk and the birth of synth. Like many of Numan’s songs, it predicts a future that ain’t pretty: “You can watch the humans trying to run. Oh look, there's a rape machine.”
Listen To The Sirens (1978) Another dystopian scream from the Tubeway Army days, directly inspired by a Philip K Dick novel in which a pop star wakes up in a police state. Numan sounds like he thinks it might happen to him. Check out the recent excellent cover of the track by the American rock band Red Fang as well.
The End of Things (2017) And just to prove that Numan still has it, there’s this from his 21st studio album. The keyboard is still his weapon of choice and he is still (rightly) worried about where we’re going: “Everything I work for, everything I long for is always just too far, everything I hope for never comes to be.” It is the sound and the pleasure of fear.
Gary Numan plays Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Tuesday, Nov 20
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