Gary Numan:

The Pleasure Principle:(1979)

I was not raised with much exposure to electronic music. Sure I heard the odd Bowie tune with Brian Eno's hand on it. Or a Talking Heads song, again, with Brian Eno's hand on it. But, I just didn't hear that much synth driven stuff. So as I started getting into music at thirteen, and started rummaging through thrift stores and garage sales for records, I picked up things I had no idea about. It was through these avenues that I discovered certain type of music. Electronic music being one of those. And it happened in a week's time. One day I came across a pair of Kraftwerk albums in the twenty-five cent bin, I'd heard of them, so I took these records home. Four days later I came across The Pleasure Principle. I seemed to vaguely remember the song, Cars. I picked it up out of the twenty-five cent bin, and took it home. To my surprise, I really dug all three of these records. In particular, the human element of Gary Numan's work. It was darker, but more human. Obviously, as I later learned, this was a hugely influential album. Go back, and listen to it again today, I'm sure you can pick out several groups that came after the 1979 release of this album that drew influence.