I can lock all my doors, it's the only way to live...

“Cars”. That about sums up what most Americans know about Gary Numan. “Cars”. And even that’s iffy. I’d put money half of them think it’s David Bowie singing. And they’d be wrong. If it was Bowie, it’ve been eons better, I’m sure. And I’m someone who loves the recording of the song as it is. With its ahead-of-its-time production and appropriately detached delivery, “Cars” was a perfect song for the right time. In 1979, the disco train was screeching to a halt, and new-wave was just an underground movement branching off of punk. In that atmosphere, Numan was groundbreaking. There wasn’t a song that sounded anything like it on major pop radio in 1979 (well, maybe M’s “Pop Musik”). From there though, Numan’s career in America stalled into one-hit-wonderland, though in Britain it was only the beginning, racking up seven top-10 singles in the space of a few years. All of those appear on the collection Premier Hits, which came out in the UK on the resurge in popularity of “Cars” from a TV advert there. Eighteen tracks long, including 2 versions of the hit song, Premier Hits includes hits from both Numan, has work with a “group” with Tubeway Army, and in later collaborations. And you know what? It’s a real hard listen. As seminal as he was to the new-wave/electronic genre, the primitiveness and his droning voice can really get unnerving. While “Are Friends Electric” (which subsequent was pilfered again for backdropping British sirens Sugababes) and robotic “I Die: You Die” are tuneful for their style, listening to song after song like this almost gets fascist. “We Are Glass” and “She’s Got Claws” are the worst examples of this. “We Take Mystery (To Bed)” is interesting to say the least, while “Complex” in arrangement is a warmer interlude incorporating the “Cars” theme. Even “Paratrooper In Drag” is campy in theory, though notsomuch in execution. The problem is there’s a difference in tonal singing and flatness. I kept wishing for Bowie’s distant but still emotional technique. Clearly Numan drew from Bowie as a influence, but each song here might’ve worked with Bowie’s innovation to set each track apart. As for the two mixes of “Cars”, the “Premier Mix” the set begins with kicks up the arrangement a notch to make it busier, though not surpassing the original for its “cool” factor. The fact you can blast it from the car stereo and not be ashamed almost 20 years after is proof. However, unless you can stand a heavy dose of Krautrock, prepare yourself.

Grade: C
Best Cuts: “Cars”, “Complex”
Weakest Links: “We Are Glass”, “She’s Got Claws”, “The Wreckage”, “White Boys And Heroes”

Premier Hits hit #21 in the UK albums chart.
"Cars (Premier Mix)" hit #17 in the UK.
"I Die: You Die" made #6 in the UK.
"Are 'Friends' Electric?" made #1 in the UK.
"We Are Glass" hit #5 in the UK.
"We Take Mystery (To Bed)" hit #9 in the UK.
"She's Got Claws" made #6 in the UK.
"Complex" made #6 in the UK.
"Music For Chameleons" hit #19 in the UK.
"This Wreckage" made #20 in the UK.
"Warriors" made #20 in the UK.
"Love Needs No Disguise" (with Dramatis) hit #33 in the UK.
"White Boys And Heroes" hit #20 in the UK.
"Sister Surprise" made #32 in the UK.
"Stormtrooper In Paris" with Paul Gardiner made #49 in the UK.

Listen: "Cars (Premier Mix)" (link)

Buy: You can pick up a copy of Premier Hits at websites like here or here.

And videos galore! (thanks to rabid Numan-ists)... first of course, "Cars"..

next, its counterpart, "Complex"...



and here's his other #1 with the Tubeway Army, "Are Friends Electric?"



And finally, for all the coldness he had, he did manage a Christmas single benefiting England's SPCA. Here's a very tear-inducing clip...