UK artist and composer Gary Numan is one of the important innovators of rock music. His accidental discovery of electronic instruments in the late 70’s leading to a handful of albums that basically applied electronic instrumentation to punk rock structures and attitudes from the onset and quickly developing into a bleak, dystopian sound Numan was fairly alone in exploring, and his ear for compelling melodies and chorus phrases resulting in instant stardom. His albums was the soundtrack of the mood of despair we had at the end of the cold war era, at least until he lost his way from the mid 1980’s and until the late 1990’s. But for the last 15 years or so Numan has returned as a creative force. No longer topping the hit charts, but with a solid following of people enjoying his more stable second phase of high quality creativity. “Splinter (Songs From a Broken Mind)” is his latest studio production, and was released in the fall of 2013.
I write this review following a 5 week long break from writing reviews, the longest break I’ve had since I started to review music back in 2006 or thereabouts. A forced break I might add, due to being overwhelmed with new music to write about and the piles of music to cover growing to dangerous looking piles on my desk. I did need something to spur me on though, and covering an album I enjoyed that I didn’t have an obligation to write about is for me something that I felt the need for at this point. To rediscover the joy of writing about music one might say.
Much more important than stating the reason for why I write this review is to try to say something about this album however. And a good place to start here is to mention Nine Inch Nails, as there’s a lot of familiar sounding material for fans of Trent Reznor to enjoy here. The opening tracks kicks off in a dark, tortured and bleak manner that should hit home perfectly with Nine Inch Nails fans. Numan’s vocals does add a human quality to these excursions that contrasts the otherwise grim musical backdrops, something of a trademark feature for him as an artist, and the sheer desperation of Nine Inch Nails is a universe Numan generally avoids, but the moods and atmospheres do share similar qualities from the onset, but in a generally more compelling manner. Dark, grim and tortured, but with a bit more pop sensibility and human warmth.
As this album unfolds the more dramatic and bombastic force of the opening tracks does disappear somewhat. Title track Splinter combines a more careful sounding take on a NIN inspired sound with eastern and possibly Arabian inspired harmonies and some violin like textures referencing Numan’s “Berserker” era material, at least to my mind, and a piece like Love Hurt Bleed sounds like a forgotten track off “Pure”. Later on Who Are You is a driving, intense affair with calmer inserts that might do well as a single, while We’re The Unforgiven is a nice and effective blend of later day Numan and Nine Inch Nails industrial rock to my ears. The majority of the remaining tracks are generally less intense and dramatic in expression. The NIN sound and mood are very much present in just about all of them though, and again from my highly subjective point of view they do come across as companion tracks to one specific composition of Trent Reznor, namely The Great Below from “The Fragile”.
Fairly slow paced and subdued efforts, sometimes with more dramatic and forceful movements or developments, but just about all of them honing in on the melancholic, unnerving mood and atmosphere of that particular composition. Not as desperate nor as utterly depressing and haunting, but sharing many similar qualities, with Lost and My Last Day as the ones arguably closest in overall mood.
While these admittedly highly subjective thoughts may come across as a description of Numan’s latest as something of a copycat production, I’ll stress that this isn’t the case. Gary Numan does have his own voice and expression, with a particular emphasis on voice I might add, and his material is generally less oppressive and not quite as bleak too. At the same time I find it to be next to impossible to not namedrop NIN extensively when trying to describe this production, as the sound, mood and atmosphere have so many qualities of a similar nature.
It all adds up to an album that I’ll heartily recommend. To those who have enjoyed Numan’s material from the late 90’s and onwards, they will be pleased with this one too, and for those not familiar with this veteran artist I’d say that if you tend to enjoy bands like Nine Inch Nails but has a desire to listen to music of a similar kind with a bit more human warmth and not quite as much desperation to it, then “Splinter (Songs From a Broken Mind)” is an album you most likely will enjoy.
My rating: 83/100
