Photo taken by Norma Alvazaz @ The Mayan 3/6/14 during "The Splinter Tour".

English musician, Gary Numan (born Gary Anthony James Webb on 8 March 1958), is widely known for his New Wave (Synthpop) song “Cars” which was released August 21, 1979. It was well received worldwide charting for example #1 in both the UK and Canada along with reaching #9 on the US Charts. Unfortunately, due to the song being his only hit in the U.S., many (including myself at one time) erroneously believed Gary Numan to be a one-hit wonder despite having had a successful recording career in the UK.
For the sake of simplicity, only studio albums will be listed here and not any of the live albums. The exception is the demo collection album - The Plan, and independent collaborations.

Gary Numan - Cars

Gary Numan talks about “Cars” and being a “one hit wonder”.

Well for supposedly being a “one-hit wonder”, he is probably the most successful one having released his 20th studio album in 2013 called Splinter which made it on both the UK & US charts.

Chart History for Gary Numan on Official Charts (UK).

Gary Numan Awards on Allmusic.com

So, what has he been doing since “Cars” was released? Well let’s backtrack a little bit. Gary Numan has been around for a long time and is known as being one of the pioneers of electronic music something that came about “as a happy accident” according to Gary in the following interview located at the Under The Radar site.
He started playing guitar at a young age and played in several short-lived bands. In 1976 he joined a punk band named, “The Lasers” and the following year he and bassist Paul Gardiner decided to leave “The Lasers” to form a new band with drummer Bob Simmonds called "Tubeway Army". They took on pseudonyms. Gary’s was “Valerian”. Gary Webb would later take on the name “Numan” after looking up names in the phone book and finding a plumber named “Arthur Neumann”. As for the band, Tubeway Army’s early demos had a punk sound. They were released several years later on an album called, The Plan in September 1984.

Tubeway Army - "Bombers"

After coming across a synthesizer in the studio where Tubeway Army’s first record was going to be recorded and after only “having spent 8 hours with it” (according to Gary) Tubeway Army’s sound went from punk rock to electronic. Luckily for Numan, and against the small record company’s wishes (who couldn’t force the album to be re-recorded due to a small budget) Tubeway Army released the New Wave (Post-punk) album - Tubeway Army (November 1978). It charted at #14 in the UK.

“My Shadow In Vain” by Tubeway Army

The success of the first album prompted the record company to allow Tubeway Army to release their second album - Replicas (April 1979) containing the popular songs, “Down in the Park” and “Are 'Friends' Electric?”. Replicas charted at #124 on the US charts and #1 on the UK charts.

“Down in the Park” by Tubeway Army

“Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” by Tubeway Army

Gary Numan’s Solo Years

Not too long after that in late 1979 Gary Numan decided that he no longer wanted to be in a band and recorded his first solo album - The Pleasure Principle which was released September 1979. The album charted at #16 in the US and #1 in the UK. “Cars” which had been released earlier as a single was included on that album. As mentioned before “Cars” charted at #6 in the US but at #1 in the UK. Other notable songs from the album include “Films”, “Metal” and “Complex”. The released singles were “Cars” and “Complex”. At the time the album was released there was nothing quite like it with its robotic sound and lack of guitars. The guitars were dropped in favor of synthesizers being routed through guitar pedals to get distorted, phased metallic effects. Profuse amounts of flanging, phasing and reverb were also used. Numan made heavy use of a "Polymoog" keyboard on this recording especially its distinctive “Vox Humana” preset. An example of this is included at the beginning of the song “Cars”. A closely similar sound can still be heard from time to time (in bits and pieces) on his recordings even to this day. For example it is present on the song “We’re the Unforgiven” on the critically acclaimed album, Splinter released in October of 2013.

“Films” by Gary Numan
“Metal” by Gary Numan
“Complex” by Gary Numan

And again In September of 1980, he released Telekon. Telekon charted at #64 in the US and #1 in the UK. The singles on that album were “We Are Glass”, "I Die: You Die", and “This Wreckage”. Other notable examples off of this album are “Remember I Was Vapour” and “I Dream of Wires”. This album saw the return of heavy guitars adding richer synthesizer textures, and the use of strings for an orchestral texture. Like his earlier recordings Telekon was not well-received by most critics. Thankfully it did not stop his music from being considered a big influence on future recording artists - Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails being a notable example.

“We Are Glass” by Gary Numan

"I Die: You Die" by Gary Numan
“This Wreckage” by Gary Numan
“Rember I Was Vapour” by Gary Numan
“I Dream of Wires” by Gary Numan

Due to the pressure of stardom, Gary decided he would retire from touring and announced his departure with a series of concerts in April of 1981 at Wembley Arena. Luckily, his decision would be short-lived. He departed from his pure electro-pop sound and began to experiment with jazz, funk, and ethereal, rhythmic pop. He would say years later that “It started really well at the beginning - and then I just lost it". It was the album release of Machine + Soul (1992) that Gary considered as being the low point of his career due to attempting a purely commercial release solely to pay off debts. He considers it as being his worst album.
Numan talks to Scott Kara about the happy accidents of his musical experiments and combining nostalgia with his new work (read article at the New Zealand Herald site).

Nevertheless, there were several gems in the albums released during this time. The Plan (1984), which was mentioned earlier, was also released during this time period but since the songs were originally recorded during his time with Tubeway Army it is not included in this list.

The albums were as follows (Links are provided to give further information to help you decide what songs you are interested in):

Dance (1981) Charting #167 (US) #3 (UK) - single(s) “She’s Got Claws”
I, Assassin (1982) Charting #8 (UK) - single(s) “Music for Chameleons”, “We Take Mystery (To Bed)”, “White Boys and Heroes”
Warriors (1983) Charting #12 (UK) - single(s) "Warriors”, “Sister Surprise”
Berserker (1984) Charting #45 (UK) - single(s) “Berserker”, “My Dying Machine”
The Fury (1985) Charting #24 (UK) - single(s) "Your Fascination", "Call Out the Dogs", "Miracles"
Strange Charm (1986) Charting #59 (UK) - single(s) "This Is Love", "I Can't Stop", "New Thing from London Town"
Metal Rhythm (1988) Charting #48 (UK) - single(s) “New Anger", “America”
Automatic (1989) Charting #59 (UK) - single(s) "Change Your Mind", "No More Lies", “I’m On Automatic”
Outland (1991) Charting #39 (UK) - single(s) “Heart”, “My World Storm”
Machine + Soul (1992) Charting #42 (UK) - single(s) “Emotion”, “The Skin Game”, “Machine + Soul”

My favorite songs from those albums are, “I, Assassin”, “My Breathing”, and “Voix”.

Gary Changes Direction

By 1994 Numan decided to stop trying to crack into the commercial market and go where his heart led him - a move towards music with a harsh, dark edge. It was during this time that his music (going in an industrial direction) would be critically well-received. He decided to concentrate on lyrics that explored more personal themes including his beliefs in atheism. His album Sacrifice (Dawn in the US) released in October 1994, gave him a fresh new start and for the first time he played all the instruments himself. The single that was released at the same time was "A Question of Faith". Songs that I also like are “Bleed” and “Magic”. But they are all good.

Next up was Exile (1997) with two singles – “Absolution (original)” released March 20, 1995 and "Dominion Day" released “April 6, 1998”. I also think the song (my favorite) “Dead Heaven” and “Dark” are worth a listen. But then again you should consider listening to the whole album.

Gary also provided vocals for Fear Factory’s cover of “Cars”. This was released as a single on August 31, 1999. Listen to the remix version (released later): Fear Factory - Cars (Remix) [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

The next album release Pure (2000) (along with Exile) restored his critical reputation. Pure was considered by some to be the most aggressive album musically. The single release from the album is “Rip” released on July 13, 2002. Other tracks worthy to listen to (IMO) are “Pure”, “A Prayer for the Unborn”, “My Jesus” and “Torn” but all are good.

Musicians such as Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), and Marilyn Manson proclaimed Gary Numan to be an influence and recorded cover versions of his older songs during this time.

In 2003 a remix album was released called, Hybrid. Gary went on to release the single, “Crazier” in 2003 which reached #13 on the UK charts. Almost all of the songs were prior releases except for “Crazier”, “Hybrid”, and “Ancients”. The song “All I know” was an alternate version of “Ancients”.

Jagged, which would be his eighteenth studio album and his first original release since 2000 came out on March 13, 2006. It had been originally planned as a 2003 release. The single off of this album is "In a Dark Place" released July 29, 2006. There are many songs I like off of this album: “Halo”, “Slave”, “Haunted”, “Scanner”, “Blind”, “Melt”, “Before You Hate It”, and “Jagged”.

Gary Numan collaborated with Ade Fenton in 2007 and contributed to Ade’s debut solo album, Artificial Perfect which was released on May 7, 2007. The four tracks Gary contributed vocals to were: “The Leather Sea”, “Slide Away”, “Recall”, and “Healing”. The singles released from this album were “Healing” (released in April 2007) and “The Leather Sea” (released in the UK on July 2007).

Numan would say via his website that Splinter would be released as early as 2008, and then again he said it would be released in 2010. That did not actually happen until later in 2013. So instead Dead Son Rising would be his next album release in September 2011. It was produced with Ade Fenton. The songs that deserve a listen (IMO) are: “The Fall”, “When the Sky Bleeds, He Will Come”, and of course “Dead Sun Rising”.

Gary Numan - 'The Fall' Official Promo Video

On November 19, 2012 Gary Numan collaborated with Officers X to produce the song "Petals". The song was produced to help support the UK Charity CALM which stands for "Campaign Against Living Miserably".

Visit CALM at: http://www.thecalmzone.net/

CALM INTERVIEW: GARY NUMAN & OFFICERS

OFFICERS X GARY NUMAN - PETALS (VIDEO ONE: CENSORED CUT)

Gary Numan Today

Note: Gary Numan is currently touring. Check his website for more info!

Finally, on 10/14/13 (UK) and on 10/15/13 (US) Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind) was released. Splinter was produced by Ade Fenton. It is Gary Numan’s 20th studio album and it has been critically acclaimed. Splinter has been Gary’s most successful album since 30 years ago making it to #20 on the UK Charts and #175 on the US charts (Top Independent Albums listed it at #42). Dance was the last album to make it on the US charts at position #167. Numan’s albums have charted consistently in the UK. There are so many good songs off of Splinter so I'll just list them all and you can decide what songs you like. My favorite right now is the title song "Splinter" followed by "We're the Unforgiven".