The Fury (album)

Infobox Album
Name = The Fury
Type = Album
Artist = Gary Numan


Released = September 1985
Recorded = 1985 at Rock City Studios, Shepperton, England
Genre = Industrial, synthpop, funk, New Wave, industrial rock, Dark Wave
Length = 69:37
Label = Numa
Producer = Gary Numan, The Wave Team, Colin Thurston
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|2.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:f9foxqehldse link]
Last album = "The Plan"
(1984)
This album = "The Fury"
(1985)
Next album = "Strange Charm"
(1986)
Misc = Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = Alternate cover
Type = album

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Lower caption = 1998 U.S. release cover

"The Fury" is the ninth studio album, and seventh under his own name, by electronic pioneer Gary Numan, released in 1985. It saw him continuing to explore the sampling-heavy industrial sound he had developed for the previous album "Berserker" in 1984. The album was his second released under his self-owned Numa Records label.

Overview

Although Numan's previous album "Berserker" had failed to make a notable commercial impact, Numan decided to continue with a similar sound for his next record. For the second time in his career he decided to team up with other people to produce his album, recruiting The Wave Team (Mike Smith, Ian Herron) as his co-producers. Colin Thurston assisted on the production of one track.

"The Fury", as the album was to be called, continued with the highly sampled, metallic, industrial sound heard on "Berserker" but added layers of electronic funk that he had previously experimented with on "I, Assassin" (1982) and "Warriors" (1983). The style would become a crucial part of his music as the 1980s progressed. As on "Berserker", the rhythm section is dominated by aggressive electronic percussion and usage of samples, but the fretless bass that had been an important element on the previous album disappeared almost completely, with only three tracks on the new album featuring a bass. The rhythm elements were balanced with the usage of a PPG Wave synthesiser, saxophonist Dick Morrissey (who had appeared on "Warriors") again provided the more melodic elements, while guitars were virtually non-existent. Tessa Niles and Numan's then-girlfriend Tracey Ackerman contributed female backing vocals, similar to those already heard on "Berserker", which would be another continuing theme in Numan's work until the early 1990s. Of the album, Numan later recalled:

The usage of sampling on the album is especially prominent on the album's anthemic opening track (and second single), "Call Out the Dogs", which uses several easily recognisable samples taken from the 1982 science fiction movie "Blade Runner". This marked the beginning of Numan's fascination with the movie that would also resurface on his next three studio albums, "Strange Charm" in 1986, "Metal Rhythm" in 1988, and "Outland" in 1990. Lyrically the album features themes similar to Numan's early work. "This Disease" and "The Pleasure Skin" explore the darker side of human sexuality. Other lyrics can be interpreted to be about the poor state that his career was in. "Call Out the Dogs" was about the antagonistic attitude of the press towards Numan, and the album closes with "I Still Remember", a love song with lyrics that could easily be interpreted as a reference to Numan's career: "This could be my last song/Everything must end some day."

The original album artwork was very much at odds with the music, featuring an oddly Bryan Ferry-like Numan dressed in a white suit with a red bow-tie, posing in a tilted photograph against a white-dominant background, with the album name written on a typeface reminding the viewer of 1950s futurism. Numan later admitted that the cover was "completely inappropriate," "probably did the album a great disservice" and made him look like "the man who lost it all at Monte Carlo". ["Praying to the Aliens: An Autobiography" by Gary Numan with Steve Malins. (1997, André Deutsch Limited), p.202]

"Your Fascination", "Call Out the Dogs", and "Miracles" were released as singles in rapid-fire succession in August, September and November 1985, charting at 46, 49, and 49 respectively. This was quite a poor turn-around compared to Numan's previous success (of his previous solo singles, only "My Dying Machine" had charted lower at 66). Numan blamed the singles' poor chart placements on the total lack of radio play they had received. In November 1986 a version of "I Still Remember" was released as a charity single, with all proceeds going to the RSPCA. Numan wrote and sung new lyrics for this version, changing the personal anguish theme of the original for a story of a dog mistreated by its owners and eventually dying at the end of the song.

Despite the lack of successful singles, "The Fury" reached number 24 in the UK albums chart, outperforming both "Berserker" and the "White Noise" (1985) live album released earlier the same year. [ [http://www.everyhit.com Everyhit.com] ] "The Fury" remains the highest-charting album ever released by Numa Records, and the last of Numan's albums to reach the UK top 30.

Numan supported "The Fury" with a 17-date live UK tour in September and October of 1985. No live albums or videos have been released officially from the tour.

Different releases

The album was originally released in the UK on both LP and CD; extended mixes of the entire album were released on CD in 1996. In 1998 the album was issued on CD for the first time in the United States by Cleopatra Records. This release added five bonus tracks, including three alternate versions of songs on the album, and a cover photograph different from the UK release. The following year, the album was reissued on CD in the UK by Eagle Records. This issue also featured five bonus tracks, but dropped the alternate versions in favour of three additional out-takes. This reissue also used a cover artwork similar but not identical to the original UK cover, with Numan's red bow-tie re-coloured white, amongst other changes. [http://www.discog.info/numan-discog2.html Jonas Wårstad's Gary Numan discography] , retrieved 21. 7. 2007.]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Gary Numan except where noted.

# "Call Out The Dogs" - 4:41
# "This Disease" (Gary Numan/Andy Coughlan) - 4:06
# "Your Fascination" - 4:46
# "Miracles" - 3:38
# "Pleasure Skin" - 4:10
# "Creatures" - 5:11
# "Tricks" (Numan/Coughlan) - 5:41
# "God Only Knows" - 5:26
# "I Still Remember" - 4:06

Bonus tracks on the 1998 US release

# "Call Out the Dogs" (extended version) - 6:56
# "I Still Remember" (12" version) - 5:22
# "Anthem" - 3:29
# "Tribal" (demo) - 5:57
# "The Fear" (95 remix) - 6:16

* "Tribal" is the demo for "Call Out the Dogs".
* "I Still Remember" was released as a 1986 charity single version with different lyrics. It is in notably inferior sound quality from the rest of the album.
* "The Fear (95 remix)" is actually the original full-length version from the "Miracles" 12" single.

Bonus tracks on the 1999 UK reissue

# "We Need It" - 6:52
# "Anthem" - 3:26
# "No Shelter" - 1:51
# "Puppets" - 5:23
# "The Fear" - 6:15

* The version of "Call Out the Dogs" which opens this reissue is actually the 6:56 extended version (not the 4:41 regular album version), but is not listed as such.

Personnel

* Gary Numan - vocals, keyboards, producer
* Tracey Ackerman - vocals
* Andy Coughlan - bass
* Martin Elliott - bass
* Ian Herron - guitar
* Dick Morrissey - saxophone
* Tessa Niles - vocals
* Ian Richie - saxophone
* Mike Smith - keyboards
* Pete Buhlmann - audio engineer
* Andy Reilly - assistant audio engineer
* Gordon Vickery - audio mastering
* Brian Ward - photographer
* The Wave Team - producer, PPG programming

References