One record at a time: 296. Gary Numan - Berserker

After Numan left WEA/Beggars Banquet he decided to set up his own record label and subsequently released "Berserker" in 1984.

I bought a copy of the original pressing from eBay ten years ago and it is in great condition for a forty year old record (the sleeve isn't nearly as badly yellowed as the photo might imply). As an unexpected bonus, my copy turned out to be a misprint as the labels are completely blank.

Whilst this record sold poorly and signalled the start of a fallow commercial period for Numan, I think the music sounds better than anything on his previous three albums. Yes the prominent female backing vocals and terrible saxophone solos are still here, but they don't dominate in the way they did on albums such as "Warriors". The prominent sound this time around is the mighty PPG Wave System. 

In his autobiography Numan mentions sampling into the PPG so he must have been using a Waveterm A alongside a Wave 2.2. This system was expensive and notoriously unreliable but produced a unique timbre that can be heard throughout this record. You can immediately hear a churning bass and cold stabs from the PPG on opening track "Berserker" - sounds that will be recycled throughout the record.

Most of the best songs on this album are on the first side with "The Secret" and "My Dying Machine" being amongst my favourites. There's some great rhythm guitar on "This Is New Love" and "Pump It Up" is unintentionally hilarious - but actually quite good.

Yes the title and sleeve image are a bit naff, but I insist this is a good album. You might think everything sounds old fashioned today but when you consider this was released at the same time as the first album by Art of Noise, "Some Great Reward" by Depeche Mode and "Hysteria" by The Human League, it doesn't sound so out of place. This album deserved to do better. 3/5