Gary Numan
Berserker

The Gary Numan of the first four albums, the two under the name Tubeway Army plus "The Pleasure Principle" and "Telekon", is something phenomenal and fundamental for originality, quality, and influence on a plethora of artists and subsequent sub-genres. It's certainly not for me to discover this, nor do I intend to bore you with a discussion on the discovery of boiling water, which I leave to others, but as for the subsequent production, the judgment can generally be a bit less flattering.

After the golden period of 1978-1981, the London artist lost a bit of effectiveness, continuing to insist on the same sounds and also becoming too prolific and verbose. However, there is an album that I find quite fascinating and above average for post-"Telekon" Numan, capable of rivaling, in my opinion, the first four great pillars: "Berserker" of 1984. The most showy, the most eccentric, certainly also the most "pop" and the most easy to assimilate, if you will, also with the most captivating cover, for me the most effective and by far the most inspired, especially if compared with the immediate predecessor "Warriors" and the successor "The Fury," two fairly weak records devoid of momentum.

Whether it's the imposing presence of female choirs, the exotic atmospheres that occasionally peek through, or the more immediate melodies than usual, Numan's new wave takes on new life and new momentum in this album, which turns out to be an engaging, pleasant, and even groovy listen, lively and very fun. The spectacular and driving rhythm section forms the backbone of an album that unfolds between the futuristic and captivating melodies of songs like "My Dying Machine", "The Hunter", and "The Secret", the latter featuring a truly remarkable electric guitar, the most successful from the album's strictly pop viewpoint, messy and decadent pop à la Gary Numan, of course, and the unpredictable funky-paced progressions of "This Is New Love", "Pump It Up", and "The God Film", with associated refrains and strategic saxophone interventions to revive and brighten the atmosphere. The title track, a majestic ride with a scenic and solemn stride, and an unsettling "Cold Warning", marked by rapid and elaborate viola arabesques, showcase renewed stylistic research, coloring the album with Middle Eastern sounds, but the real surprise is the slow pace, the lost and melancholic atmosphere, the existential questions of a beautiful "A Child With The Ghost", which interrupts the frenetic rhythms of "Berserker" momentarily to offer a more reflective, intimate moment, thus enriching an already intense and fascinating album with a further touch of class.

"Berserker" is an album by Gary Numan and 100% à la Gary Numan, which plainly highlights his greatest strength and at the same time his most burdensome limit: a unified vision based on a few continually repeated motifs; synths, bass, drums, sax, female choirs, hedonism, futurism, decadence, hypnotic melodies. When everything works perfectly, as I believe happens in the case of "Berserker," the final result cannot but be explosive, maybe without the seminal charge of a "Replicas" or "The Pleasure Principle," perhaps also somewhat bombastic but nonetheless branded with the personality of an extremely charismatic artist and vocalist, recognizable among thousands, the mark of a strong man, with a precise vision in mind.