A Review of "Dream Corrosion"
by Riana Pfefferkorn
(who gave it 7 out of 10) January 7th 1997
I was a bit
frightened by Gary's appearance on the cover--aging, not the
smooth-complected automaton of Replicas, the only other Numan album with
which I was familiar. However, I, obviously a fledgling Numanoid, was
delighted to hear so many "new" songs, as well as live versions of
Replicas
favourites such as "Down in the Park"
and "The Machman."
Curiously, samples
form the cult movie Blade Runner were included in the ambiguous swirl
preceding "Down in
the Park," rather than before the teasing opening of "Are
Friends Electric?", which is thought to have been influenced by the Philip K.
Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, upon which the Ridley Scott
film was based. Gary is in a good mood, and the crowd response is inspiring;
the audience at this concert cheered for such numbers as "The Machman" and
"Jo the Waiter,"
cluing me in as to which Numan songs are the "classics." I
have but one major problem with this performance: the drummer ended far too
many songs with a certain sort of descending drum pattern, going from
higher-pitched drums to the big, bad, bass ones. This became extremely
annoying to me, but I put it aside and enjoyed the simulated experience of a
Gary Numan concert, which I have never had the fortune to experience live.
