Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellen, dark comeback!, 14 Jan 2002
By A Customer
For those of you who thought that Gary Numan's output began and ended with "Are Friends Electric?" and "Cars", here, as Monty Python would put is, is something completely
different. A collection first released as "Dawn" (in tribute to J Michael Linsner's comic book series), it's back now, together with four new songs. The opening track, "Pray", hints at the
wonders to come, each track finely tuned, performed and written by Numan himself. Then we swing into the heavy, pounding, sweat-drenched delights of "Deadliner", but by then the
music has you. Of special note are "Love and Napalm" and "You Walk In My Soul", while the sublime "Magic" transports you to a world of hellish nightmares, where you're afraid to
sleep, and to wake... Masterly, transporting and simply stunning, this collection builds through the range of the dark emotions, leaving the listener breathless and wishing for more. I
listened to it three times in a row, getting something new out of it each time. If you like Nick Cave or Peter Murphy, and have never been tempted by Mr Numan, I recommend you get
this to add to your collection. It's a rivetting ride through the night. Remember to keep a light on...
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Back to what he does best, 10 Nov 2002
'Sacrifice' is without a doubt one of the best and most important albums of Gary Numan's career. After his episode of writer's block resulted in the debacle that was 'Machine & Soul', Numan returned after an enforced hiatus with the Gemma-inspired 'Sacrifice'.
An almost total solo effort, 'Sacrifice' saw Numan return to the dark, cold, anthemic synth-driven songs that most of his fans had always wanted him to get back to. While the album pulled up no commercial trees, it's impact among fans and some fringe listeners was huge; gone were the pseudo-funk efforts of '91-'92, replaced by echoed synths, slowed down breakbeats and talk of God, demonic possession, bad dreams and child murders. While this album has no real low points as such, it has some awesome highs; the only single 'A Question Of Faith' (though 'Absolution' was included on the re-issue), the nightmare-related 'Deadliner', live favourite 'Bleed' and the almost '80's, guitar-driven 'Love & Napalm'.
The one problem with this album is the sound quality. Numan's home-made production of the album shows a real trough since 'Machine + Soul' resulting in a muddier, murkier sound. But if you're considering delving into any of Numan's later work then 'Sacrifice' is still as good a place to start as any.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
INDUSTRIAL BUT MELODIC !!!!, 14 April 2006
After the excellent but unsuccesful ¨Machine And Soul ¨,Numan went in a darker,industrial direction taking elements from current (for 94) music which he had inspired and influenced in the first place.This is a low-budget solo effort made entirely by himself in the studio with the only aid of guitarrist Kipper for the extra solos and TJ Davies for some backing vocals.The lyrics deal with agnosticism in a very angry way,a direction he would follow for the next two records with great success.The music has now a lot of keyboard bottom end,heavy guitar parts,the usual percussion programming and much less processed and natural vocals.Most of the album is of a dark,heavy upbeat nature with some excellent slow,opressive songs in a way only Numan can achieve but all of them have a nicely acomplished melodic line to them.
The sound,on the other hand,is still not good but a vast improvement over the original release (I have Dawn too).The midrange has been cleaned and beefed up,so the vocals are no longer distorted and muddled up as before,and the upper end is a tad better as well,only it now exhibits a marked imbalance to the left ( revealed or introduced by remastering ? ) on many of the album tracks.
The bonus tracks are comprised of singles,b-sides and demos,of lesser sound quality but high musical value.An EXCELLENT album and in my opinion a better treat than the 2 follow ups in terms of musicality rather than sheer sonic impact.
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