Replicas

1	Me! I Disconnect from You / Gary Numan 3:23
2	Are 'Friends' Electric? / Gary Numan 5:24
3	The Machman / Gary Numan 3:08
4	Praying to the Aliens / Gary Numan 4:00
5	Down in the Park / Gary Numan 4:24
6	You Are in My Vision / Gary Numan 3:15
7	Replicas / Gary Numan 5:00
8	It Must Have Been Years / Gary Numan 4:02
9	When the Machines Rock / Gary Numan 3:15
10	I Nearly Married a Human / Gary Numan 6:31
11	Do You Need the Service? / Gary Numan 3:39
12	The Crazies / Gary Numan 2:54
13	Only a Downstat / Gary Numan 3:36
14	We Have a Technical / Gary Numan 8:04
15	We Are So Fragile / Gary Numan 2:55
16	I Nearly Married a Human / Gary Numan 2 6:38

Barnes & Noble

The year 1979 was a vintage one for British pop music, with the residual effects of the fading punk rock movement encouraging musical experimentation of all kinds. With Replicas, Gary Numan and Tubeway Army took Kraftwerk's electro-rock one step further, planting the seeds from which electronica would later grow. Replacing abrasive guitars with ordered washes of synthesizers, Numan enunciated sparse lyrics with a robotic delivery on the groundbreaking hit single "Are 'Friends' Electric?," while the darker "Down in the Park" used searing synth lines and futuristic vocals to speak of an ordered and uncomplicated life to come. Numan soon left Tubeway Army for a solo career, achieving major success with synth-pop hits like "Cars." Reissued in 1998 with six bonus tracks, Replicas may sound a bit dated today, but it is a shining example of electronica in its earliest form. Chiedo Nkwocha

All Music Guide

By the release of their second album, Replicas, Gary Numan was the undisputed focal point and leader of icy electro-punkers Tubeway Army. And the move proved to be massively successful back home in the U.K., where both the album and the single "Are 'Friends' Electric?" topped the charts. The band had made a conscious effort to streamline the sound heard on its 1978 self-titled debut -- the distorted guitar riffs were played on Moog synthesizers instead, and Numan had perfected his faux-space-age persona. And the paranoia that is very evident in the lyrics and vocals on Numan's next release, The Pleasure Principle, can be detected on Replicas. Another near-perfect album by the band, highlights are many -- "Me! I Disconnect from You," "The Machman," "You Are in My Vision," and one of the most underrated new wave/synth-driven compositions of the whole era, the chilling ballad "Down in the Park." And out of all the Gary Numan/Beggars Banquet reissues, Replicas contains the strongest bonus tracks, such as never heard outtakes from the recording sessions, including "The Crazies," "Only a Downstat," and the B-side to the original "Are 'Friends' Electric?" single, "We Are So Fragile." [Note: In addition to bonus tracks, all of the Gary Numan/Begggars Banquet re-releases contain classic photographs and informative liner notes by Numan biographer Steve Malins.] Greg Prato