Nothing more than...another great Peel disc
N. P. Stathoulopoulos | Brooklyn, NY | 03/09/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Yet another excellent John Peel disc, this one collects the previously released tracks from 1979, and adds Numan's BBC appearances from 20+ years later as he performs material from the Jagged album.
As usual, excellent sound, and complete live takes in studio quality. Highly recommended for Numan fans, the older tracks sound better than the previous BBC disc, so crisp and clean you hear the keys of the synths being pressed during Conversation."
Some great material, some stuff that didn't deserve a CD rel
Said Head | MN, USA | 01/21/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"John Peel has allowed three of my all-time favorite musicians (David Bowie, Gary Numan, and Wire) to unleash their holy goodness better than any other radio host, and what's even greater is getting these recordings on CD. This new release features all 3 periods of his John Peel sessions, two from 1979 and the other more lengthy one in 2001.
The first two sessions, both used mostly to promote the young musician's music; the performances are slightly rawer than the studio recordings (in the first track you can hear Numan pounding heavily on they keyboard), and other little pieces that make the first 7 tracks very valuable for the Numan fan. The performances of I Nearly Married A Human, Down In The Park, and especially Films are my personal favorites.
and then there's the final session, 22 years later. This performance is in front of a live audience, so naturally there's a lot of background noise, which for me is a huge turn-off, and the reason why I don't any other live albums. And while back in '79 the band comprised of just a few members playing all the instruments, this session has a lot of pre-recorded material, with the band, even Numan's vocals, attempting to sound EXACTLY like you hear on the studio recordings. Even the performances of Metal and Down In The Park use the same instrumentation from the '97 versions. It literally sounds like someone's blaring Numan during a party of big Numan fans. The only track really worth hearing from this session is the interpretation of Cars, a heavy industrial take. Still, it doesn't totally redeem the entire 9 song set.
Normally I'd have given this only three stars for the last half of the compilation but the liner notes are really great and focus on individual tracks and the history of the John Peel sessions, which really saves this release for me.
I wouldn't consider this a necessity unless you're also into live recordings, and if you already have the early Cd release of the '79 recordings you'd probably save yourself some money by leaving this one alone. I personally bought this on an impulse when I first learned of its existence, but the price has dropped substantially since then so it might be a better bargain now."
Track Listings (16) - Disc #1