Sacrifice (Gary Numan album)

Sacrifice
Studio album by Gary Numan
Released	October 1994
Recorded	1994
Studio	Outland, London
Genre	Industrial rock, gothic rock
Length	45:03
Label	Numa
Producer	Gary Numan
Gary Numan chronology
Machine + Soul (1992) Sacrifice (1994) Human (1995)
Alternative cover
Cover of 1997 U.S. Dawn release
Singles from Sacrifice
"A Question of Faith" Released: October 1994

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Allmusic

Sacrifice is a 1994 album by Gary Numan. Its release followed a self-acknowledged career low point, Machine + Soul (1992), and is often cited as marking the start of a critical and artistic rejuvenation for the one-time pop star. The album was released in the US in 1997 with a different cover by Joseph Michael Linsner, and a new title, Dawn, based on the comic book character of the same name, but the track listing was identical.

On Sacrifice, paraphernalia which Numan had previously, by his own admission, relied upon in a bid to make his music more 'radio-friendly', such as saxophone solos, dance rhythms and female backing vocals, were dropped in favour of a back-to-basics approach that saw him playing practically all instruments himself. The result was a dirty industrial sound with darkwave undertones; a departure from preceding albums that was seen by many critics and fans as a return to the best features of his classic early work: brooding synthesizers, distorted guitars and a highly personal lyrical perspective.

The album actually started off as a project entitled "Vicious". Various tracks were worked on with previous Machine + Soul Producer Kipper, amongst others, Numan wasn't quite happy with the direction, and it was whilst he was considering signing to another label they suggested he record vocals to a recently released soundtrack for The Radial Pair, Numan eventually never signed to the label but instead adopted these tracks along with others which eventually became "Sacrifice" after hearing Depeche Mode album Songs of Faith and Devotion and decided this was the musical direction he wanted to take. "Play Like God", and the demo "Metal Beat" were dropped from the album (the latter appeared on later re-releases in 1998 and 1999).

A number of tracks displayed an antipathy towards religion, a stance that had been noted in isolated songs from early in Numan’s career but which became more pronounced on this album and its successors, Exile (1997) and Pure (2000). The single released from the album, "A Question of Faith", appeared to cast the singer as a fallen angel ("I dare you to judge me / Now God has disowned me"), a theme that would dominate Exile, before concluding: "They kneel down / Praise God / Shout Hallelujah ... When children kill children / Don’t it make them wonder? / Don’t it make them question their faith?"; the reference "...when children kill children..." was made about the then-recent murder of James Bulger. Numan later stated that whilst Exile was a fictional story, "Sacrifice looks at my actual beliefs".