Telekon
| Telekon | ||||
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| Studio album by Gary Numan | ||||
| Released | 5 September 1980 | |||
| Recorded | 1980 | |||
| Studio | Rock City Studios, Shepperton Matrix Studios, London |
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| Genre | New wave, electronic, synthpop | |||
| Length | 49:54 | |||
| Label | Beggars Banquet | |||
| Producer | Gary Numan | |||
| Gary Numan chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Telekon | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Pitchfork Media |    |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Smash Hits | 7/10 |
| Spin | |
Telekon is the fourth studio album (and second album under his own name) by the British musician Gary Numan. It debuted at the top of the UK Albums Chart in September 1980, making it his third consecutive (and to date, final) No. 1 album.
Telekon was also the third and final studio release of what Numan retrospectively termed the "machine" section of his career, following 1979's Replicas and The Pleasure Principle.
In contrast to The Pleasure Principle, with its lack of guitars and its robotic sound, Telekon featured heavy use of guitars and strings along with richer synthesizer textures. Numan broadened his previous synth palette with additional machines such as the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, ARP Pro Soloist and Roland Jupiter-4.
"The Joy Circuit" used a combination of analogue synths with solo violin and viola, while its lyrics referenced William Burroughs, notably "We're on joy circuit/The image fix/Rewind, cry/Well, it's somewhere to go."
Lyrically, while continuing Numan's exploration of a dystopian future in pieces like the title track and "I Dream of Wires", Telekon also took stock of the artist's sudden celebrity and the apparently overwhelming adulation of his fans in songs like "Remind Me to Smile" ("Reconsider 'fame'/I need new reasons/This is detention/It's not fun at all...Keep your revivals/Keep your conventions/Keep all your fantasies/That's all we are") and "Please Push No More". The album's musical style ranged from upbeat songs such as "I'm an Agent" and "The Joy Circuit" to mood pieces like "Sleep by Windows" and "Remember I Was Vapour".
Like all of Numan's commercially popular early records, Telekon received a largely hostile reception from contemporary music critics; nevertheless it proved to be an influential work. Trent Reznor claimed to have listened to it every day during the making of Pretty Hate Machine and Stephin Merritt from The Magnetic Fields also became a Numan fan through the album. Merritt recorded "I Die: You Die" as his contribution to the Random tribute album in 1997, which also included covers of "I'm an Agent", "Remember I Was Vapour" and "We Are Glass". However the earliest cover of a song from this album, in the very year of its release, was by Robert Palmer, who collaborated with Numan on a version of "I Dream of Wires" for the Clues LP.
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