Tubeway Army (album)
| Tubeway Army | ||||
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| Studio album by Tubeway Army | ||||
| Released | 24 November 1978 | |||
| Recorded | Spaceward, Cambridge July–August 1978 | |||
| Genre | Post-punk | |||
| Length | 39:11 (original release) 77:59 (CD reissue) |
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| Label | Beggars Banquet | |||
| Producer | Gary Numan | |||
| Tubeway Army chronology | ||||
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| Alternate cover | ||||
The original 1978 Blue Album cover art for Tubeway Army, resurrected in 2004 for a Japanese reissue
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| Smash Hits | 7/10 |
Tubeway Army is the debut album by Tubeway Army, released in 1978. Its initial limited-edition run of 5,000 (known unofficially as the Blue Album due to its coloured vinyl and cover) sold out but did not chart. When reissued in mid-1979, following the success of the follow-up Replicas (1979), the more commonly known cover art featuring a stylised portrait of Gary Numan was introduced. This release made number 14 in the UK album charts.
Despite being the band's debut, Tubeway Army was seen as a transitional record, linking the punk flavour of early singles "That's Too Bad" and "Bombers" with the electronic music and science fiction imagery of Replicas. The first track, "Listen to the Sirens", borrowed its opening line from the Philip K. Dick novel Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, while "Steel and You" contained references to androids ("Just my steel friend and me / I stand brave by his side"). These and a number of other tracks featured primitive synthesizer effects, the legacy of Numan chancing upon a Minimoog in the recording studio one day.
Elsewhere, the album’s lyrics generally inhabited a seedy world that was compared to William Burroughs, an author whose influence Numan acknowledged. "Friends" concerned male prostitution. "Every Day I Die" was about teenage masturbation. "Jo the Waiter" referenced drug addiction. "The Life Machine" was told from the perspective of a comatose man on life support who can only "watch from somewhere as the loved ones come and go".
Sonically, the album ranged from hard rock with punk overtones, such as "My Shadow in Vain", "Friends" and "Are You Real?", through the post-punk of "Listen to the Sirens" and "The Dream Police", to the predominantly acoustic "Every Day I Die" and "Jo the Waiter".
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