The Pleasure Principle has been described as featuring synth-pop and new wave throughout. Numan completely abandoned electric guitar on the album. This change, coupled with frequent use of synthetic percussion, produced the most purely electronic and robotic sound of his career. In addition to the Minimoogsynthesizer employed on his previous album, Numan made liberal use of the Polymoog keyboard, particularly its distinctive "Vox Humana" preset. Other production tricks included copious amounts of flanging, phasing and reverb, plus the unusual move of including solo viola and violin parts in the arrangements. Numan was also influenced by Kraftwerk; the track "Cars" had the same musical "glides" as "Autobahn" and both songs used the same synthesizers. Notable tracks included "Airlane", the lead-off instrumental; "Metal", sung from the perspective of an android longing to be human ; "Films", acknowledged by Bambaataa as an important influence on the U.S. hip hop scene; "M.E.", told from the perspective of the last machine on Earth ; the electronic ballad "Complex", a UK number 6 single; and "Cars", a worldwide synthpop hit. "Cars" reached number 9 in the U.S. and number 1 in Canada, helping make The Pleasure Principle Numan's strongest North American showing, but lack of a strong commercial follow-up resulted in him being tagged as a one-hit wonder there. The album was #49 in the Canadian Top 100 of the year.
Tour
Numan toured throughout the world in support of the album with a huge stage set including banks of neon lights and twin pyramids which moved across the stage via radio control. The live show was captured on record as Living Ornaments ’79 and on video as The Touring Principle. The support act on the UK leg of the tour was Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. An expanded version of Living Ornaments '79 was issued on CD in 2005, and the final show of The Touring Principle was captured on the CD Engineers in 2008. Numan performed a 16-date mini-tour dedicated to the album across the UK and Ireland during November and December of 2009, similar to Numan's previous tours for Replicas and Telekon, performing the album in its entirety. Numan had been scheduled to play the 2010 Coachella Festival in Indio, California but was forced to cancel, due to the Icelandic volcano eruption that disrupted air travel. To make up for this, Numan embarked upon another 16-date mini-tour of the U.S. that August, in which he again performed The Pleasure Principle in its entirety.
Reissue
Of the bonus tracks later included on CD reissues, "Random" and "Oceans" were instrumental outtakes from The Pleasure Principle sessions, originally issued on vinyl with other previously unreleased tracks in 1985, while "Asylum" was the instrumental B-side of the "Cars" vinyl single. The live versions of "Me! I Disconnect From You" and "Bombers", which appeared as B-sides of "Complex", were recorded on tour and later made available in their original context on the expanded Living Ornaments '79 CD, along with "Remember I Was Vapour" and "On Broadway". The latter two tracks were first released as a promotional single shipped with early pressings of the album Telekon in 1980; Numan's cover version of the classic "On Broadway" was dominated by a characteristic synthesizer solo by then-former Ultravox band member Billy Currie.
Reception
's Greg Prato rated The Pleasure Principle 4.5 of 5 stars. He explained that "there is not a single weak moment on the disc" and that "the quality of the songs gets stronger and stronger as the album progresses". He concluded: "If you had to own just one Gary Numan album, The Pleasure Principle would be it." Robert Christgau rated the album a B, saying that it was where "metal machine music goes easy-listening." He also stated, "This time he's singing about robots, engineers, and isolation. In such a slight artist, these things make all the difference."
Track listing
All tracks written by Gary Numan, except where noted. ;Side one
"Airlane" – 3:18
"Metal " – 3:32
"Complex" – 3:12
"Films" – 4:09
"M.E." – 5:37
;Side two
"Tracks" – 2:51
"Observer" – 2:53
"Conversation" – 7:36
"Cars" – 3:58
"Engineers" – 4:01
;CD bonus tracks
"Random" – 3:49
"Oceans" – 3:03
"Asylum" – 2:31
"Me! I Disconnect from You " – 3:06
"Bombers " – 5:46
"Remember I Was Vapour "* – 4:46
"On Broadway " – 4:48
30th Anniversary Edition
To coincide with The Pleasure Principle 30th Anniversary Tour, a special edition of the album was released on 21 September 2009. ;Disc one
"Airlane"
"Metal"
"Complex"
"Films"
"M.E."
"Tracks"
"Observer"
"Conversation"
"Cars"
"Engineers"
;Disc two
"Airlane "
"Metal "
"Complex "
"Films "
"M.E. "
"Tracks "
"Observer "
"Conversation "
"Cars "
"Engineers "
"Random "
"Oceans "
"Asylum "
"Photograph "
"Gymnopedie No. 1 "
"Conversation "
"M.E. "
Disc three
"Down in the Park"
"On Broadway"
"Everyday I Die"
"Remember I Was Vapour"
"Bombers"
"Me! I Disconnect from You"
"Conversation"
"Metal"
"Down in the Park"
"Airlane"
"Cars"
"We Are So Fragile"
"Films"
"Something's in the House"
"My Shadow in Vain"
"Conversation"
"The Dream Police"
"Metal"
40th Anniversary Edition
To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the release of The Pleasure Principle, a special edition of the album, The Pleasure Principle: The First Recordings was released on 11 October 2019. Released on 2 LP coloured vinyl and 2 CD editions. ;CD 1
"Cars "
"Films "
"Complex "
"Random "
"M.E. "
"Conversation "
"Tracks "
"Cars "
"Metal "
"Airlane "
"Trois Gymnopédies No.1" "
"Observer" "
"Conversation" "
"Engineers" "
"Asylum" "
"Oceans" "
"Photograph" "
;CD 2
"Airlane"
"Cars"
"Films"
"Conversation"
"Tracks "
"Complex "
"M.E. "
"Engineers "
"Airlane "
"Cars "
Chart positions
Personnel
Gary Numan – vocals, synthesizers, synthetic percussion
