The Pleasure Principle - 30th Anniversary Expanded Edition

the 30th anniversary expanded edition of gary numan's seminal debut album; a 2cd featuring remastered demos and out-takes along with extensive sleevenotes. 'the pleasure principle' was the point where the singer became a huge international solo star, even reaching the top 10 in the united states with 'cars' and top 20 with the album. given the conservative nature of the music scene in america at that time and the fact that his new album didn't feature any guitars, let alone conventional song structures - even 'cars' doesn't have a chorus - this is one of those special moments in pop music when a new idea breaks through all the boundaries. the pleasure principle pioneered electronic pop music on a new scale - it was a much bigger success worldwide than kraftwerk's releases or anything from the influential but still relatively 'culty' bowie / eno berlin trilogy. and the fact that it was different and had a major impact in america - numan performed 'cars' and 'praying to the aliens' in front of 40 million people on the saturday night live show - means that there's a direct link from 'the pleasure principle' to the new musical forms that were born in the usa over the next decade - namely hip hop, industrial and techno.