Gary Numan - Intruder

The world is changing, whether we like it or not. The sixth mass extinction has begun. This one's called the Anthropocene, because it is named after us.

If the Earth could speak, what would it say? Gary Numan's 2021 album Intruder aims to give our planet a voice.

A rich vein

There are many reasons to be anxious about the world we live in. The only planet known to support life within our solar system has been plundered since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and the signs suggest that Mother Earth wants us to GTFO.

As a human myself (apparently in 2024 that's not always a given) it is difficult not to agree with her reasoning. We are a particularly vociferous species of balding ape that has seen to the destruction of at least 50% of animal and plant life since the 1970s. The many and varied emotions a planet under siege may wish to express plays out across the 13 tracks on Intruder.

"Don't you wish you'd listened more?"

from the song Intruder

"At the end, look at my choices This is all I can do now to stop you I must take, take your breath away"

from the song The Gift

Without knowing the intentions Numan had when he wrote these songs they could in some cases apply to many other acrimonious relationships, yet we know from interviews the theme of the album was inspired by a poem written by his daughter about the Earth being angry, a copy of which is included in the liner notes.

Well, saying that, when you get to Is This World Not Enough things get a lot more...on the nose.

Is this world not enough?
Tell me, will you stop
When everything lies broken in the dust?
My tears are the rain
The whispers of the sane
Your way to God is pain, but this you know
But this you know

At some point I'm going to need to talk about a couple of albums by Cattle Decapitation and Gojira, two artists that fall into the death and tech-death genre but also cover environmental themes. For now, Intruder is much easier on the ear.

Sonically, Intruder wouldn't feel out of place in a Blade Runner spin-off. It has that dystopian, industrial energy without the mechanical rigidity you would expect of a Nine Inch Nails or Front Line Assembly album.

There's arguably more of a groove here, more rhythmic variety between tracks, which makes it easy to tell the songs apart and crucially, to sit through the whole thing and remain interested.

Thoughts

I really do appreciate music that expresses ideas that provoke a little more thought than anything you'll find in the top 40. Whilst there is a time and a place for vapid pop songs about love, we also need songs that challenge our understanding about our place in the world, about our reactions to the challenges we face.

Intruder, which continues on from his previous album Savage (Songs from a broken world) scratches that itch for something deeper and more meaningful, without trying to melt my face off, like Cattle Decap's Terrasite.

I've already clocked in over 260 scrobbles of this album on Last.fm since its release in 2021. It is a fine piece of work.