I Belong Here / Pledge Demo
Album Version
Live 2017
Live 2018
Live with the Skaparis Orchestra 2018
‘Savage’ is perhaps the first Gary Numan album recorded from a place of comfort in his career. The bulk of the writing and instrumentation took place over an eight month period between the 2016 Retro Tour and the ‘Savage’ promotional tour.
Due to it’s age and the thematic similarity of much of the tracks, there’s not a whole lot of light one can shed on the ‘Savage’ tracks at times as lyrically many follow the template of following one of the survivors of the global apocalypse.
This is somewhat familiar ground to Numan as aside from his earlier sci-fi flirtations he became interested in exploring the more depraved side of human nature. ‘Exile’ was a loose concept album closer to the book of revelations with Marilyn Manson-esque skewering of christian imagery. ‘Savage’ unites these three threads into one general concept; that of a world that has not heeded the warnings of climate change and has thus descended into violence and savagery.
The penultimate track (on the standard release, more on the deluxe versions later) ‘Pray For The Pain You Serve’ stands as a cumbersome title for an artist’s discography stacked with single-word titles. Despite this, ‘Pray For The Pain’ boasted one of the most effective rhythmic bases on the album. Numan holds back with dispensing the chorus until almost the halfway point.
‘Warriors’ Mad Max affiliations lurk in the choruses, the call and response of “can you see me / when the ____” and a vindictively nothing-to-lose delivery are reminiscent of Fury Road’s cries of “witness me!”
Gary Numan had been experimenting with eastern rhythms and ideas as early as the eighties (‘Tribal’ and ‘My Breathing’ had been early dalliances) and this interest continued through the new millennium with much of ‘Jagged’ and ‘Splinter’ having very mantra-like lyrics and structures. With ‘Savage’ these motifs ran through the majority of the tracks. Alongside the relatively quick turnaround time, this gives the album a more unified feel.
With a militaristic opening, ominous piano work and soaring choruses underpinned by a frantic tribal beat, ‘Pray For The Pain You Serve’ is effectively ‘Savage’ in miniature.
Top: ‘2017_10_15_VBIED-4’ by Tobin Jones. “The wreckage of a vehicle lies amongst the rubble at the site of a VBIED attack undertaken by the militant group al Shabaab in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on October 15, 2017.” Picture is public domain.
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