Album version
Earlier in this series I posted about how during the ‘Savage’ campaign Gary Numan tied his creative process with fan interaction via the PledgeMusic campaign but in truth this process had been continuing for a much longer time. I don’t only refer to Numan’s dedicated fanbase, but also to producer and darkwave artist Ade Fenton who over the last decade and a half has positioned himself as the most important collaborator in Gary Numan’s career.
Numan’s early relationships with producers had largely not been positive ones whether it facing off with an engineer over the mix of early single ‘Bombers’ or the unceremonious dumping and erasure of Bill Nelson from the Warriors sessions although these were cases of a producer being added at the label’s wishes not the artist’s. Later collaborators such as The Wave Team, Nick Beggs and Sulpher were there at Numan’s behest and the experiences were amicable.
In 2005 Gary Numan was out in the weeds with piecing together the ‘Jagged’ album after early sessions with producers Andy Gray and Sulpher were aborted due to time constraints.
Via a mutual friend Numan and Fenton finished the album by the following March and Fenton’s production ability gave ‘Jagged’ a much cleaner and bigger sound. His knowledge of Numan’s past work also popped up with the return (or at least a fair replication) of the ‘vox humana’ preset featured prominently throughout the ‘Pleasure Principle’.
Where ‘Jagged’ saw Fenton’s entrance fairly late in the game with Numan having largely finalised the bones of every track, 2011’s ‘Dead Son Rising’ was their first collaboration from the ground up with Fenton sharing co-writing credits for every track and a larger sonic palette was on display including the reintroduction of acoustic guitar and tom-toms.
‘Splinter’ and ‘Savage’ saw the addition of complex string arrangements and an increased presence of arabic sonic cues and electronic drumming. During the ‘Savage’ promotional cycle, both artists remarked on the speed that they were able to finish the album (Numan: “It was a really, really good process, no problems whatsoever. Maybe that’s because this is the fourth album that we’ve done together. We have a less confrontational way of discussing whatever problems there might be now compared to the past.” Fenton “it really was a case of ‘this is what we are working on in the next six months.’”)
Although Fenton’s production fingerprints are all across ‘Savage’, only the eighth track ‘What God Intended’ is credited as songwriting co-composition on the album.
Described by Numan as “one of the stranger songs”, ‘What God Intended’ ties with ‘Broken’ as the most unconventional track from the sessions. Rather than being built around an anthemic chorus with a soaring vocal, the lyric is three similarly structured verses with the choruses being largely instrumental aside from some ‘I, Assassin’-esque vocals.
The track’s main feature is it’s “huge, slow moving groove” of a rhythm track. Coming straight after ‘Mercy’, ‘What God Intended’ sounds like it may have spun out of Fenton’s tinkering with the earlier song’s tar-slow beat.
For me it’s the song it took me the longest to like. As track eight in a ten track album of five-minute songs some are bound to get lost in the shuffle. However listening to it again I have grown to appreciate it’s unusual structure and enjoy it more than I thought I did at the start of this project.
‘What God Intended’ was released in August 2017 a few weeks ahead of ‘Savage’ and did not chart. It is notable for being one of two tracks from the standard edition yet to be played live.
Top: Helicopter supports firing operation on West Mims Fire. 2017. Photograph by Josh O’Connor. Picture is public domain.
“West Mims Wildfire at Okefenokee NWR. Photos taken during a strategic firing operation along GA 177 in The Pocket near Stephen C Foster SP.”
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