Although rightly regarded as one of Britain’s leading electro experimentalists, considered less intellectual but more darkly mysterious than Eno, Gary Numan is probably still most famous for his first two chart hits, ‘Are Friends Electric?’ (with Tubeway Army) and ‘Cars’. Classic and influential they might well have been, but both songs were released in 1979. He’s continued releasing albums ever since, but, outside of an ever decreasing circle of devoted Numanoids, never with quite the same impact.
Now aged 55, he’s just released Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind) – his twentieth studio album, and his first collection of entirely new material since 2006’s well-received Jagged. Although he relocated to California a few years ago, there’s absolutely no hint of sunshine here: his sound remains as dark, foreboding and occasionally inhuman as ever.
The ‘Broken Mind’ in the title’s parentheses isn’t just for EMO/goth dramatic effect. Numan reportedly suffered from a serious bout of depression during the album’s recording. Informing every song here, his bleak world vision is apparent from the grittily industrial opening track, ‘I Am Dust’: “We were dust in a world of grim obsession/ We were torn from our isolation.”
But, let’s face it, you don’t listen to Gary Numan to try to cheer yourself up. Haunting, cinematic and industrial, there’s a palpable sense of doom throughout. The soulful title-track features eerie samples of Arabic music and pretty much sums up the overall mood: “I believe in the cruelty of man/ I believe in all of the hopeless and lost.”
It’s rockier than usual, too, with heavy guitars and sonic shades of Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode scattered throughout these 12 tracks – though who influenced who first is debatable. Lyrically, they’re often sad, despairing and broken (‘Lost’, ‘My Last Day’), though the energetically funky ‘Love Hurt Bleed’ wouldn’t sound out of place at a rave.
Gary Numan’s musical legacy could easily have wound up being nothing more than a couple of pioneering electro tunes that were always good to know the titles of in pub quizzes. With Splinter, he hasn’t exactly reinvented himself, but it’s an impressive album that could well see him coming back into fashion.

Key Track: 'Everything Comes Down To This'