Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind)
Check out our album review of Artist's Splinter (Songs From a Broken Mind) on Rolling Stone.com.
Kicking off with the gritty, crunchy, and industrial stomp of "I Am Dust" and the lyrics "We were dust in a world of grim obsession," Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind) first suggests that Gary Numan is really a robot after all, programmed to spit out dour songs of loneliness and despair that use words like "dust," "broken," or "lost" as much as other songwriter's use the word "the."
With production from techno stalwart Ade Fenton, Gary Numan's first widely-available release since 2006's Jagged convincingly trounces recent efforts by Nine Inch Nails, proving just how deeply and fervently Numan has embraced the poppier end of the industrial spectrum. The snarling guitars and glitchy beats of opener I Am Dust wouldn't have sounded out of place on any late-period NIN record, except perhaps for the turgid Hesitation Marks.
For a man with nearly 40 years in the game, Gary Numan still holds an impressive amount of sway.
Gary Numan's latest album puts his recent struggles with depression and mid-life crises to music, and it's an appropriately uneasy listen, writes <strong>Maddy Costa</strong>
The struggle to make sense of the new wave master's new material. CD review by Lisa-Marie Ferla