Classic Albums Reviewed And Rated Day 4

Throughout this month we are going to take a look at albums regarded as classics from the 80s and one or two from the late 70s and give you our comments, and our rating of each album.

Each day, during November, we will focus on one album.

To rate the albums we rate each track on the album as either 3 (Outstanding), 2 (Good), 1 (ok) and 0 (Hate it). Those points are totalled up and then divided by the maximum points the album could get (EG 10 tracks would equal 30 points, 10 x 3). Then times the figure by 100 and that gives you your percentage rating. This is a very good indicator of how you rate an album.

For todays classic album, we go back to 1979 and the album "Replicas" by Tubeway Army, an album that is massive in my life as it was the album that first got me into electronic music. Seeing Gary Numan (Tubeway Army) performing "Are Friends Electric?" on Top Of The Pops in May 1979 blew me away, I recall at the time, I thought I was watching something alien, new sounds, new instruments, deadpan vocals, it grabbed me immediately, the rest, as they say, is history. Surprisingly though "Replicas" isn't a totally electronic album, it features a lot of guitars, but it was the way he made use of synthesizers that was pure genius, a unique album. The single "Are Friends Electric?" took several weeks to climb the UK singles chart before it reached number 1, where it stayed for 4 weeks. The album rocketed to number one in the UK album chart in July 1979.

The album features just 2 singles, "Are Friends Electric?" and "Down In The Park", the latter was the first single released off the album but wasn't a hit.

Our track recommendations are the 2 singles and "Me I Disconnect From You", "The Machman" and "You Are In My Vision". You won't be surprised to learn that there are no tracks that I dislike, an album I regard as a classic and it has aged really well.

Our overall rating for this album is 76/100

The album is available from Amazon here