Gary Numan

For the first time in nearly half a decade, Numan, to a large if not total extent, recaptured the sense of compelling darkness at the heart of his music on Strange Charm. Though Numan himself had a difficult time with the recording of the album, speaking in later years about his struggles with then-new technology and how best to make it work for his music, the end results often justify the expense of effort. For the first time in a long while, Numan actively uses silence and less-crowded arrangements to create a more dramatic impact - it lets the songs breathe a bit more, while further foregrounding his vocals. Flat-out successes such as "The Sleeproom," with its haunting, quite beautiful chorus, and the concluding ballad "This Is Love," with heavily echoed piano and singing leading the way, show how his decision worked wonders…