Gary Numan Emphasizes Environmental Crisis with “I Am Screaming”

Most folks of Gary Numan’s generation would be gearing up for retirement. Not so for the godfather of electronica, now into his fourth decade of making music. His second-released track off the May 21^st album Intruder, titled “I Am Screaming”, signaled why the singer-songwriter is far from done.

Among issues top of mind for Numan, the environment has been near and dear to his heart. Perhaps because of moving to Los Angeles, where Mother Nature regularly rebels with drought, desert heat, mudslides, earthquakes, and brushfires, he has been compelled to use his platform to offer Earth a corresponding voice.

His role as an ambassador is evident early on in the lyrics to this song.

Throughout his lyrical plea, he conveyed Earth’s patience while bearing the relentless brunt of humanity’s indifference to its host. As vehicle traffic-induced smog permeates the City of Angels, taking years off culpable residents’ lives, so too the planet will cut short the time allotted to future generations, to pay for their forebears’ transgressions.

Scathing remarks surely cemented by care for his children and their future children. And like loving parents who want to see their children succeed, but find them bucking natural hierarchy, Earth will reprimand humanity. Grim consequences have been seared into the listener’s ears by impassioned vocals cleverly combined with instrumentation as harsh as manufacturing-heavy economies.

Once that tender understanding has become abused enough, nature will have been left with but an apocalyptic solution, as Numan concluded.

Whether his musical work could rally cultural will like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring will have to be determined at a later date. But like the gravely hopeful tune, the larger, solo studio album will have, even if indirectly, continued inspiring younger bands.

The single is available on all streaming platforms. Listen below!