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 21st 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.
“Can you see me? Can you feel me? Can you hear me? I am screaming.”
-gary numan
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.
“For all the things you could have been, Do you deserve forgiveness? Of all the things that you could have seen, The blind could not have seen less.”
-gary numan
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.
“You’re welcome to sing with me, You’re welcome to sing alone, You’re welcome to die with me, You’re welcome.”
-gary numan
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!
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[…] philosophical naturalism that would’ve made empiricist David Hume proud. Gary Numan’s commentary, like the song itself, centered its argument around the grounds that humanity has […]