As a young person it’s kinda cool to be listening to a machine era Numan album upon release… even if it is only an expanded re-release. It’s cool to be able to listen to songs for the first time along with people who listened to Telekon in 1980!

My favourite new track is obviously Like a B-Film, which has some of the best percussion in any Numan song (something about film related songs and percussion, man), or indeed any song ever along with its haunting synth riffs. I’m glad it’s finally seeing the light of day, wonder why it didn’t make the album on the first go. Hope it’s played live when I see Gary in concert in March.

The early version of Please Push No More is another new track. It’s very reminiscent of the final produced version while being a little more fuzzy yet more synthy in sound, which is pretty cool.

The early version of The Aircrash Bureau was really cool for me as that is a top 5 Numan song for me. Of the three demo tracks this one was definitely the most different from the final version, I felt like Gary’s singing in the final version was a bit over produced so it was good to get it a bit more raw in this version, though by far the best version of this song is the Live ‘81 version, a contender for a top 3 Numan track all time for me (like Gary, I like planes a lot, what can I say).

Finally, the early version of I’m An Agent sounds very similar to its final version instrumentally but Gary’s singing was jarringly deeper, more like a moody teenager, I felt it had less energy than the final version where Gary is basically high pitch yelling the lyrics, maybe the idea in the demo was that the voice would be more robotic. Ultimately I’m glad it was changed though the demo would be easier to sing in the shower without losing my voice.

I’d love to hear other Numanoids’ takes on the new Telekon release. Are you all, especially long time fans, as excited as I am about a couple unreleased tracks? Or am I just a moody teenager who’s trying to be hip with the boomers?