Album · Tubeway Army
Replicas by Tubeway Army
Replicas is an album by Tubeway Army, released in 1979. 1 song from it has charted on rock radio countdowns, with 5 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Are Friends Electric?”, on 5 lists with a best position of #39.
Replicas, the second and last Tubeway Army album, came out on Beggars Banquet on 6 April 1979, and it's the moment this London punk-era band turned into something colder and stranger. Gary Numan sang, wrote and ran the show, with Paul Gardiner on bass and Jess Lidyard on drums, and the synthesizers now do the heavy lifting over a stiff, mechanical rock pulse.
The songs picture a dystopian science fiction future where man and machine blur together, delivered in Numan's flat, alienated voice, with an androgynous image to match. "Are 'Friends' Electric?" came out of nowhere to top the UK singles chart, the first synthesizer-based number one of the electronic era, and in July 1979 the album followed it to No. 1, going Gold. Numan dropped the band name soon after, kept the musicians, and pressed on with The Pleasure Principle.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Replicas on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Are Friends Electric? | 5 | #39 | – | 1979–2022 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.