The Pleasures of Electricity

The Pleasures of Electricity is an album by John Foxx and Louis Gordon, released in 2001. It was the duo's second studio album, and Foxx's third after his return to the music scene in 1997. The album continues along the lines of modern electronics flavoured with early-80s touches that was set out by the duo's 1997 album Shifting City. However, The Pleasures of Electricity is more polished and minimalist than any of Foxx's previous albums (solo or in a group), to the extent that the album sounds almost sterile in places. The lyrics recall themes similar to those in Foxx's classic album Metamatic, dealing with traveling and urban life, including almost bizarre lyrics comparing driving in a car to mathematics in "Automobile" (all this delivered in Foxx's most deadpan voice). "Invisible Women" is a track Foxx originally recorded with Nation 12 over a decade earlier (the version here includes a synth riff recycled from Foxx's single "Underpass" that wasn't included in the Nation 12 version), while "Cities of Light 5" is a further development of "Cities of Light 1" that was also recorded with Nation 12. The album’s original press release states: “Taking a cue from Kraftwerk, one of Foxx’s most obvious stylistic touchstones, “Pleasures…” is a streamlined monorail of lock-step computer-generated beats and wiry synthesizer melodies with an equal emphasis on dark, atmospherics and energised, danceable rhythms.” The artwork of the album was designed by Foxx himself, based on his own photography. The main cover depicts a man in a grey suit standing next to a door, his face completely whited out by a bright light that seems to originate from inside him. This, together with the album name, recalled René Magritte's painting Le Principe Du Plaisir, and through it Gary Numan's synthpop classic The Pleasure Principle, the artwork and title of which were inspired by the said painting (sonically The Pleasures of Electricity also resembles The Pleasure Principle and vice versa). In the sleeve notes for the live album The Golden Section Tour + The Omnidelic Exotour Foxx writes of buying a grey suit around 1978 and photographing his friends wearing it, with the face of the person never showing in the pictures. Whether or not the photographs used on The Pleasures of Electricity are from this time is unknown, but based on the description the artwork for this album is similar to Foxx's 1978 photography.