Replicas is a New Wave / electronic album by Gary Numan and Tubeway Army, released in 1979. It was the second and final Tubeway Army LP, following a self-titled debut the previous year. It was also the first album of what Numan later termed the "machine" phase of his career, preceding The Pleasure Principle and Telekon, a collection linked by common themes of a dystopian science fiction future and transmutation of man/machine, coupled with an androgynous image and ground-breaking synthetic rock sound. Fuelled by a surprise number 1 hit single, "Are 'Friends' Electric?", Replicas also claimed the top spot in the UK charts.

Something of a concept album, Replicas was based on a book Numan hoped to complete someday, set in a not-too-distant future metropolis where Machmen (androids with cloned human skin) and other machines keep the general public cowed on orders from the Grey Men (shadowy officials). Whilst the album’s setting and lyrics were directly inspired by the science fiction of Philip K. Dick, particularly his seminal work Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the title was, surprisingly, not. Though similar to 'Replicants', the term used for androids in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, based on Dick’s book, Scott’s film came out three years after Tubeway Army’s album and Dick never used the word 'Replicant' in his original 1968 novel.

Musically Numan’s chief influences were the as-yet commercially-unsuccessful Ultravox who pioneered the integration of synthesizers with conventional rock instruments; David Bowie’s Low, especially tracks like "Speed of Life" and "Breaking Glass", and general air of disaffection; and Kraftwerk’s The Man Machine, in particular the long and wistful "Neon Lights".

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