#413 Kraftwerk - Computer World

Mike's buddy put this on while we played Boom Blox. You'd be surprised how well this worked.

While having previously glanced Kraftwerk, my real introduction came when I listened to Autobahn and Trans-Europe Express almost 400 albums ago, near the start of this project. Man, my attitude about these lil reviews has changed since then.

Those albums were, in retrospect, icy, impersonal, and had a Velvetsey, aggresive disdain for traditional human listening patterns of the time. Here, by comparison, things downright playful at times (especially on the singular Pocket Calculator, but also on opener Computer World), and downright moving at others (especially on Computer Love, with a riff so perfect that Coldplay built a completely different song, but failed to nail that incomparable buzzy bridge that is the song's actual soul).

In fact, Computer Love is the song that best represents what sets this album apart from previous Kraftwerk albums (or at least the albums I've heard). The themes of computers and technology and general futurism are nothing new, but where the Kraftwerk served as the icy overlord of the onrushing empire, here they are subjects of our society, on the receiving end of the crush of the future. Here the sound is downright vulnerable, serving as a harbinger of Radiohead albums to come. Even on Home Computer, where the narrator is the programmer of the computer, he exists as its victim more than its champion.

Musically, this is a much more fun listen, with great little melodies, and actually very little in terms of Motorik or general Krauty indulgend (do a shot). It's probably not as good for spacing out or working or driving to as their older stuff, but it makes for a mean Boom Blox soundtrack 4.5/5

You might like this if: you like quirky electronic music: this is accessible, inventive, fun, and doesn't even sound particularly dated.