Kraftwerk - Computer World
#184
By Tom Mott
May 10 1981
Kraftwerk
Computer World
Genre: Kraftwerk
Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Rating: 0000000000000101
Tom’s Highlights:
Computer World
Pocket Calculator
Numbers
... all of Side 1
I love this album deeply. It was love at first hear, so any review of it would be an attempt to logically explain a visceral response. I just love it. Listen to the first 20 seconds. You'll either luxuriate in the lovely hypnotic bubbling rhythm. Or not.
So let's talk about my relationship to this album instead! Or rather, I'll type and you'll read. This album is in my Top Three GOAT along with There's a Riot Goin' On and Safe as Milk. (Allmans At Fillmore East is up there too.) I don't do Springsteen. I do Kraftwerk. Not a comparison but perspective for non-Kraftwerk fans. This is my Vienna or Dirk Wears White Socks or Cheap Trick. I've seen them live five times. [For many years, the rumor was they were twiddling the knobs for the light show, not actually playing. But it's not true. That tiny bit of humanity and extemporaneous playing makes all the difference. Plus they're incredibly loud live, which is a fantastic experience. The downside is that the audience largely consists of men in their 50s who look like "creative types" which makes me feel more like a demographic than an individual. Maybe that's apropos for Kraftwerk.] I have all their albums on vinyl. I have all their albums on CD. I have their limited edition Catalog box set with miniature versions of all their albums. Their song Franz Schubert from Trans-Europe Express has been my morning alarm for years. The Man-Machine is my ringtone.
Our music tastes supposedly imprint when we're around 13-14. This album came out when I was 13-14, but I discovered it as I was graduating from UCLA. Around that same time, I read Greil Marcus's "Mystery Train" -- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED -- which cemented my love of Sly Stone (and Elvis). I then found Safe as Milk in a used record store. I was also listening heavily to K-EARTH 101. (The Real Don Steele "Tina Delgado is alive, alive!") So my music tastes solidified when I was 23. I was a late bloomer.
This album entered my life around the same time. I don't know exactly how -- art school no doubt -- but I was hypnotized from the opening notes. Sometimes I'd play a cassette of it on a four-track so I could hear Side 2 playing backwards while Side 1 was playing. It works! Heaven.
Kraftwerk altered the trajectory of popular music as heavily as Dylan or the Beatles. Huge swaths of our musical landscape owe a huge debt to Kraftwerk: synth-pop, hip-hop, EDM, House. Bowie, Numan, and OMD all acknowledge the debt directly.
The thing about Kraftwerk is simply that their music is beautiful. Modernist and minimalistic. Eno hits that spot sometimes. Golden Hours, I'll Come Running, By This River. Terry Riley comes close but with too much noodles. Moondog does it with Bird's Lament. Arvo Part. I love Kraftwerk the way I love Yves Klein, Astrud Gilberto, Bach Cello Suites, a perfectly poached egg, or coffee in my favorite mug as the sun comes up.
The more I listen over the years, the more I respond to the little shifts in the music -- the way Deadheads would go nuts when Jerry simply took a small step forward on stage, or that happy moment when Steve Miller throws in the five handclaps after heading down to, ooh, old El Paso.
This album is Kraftwerk's absolute pinnacle, although Radioactivity, Trans-Europe Express, and Man Machine call all rotate through that spot. Man Machine has a bit of sprockets baggage to it, that -- for me -- Computer World lacks. After this, they took 5 years to release their next album -- Ralf got really focused on cycling instead, it being a near-perfect fusion of man and machine -- and they missed out on the entire 80s synth pop scene. But Numan, Depeche Mode, Human League and many others all took the ball and ran in directions Kraftwerk could never have dreamed of.
I've heard this album a thousand times, and sitting here now, it's a thousand and two. Heaven.
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https://open.spotify.com/album/07BPkQfT4B5xjDwjCxRiN2?si=cI0q1m1IT8uA2usD6BwpPA
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