Very underrated, even by me up to now. I love the dark, more experimental approach they took for this one. You Wear Those Eyes might be the most beautiful song from this band, wish I found it earlier. Gimme Some Slack was the one I always loved from this album with its chugging rhythm guitar and the symphony of synths, saxophone, and organ accompanying it. Panorama is an excellent dark and rocking opener that culminates in vocoder bliss. Touch and Go alternates between an ominous verse and ... read more

Similar in quality to their debut. In fact, if the weakest two tracks were removed from this album, it’d get the same score as the debut for me. Is that a flaw in my scoring system? Maybe… but that doesn’t change the fact that the ratio of tracks I enjoy a lot is a little less here. Still has amazing highlights though, such as the slow-burn Double Life, and the great synth-lines on Let’s Go and It’s All I Can Do.

Ranked
1. Double Life - 100
2. Let’s Go - ... read more

Thought this was my favorite of 1978, but it’s not as consistently amazing as the atmospheres The Man-Machine provides. Still, this is an excellent mix of synths and rock, and Just What I Needed is one of my favorite songs ever.

Ranked
1. Just What I Needed - 100
2. You’re All I’ve Got Tonight - 100
3. Moving In Stereo -100
4. Bye Bye Love - 95
5. All Mixed Up - 95
6. I’m in Touch with Your World - 90
7. My Best Friend’s Girl - 90
8. Good Times Roll - 85
9. ... read more

Defintely some special songs in here. I think I like the Pet Sounds instrumental on here more than most, it just has such an atmosphere, and the melody on the guitar is so beautiful to me. My other favorite songs on here have good vocal melodies and beautiful instrumentation. There are other songs on here that lack that special factor to me, but overall a great album.

Ranked
1. God Only Knows - 100
2. Pet Sounds - 100
3. I Know There’s An Answer - 100
4. Here Today - 100
5. That’s ... read more

I’m a sucker for rock with synths à la The Cars… pair that with timeless classics like Mr. Brightside and Smile Like You Mean It, and you get an album I really enjoy.

Ranked
1. Smile Like You Mean It - 100
2. All These Things That I’ve Done - 100
3. Mr. Brightside - 100
4. Jenny Was A Friend of Mine - 100
5. Change Your Mind - 100
6. On Top - 95
7. Andy, You’re A Star - 95
8. Everything Will Be Alright - 90
9. Believe Me Natalie - 90
10. Midnight Show - 90
11. ... read more

It was kind of difficult to listen to this album in the U.S. for a bit. I helped make it more accessible by venturing back to Pandora with a VPN lol. It felt really cool discovering these songs. Joey has some great guitar parts on some of these like Wishful Thinking, Big Three Wheeler, and People in the World. Mallari’s soaring performances on Wishful Thinking (I just really love this song) and Walls of Silence really help make them amazing as well. It’s also cool how they were ... read more

Texas is not a landlocked state >:[

Ranked
1. Jobless Monday - 100
2. Francis Forever - 100
3. I Don’t Smoke - 95
4. Townie - 95
5. First Love/Late Spring - 90
6. Texas Reznikoff - 90
7. Drunk Walk Home - 90
8. I Will - 90
9. Last Words of a Shooting Star - 90
10. Carry Me Out - 90

100 - Masterpiece
90 - Amazing
80 - Great
70 - Good
60 - Okay
50 - Mid
40 - Ehh
30 - Bad
20 - Terrible
10 - Awful
0 - Abysmal

Album score calculated by taking average of mean and median of track scores.

A worthy successor to She’s So Unusual. Of course it doesn’t have as many all-time hitters as that one (not a lot of albums do), but the same Cyndi is here with solid instrumentals backing her. True Colors is so beautiful.

Ranked
1. True Colors - 100
2. Change of Heart - 95
3. Boy Blue - 95
4. 911 - 95
5. Maybe He’ll Know - 90
6. The Faraway Nearby - 90
7. Calm Inside the Storm - 90
8. What’s Going On - 85
9. Iko Iko - 75
10. One Track Mind - 75

100 - Masterpiece
90 - ... read more

Crazy how packed with hits this album is. Every one is amazing except for the last, which gets a little too unusual for my tastes 😂

Cyndi is such a charming vocalist here, her voice is so emotive on songs like When You Were Mine and Witness, and I love the quirkiness she brings to the songs. Girls Just Want to Have Fun is such an anthem, her performance makes it so.

The instrumentals are great in here as well, from the guitar in Money Changes Everything and I’ll Kiss You, to the bass ... read more

Tone Float isn’t as good as the longer tracks Kraftwerk would go on to make, but the bongos are a nice touch. It’s a nice song, but can get boring.

Milk Rock would have been better if the tone on the flute was improved, falls a little flat for me as is. Silver Forest is passable ambience, and Rhythm Salad is a solid display of percussion.

I was pleasantly surprised with the last track though. The sliding bass and organ make it a beautiful closer, even while the out-of-tune violin ... read more

I was excited when I heard the beginning of Ruckzuck, sounded like a krautrock track I’d really enjoy. Unfortunately, it lost some steam for me as it went on. Not a bad start though.

Then there’s Stratovarius… it eventually becomes decent after the worst intro of all time… still too long though, I barely get anything out of it.

And then Megaherz is kinda beautiful?? But even then there’s still unpleasant sounds near the end. Part of me wants to like the ... read more

Dang, was thinking it was possible for me to go through the whole Kraftwerk discography thinking all their albums were amazing, but here we are. While I didn’t understand it with Ralf & Florian, I can definitely see why they don’t want this to be on streaming and associated with Kraftwerk. This isn’t the Kraftwerk we know it as, this is the very experimental phase the band needed to go through to become what it eventually became.

Klingklang is the best sign of what is to ... read more

Awesome look into the Kraftwerk before Kraftwerk. Elektrisches Roulette is really cool, I like how goes back and forth between mystical atmospheres with strings and fluttering synths, and then goes into pulsing krautrock rhythms. I like how I can hear sounds from Autobahn in Tongebirge, it’s beautiful. Kristallo is interesting to listen to with its liquid bass, and especially with its ending where they reverse and speed up the tape. The last three tracks are all just beautiful. From ... read more

Great music for listening to while doing cardio. I’m happy they released another album after Electric Café. Not that that album was terrible or anything (I actually prefer it), but this feels like a better way to end things. Very cool sounds on here, and the repetitiveness doesn’t bother me as much as it has on other Kraftwerk albums. It helps you get into the zone for the aforementioned cardio.

My only nitpick that songs like Etape 1 and Titanium sound exactly like other ... read more

While Kraftwerk aren’t the cutting-edge pioneers they once were in previous releases here, they still have the musicianship to make quality catchy electronic ditties. This does sound more of its time than other Kraftwerk releases have been, but it’s not too much of a hindrance for me. My only nitpicks are that Techno Pop is kinda long for its repetitiveness, and Musique Non Stop can get a bit annoying with the vocals it uses for its melodies. Solid addition to the Kraftwerk ... read more

The sections starting at 3:34 and 11:35, as well as from 15:59 to the end in the title track are so beautiful. It’s cool that at this point in their discography they didn’t completely abandon acoustic instruments, they really add something to this song and the album as a whole.

The Kometenmelodie duology is excellent as well. I love how the first part is so low-key and bass-y with that whistling noise, and how it builds into the joyful bliss of the second part.

Mitternacht is the ... read more

Kinda a transition between their earlier “synth-prog” stuff and their later more accessible music. It’s a nice listen, but a little weighed down compared to other Kraftwerk albums from using repeated ideas. Trans-Europe Express through Abzug use the same rhythm track intentionally. This suite reminds me of Autobahn being a long segment of music dedicated to a transportation method. Unfortunately, when I compare them, it’s easy to just say that this is an inferior ... read more

I liked “The Robots” more on this listen than I ever have before. Guess it took me a while to get over the “We are the robots” lyrics, but I really enjoyed the instrumentals on it this time around. I also checked out the German version, I think this is a time where I prefer it to the English one. Metropolis and Spacelab have such engaging atmospheres. The Model is a perfect pop song, and Neon Lights is beautiful, even if a bit long. The Man Machine (song) is a bit ... read more

Amazing throughout, this tribute to Syd is touching.

Ranked
1. Wish You Were Here - 100
2. Have a Cigar - 100
3. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 1-5) - 95
4. Welcome to the Machine - 90
5. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 6-9) - 90

100 - Masterpiece
90 - Amazing
80 - Great
70 - Good
60 - Okay
50 - Mid
40 - Ehh
30 - Bad
20 - Terrible
10 - Awful
0 - Abysmal

Album score calculated by taking average of mean and median of track scores.

The first side of this album is perfect. Computer World is a great introduction with that iconic synth line and the mechanical listing of things in society that computers became an integral part of. Pocket Calculator is so catchy, I love the lyrics about calculating stuff too, charmingly nerdy 😄. Numbers is very rhythmically satisfying and taught me how to count to 8 in German. Computer World 2 is a great combo of the previous song and its namesake, always loved both the transition into this ... read more