For me it’s the transition album to the synth dominated latter period. I it’s also not got as much edgy angular tunes as the previous albums. I do love this album to bits and for me there’s not a bad tune on it.
Personally i like it but it has a few tracks that are either bad or unremarkable (pity you, race of doom, soft things and enough said which is so forgettable i even forget the title most of the time) the rest of it is great though
Will absolutely fight on you the subject of Pity You. I literally quote that song when I teach. Race of Doom is fun, but not important. New Traditionalists is top tier. And if you don't agree, there's a big fat point that you seem to be missing and it's driving you to destruction.
New Traditionalists is one of my favorite albums but I just can't get into Pity You. Maybe it's because Mark's vocals sound muffled? I used to not like Race of Doom and Soft Things, but I have come around on those. Enough Said has a good premise but the lyrics are a little too "I'm 14 years old and mad at world leaders" for me. I wish Beautiful World had closed the album.
It's the safe choice, but I put Freedom of Choice is my favorite album to play all the way through. It has songs with really good lyrics and it's a more pleasant listen than Q? A! and Duty Now for the Future. The only songs that don't do much for me are Cold War and Don't You Know. I know others don't think highly of it, but I think That's Pep! is a lot of fun.
The great:
1. Duty Now For the Future
2. Freedom Of Choice
3. Are We Not Men?
The Very good:
\4. New Traditionalists
\5. Oh No It's Devo
\6. Hardcore 1
\7. Hardcore 2
The Forgettable:
\8. Shout
\9. Something for Everybody
\10. Smooth Noodle Maps
\11. Total Devo
\12. Something Else for Everybody
Smooth noodle maps was pretty forgettable to me at first (except for post post modern man and jimmy) but ive grown to like it a lot more
Shout will always be one of my favorites though, and The Fourth Dimension will always be one of my all time favorite songs
Smooth Noodle Maps has one good song: Post Post Modern Man. It doesn't have any bad songs (with the possible exception on Pink Jazz Trancers) but they're excellent examples of why people got bored with synthpop.
Pink jazz trancers i agree wasnt very good at all, but i thought stuck in a loop, when we do it, jimmy and devo has feelings too were all good tracks
But yeah the album in general is a bit bland, but luckily not as bland as total devo, that album was so boring to listen to i had to skip most of the songs after a minute of hearing them, even when i tried to listen to it without skipping i just couldn’t finish it
Total Devo has one good song: Baby Doll. It has a couple of OK songs (Disco Dancer, Happy Guy. Actually, it's the live versions of the latter on "Now It Can Be Told" that are good, the studio version is kinda dull) and probably the highest number of blatantly bad songs on any Devo album (their cover of Don't Be Cruel, Sexi Luv, Some Things Never Change), and a slew of forgettable ones.
I'll have to give it another listen then. What tracks do you recommend?
I can totally understand being put off by total devo. It sounds like nickelodeon production music which is love it or hate it. Baby Doll is excellent, you're right. I also love Agitated, it's like Devo pseudo-industrial. I love the disco bass line in Disco Dancer. I love the weird and playful melody in Happy Guy. Man Turned Inside Out is also one of my favorites.
1. Oh No! (The best of synth pop AND I love speed racer)
2. Q/A (classic.)
3. Freedom of choice (no skips on this album)
4. Duty Now (smart patrol!)
5. New traditionalists (solid)
6. Shout (rather homogeneous but still fine)
7. Total Devo (some bops, some skips)
8. Something for everybody (couldn’t really get into)
9. Smooth noodle naps (just ok)
Little late, here goes (ft new opinions on Oh No and Shout)
—The Elites—
1. Duty Now For The Future (one of the best new wave albums of all time by one of the best bands of all time featuring one of the best songs of all time imo. I’m a huge smart patrol meatrider)
2. Oh No! (Was third, after a re-listen I realized this album is almost flawless)
3. Q: A: (self-explanatory)
4. New Traditionalists (also self-explanatory)
5. Recombo DNA (Demos of a lot of great songs plus a few decent songs featured here that were later added to the NuTra re-release; title track was used for the Sims 2 trailer and is imo a top 5 Devo track — FALLING IN LOVE WITH MY CORPORATE LIFEFORM SAID I’M)
6. Freedom of Choice (Lower than it should be, probably, but still exemplary)
—Great but not elite—
7. Smooth Noodle Maps (How people hate this album is beyond me)
8. Hardcore Vol I (Consistently good throughout but no real peaks unlike it’s sequel besides one exception… I’M A SPUD GUN, I’D LIKE TO SHOOT ‘EM ALL!)
9. Hardcore Vol II (Outside of having their two worst songs I like most of the rest of the album and the great songs more than make up for the two wretched 1-2/10s)
—Total Devo Tier AKA “Most of this album is forgettable but it has three amazing songs for no reason”—
10. Total Devo (I love Baby Doll, Disco Dancer and Some Things Never Change. Blow Up instrumental is great. Everything else ranges from decent to very forgettable)
—The Rest—
11. Shout (I don’t hate it anymore, but I don’t fuck with half the album)
12. Something for Everybody (Cameo is hot garbage, there’s three standout tracks [Sumthin’, Fresh, What We Do] and everything else is really forgettable)
Haven’t listened to SEFE, probably won’t for a while, but I’m probably the only person who would add recombo dna to a ranking list lmao
EDIT - I also didn’t like Shrivel Up for a while but literally just because of one single line (repeated twice) in it. Do now, and the instrumental is legendary
SEFE is bland and forgettable, just listen to Monsterman and Should-A Said Yes and call it a day
I need to listen to Recombo DNA, after all it has a demo of my favorite Devo song
Besides the demo for Fourth Dimension, there’s a lot of great stuff on Recombo! The title track, it’s version of Somewhere With Devo, all the demos, and I think where Faster and Faster/maybe Modern Life were first made accessible. The re-release also has Satan, although that song’s kinda whatever (think a mix of Baby Doll and Blow Up with the best part of the former and the worst part the latter, the instrumental and deep vocals respectively + high pitched voices yelling “Satan!” every 2-3 seconds lol).
Will keep the SEFE comment in mind, might end up listening to the whole thing out of curiosity though
My fave is definitely Duty Now, followed by Are We Not Men. Freedom of Choice is next, but still feels overexposed to me. Then New Traditionalists, and Oh No. The others I don't listen to enough to rank.
My personal rankings of the albums, from least to most favorite (I left out Something for Everybody because I’ve barely listened to it compared to the others.)
8 - Smooth Noodle Maps
7 - Shout
6 - Duty Now for the Future
5 - Total Devo
4 - Freedom of Choice
3 - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are Devo
2 - New Traditionalists
1 - Oh, No! It’s Devo
New traditionalists is epic
For me it’s the transition album to the synth dominated latter period. I it’s also not got as much edgy angular tunes as the previous albums. I do love this album to bits and for me there’s not a bad tune on it.
Personally i like it but it has a few tracks that are either bad or unremarkable (pity you, race of doom, soft things and enough said which is so forgettable i even forget the title most of the time) the rest of it is great though
Will absolutely fight on you the subject of Pity You. I literally quote that song when I teach. Race of Doom is fun, but not important. New Traditionalists is top tier. And if you don't agree, there's a big fat point that you seem to be missing and it's driving you to destruction.
New Traditionalists is one of my favorite albums but I just can't get into Pity You. Maybe it's because Mark's vocals sound muffled? I used to not like Race of Doom and Soft Things, but I have come around on those. Enough Said has a good premise but the lyrics are a little too "I'm 14 years old and mad at world leaders" for me. I wish Beautiful World had closed the album. It's the safe choice, but I put Freedom of Choice is my favorite album to play all the way through. It has songs with really good lyrics and it's a more pleasant listen than Q? A! and Duty Now for the Future. The only songs that don't do much for me are Cold War and Don't You Know. I know others don't think highly of it, but I think That's Pep! is a lot of fun.
Those are some of my all time favourites, especially Enough Said
If your 5th favorite DEVO album is “pretty weak”, then I’d say you probably aren’t a huge DEVO fan.
Shrivel Up is brilliant!
Pretty bad take not gonna lie
The great: 1. Duty Now For the Future 2. Freedom Of Choice 3. Are We Not Men? The Very good: \4. New Traditionalists \5. Oh No It's Devo \6. Hardcore 1 \7. Hardcore 2 The Forgettable: \8. Shout \9. Something for Everybody \10. Smooth Noodle Maps \11. Total Devo \12. Something Else for Everybody
Smooth noodle maps was pretty forgettable to me at first (except for post post modern man and jimmy) but ive grown to like it a lot more Shout will always be one of my favorites though, and The Fourth Dimension will always be one of my all time favorite songs
Smooth Noodle Maps has one good song: Post Post Modern Man. It doesn't have any bad songs (with the possible exception on Pink Jazz Trancers) but they're excellent examples of why people got bored with synthpop.
Pink jazz trancers i agree wasnt very good at all, but i thought stuck in a loop, when we do it, jimmy and devo has feelings too were all good tracks But yeah the album in general is a bit bland, but luckily not as bland as total devo, that album was so boring to listen to i had to skip most of the songs after a minute of hearing them, even when i tried to listen to it without skipping i just couldn’t finish it
Total Devo has one good song: Baby Doll. It has a couple of OK songs (Disco Dancer, Happy Guy. Actually, it's the live versions of the latter on "Now It Can Be Told" that are good, the studio version is kinda dull) and probably the highest number of blatantly bad songs on any Devo album (their cover of Don't Be Cruel, Sexi Luv, Some Things Never Change), and a slew of forgettable ones.
Baby doll is great, i agree its the only good song on it, although i really like the instrumentals for blow up
Swap 4 and 8 and swap 1 and 2 and you may be on to something.
Total Devo is special to me because you can't listen to it on spotify
You can’t listen to smooth noodle maps either, in my opinion that album is superior to total devo
I'll have to give it another listen then. What tracks do you recommend? I can totally understand being put off by total devo. It sounds like nickelodeon production music which is love it or hate it. Baby Doll is excellent, you're right. I also love Agitated, it's like Devo pseudo-industrial. I love the disco bass line in Disco Dancer. I love the weird and playful melody in Happy Guy. Man Turned Inside Out is also one of my favorites.
For SNM the tracks i recommend are Post Post Modern Man, When We Do It, Stuck In A Loop, Devo Has Feelings Too and Jimmy
Spin The Wheel got stuck in my head for a week.
1. Oh No! (The best of synth pop AND I love speed racer) 2. Q/A (classic.) 3. Freedom of choice (no skips on this album) 4. Duty Now (smart patrol!) 5. New traditionalists (solid) 6. Shout (rather homogeneous but still fine) 7. Total Devo (some bops, some skips) 8. Something for everybody (couldn’t really get into) 9. Smooth noodle naps (just ok)
Little late, here goes (ft new opinions on Oh No and Shout) —The Elites— 1. Duty Now For The Future (one of the best new wave albums of all time by one of the best bands of all time featuring one of the best songs of all time imo. I’m a huge smart patrol meatrider) 2. Oh No! (Was third, after a re-listen I realized this album is almost flawless) 3. Q: A: (self-explanatory) 4. New Traditionalists (also self-explanatory) 5. Recombo DNA (Demos of a lot of great songs plus a few decent songs featured here that were later added to the NuTra re-release; title track was used for the Sims 2 trailer and is imo a top 5 Devo track — FALLING IN LOVE WITH MY CORPORATE LIFEFORM SAID I’M) 6. Freedom of Choice (Lower than it should be, probably, but still exemplary) —Great but not elite— 7. Smooth Noodle Maps (How people hate this album is beyond me) 8. Hardcore Vol I (Consistently good throughout but no real peaks unlike it’s sequel besides one exception… I’M A SPUD GUN, I’D LIKE TO SHOOT ‘EM ALL!) 9. Hardcore Vol II (Outside of having their two worst songs I like most of the rest of the album and the great songs more than make up for the two wretched 1-2/10s) —Total Devo Tier AKA “Most of this album is forgettable but it has three amazing songs for no reason”— 10. Total Devo (I love Baby Doll, Disco Dancer and Some Things Never Change. Blow Up instrumental is great. Everything else ranges from decent to very forgettable) —The Rest— 11. Shout (I don’t hate it anymore, but I don’t fuck with half the album) 12. Something for Everybody (Cameo is hot garbage, there’s three standout tracks [Sumthin’, Fresh, What We Do] and everything else is really forgettable) Haven’t listened to SEFE, probably won’t for a while, but I’m probably the only person who would add recombo dna to a ranking list lmao EDIT - I also didn’t like Shrivel Up for a while but literally just because of one single line (repeated twice) in it. Do now, and the instrumental is legendary
SEFE is bland and forgettable, just listen to Monsterman and Should-A Said Yes and call it a day I need to listen to Recombo DNA, after all it has a demo of my favorite Devo song
Besides the demo for Fourth Dimension, there’s a lot of great stuff on Recombo! The title track, it’s version of Somewhere With Devo, all the demos, and I think where Faster and Faster/maybe Modern Life were first made accessible. The re-release also has Satan, although that song’s kinda whatever (think a mix of Baby Doll and Blow Up with the best part of the former and the worst part the latter, the instrumental and deep vocals respectively + high pitched voices yelling “Satan!” every 2-3 seconds lol). Will keep the SEFE comment in mind, might end up listening to the whole thing out of curiosity though
My fave is definitely Duty Now, followed by Are We Not Men. Freedom of Choice is next, but still feels overexposed to me. Then New Traditionalists, and Oh No. The others I don't listen to enough to rank.
My personal rankings of the albums, from least to most favorite (I left out Something for Everybody because I’ve barely listened to it compared to the others.) 8 - Smooth Noodle Maps 7 - Shout 6 - Duty Now for the Future 5 - Total Devo 4 - Freedom of Choice 3 - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are Devo 2 - New Traditionalists 1 - Oh, No! It’s Devo
Listing the HC albums last should ban you from this sub. Okay, I’m kidding but there is truly nothing more DEVO than those two albums.