Thursday, June 24, 2010

Designed by Devo for your listening pleasure

Survey any random gathering of Devo fans for their opinion of the group's definitive album and you're likely to split the crowd four ways between Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, Duty Now For The Future, Freedom Of Choice and New Traditionalists with the only real consensus being that 1990's Smooth Noodle Maps sucked even harder than either 1984's Shout or 1982's Oh, No! It's Devo
No doubt the song requests hollered at Mark Mothersbaugh and company during Devo's recent concert expeditions across North America gave them some useful insights into what would make for a successful comeback album. And just to be sure they got it exactly right, a post-recording focus group poll was conducted to help pinpoint the optimal audience-pleasing track listing. Damn, how Devo is that?
As a result of their elaborate investigation, Devo have issued their findings in the form of Something For Everybody (Warner)  – their first album of new material in 20 years. It's an apt title given that each of the songs selected seem pragmatically designed to elicit a favourable response from listeners who feel strongly about certain specific aspects of the group's five most popular albums. Yet, they've stopped well short of trying to replicate successful tunes note for note.
So if you've always believed they've never improved upon 1978's Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, there's a track included for your listening pleasure which sounds like it could've been recorded with Brian Eno at Conny Plank's studio in Cologne and that goes for the other three most popular albums. They've also shrewdly included a few tunes that don't seem to be connected to any previous recording to appeal to both longtime followers who buy Devo recordings anticipating something fresh and unusual and those yet to be converted.
Even the choice of the colour scheme for the sleeve graphics – perceptively going with a blue power dome instead of their conventional red one now that blue is officially the new green – appears to be carefully considered and supported by thorough research. Yep, they've got it down to a science but then, you really wouldn't expect anything less from Devo.

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