Your least favorite Kraftwerk album

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What's the worst Kraftwerk album and why?

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:35 (nineteen years ago) link

Ringo

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:40 (nineteen years ago) link

It must be one of the ones I haven't heard, but all the ones I have are great.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:40 (nineteen years ago) link

er: tour de france soundtracks, because it's lazy-ass will-this-do bollocks, yet contains just enough moments of glorious electro-perfection to make you realise that they really do still have it, and could produce a world-beater if they bothered their fucking saddle-sore arses.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:45 (nineteen years ago) link

Actually, I can't get interested in Radio-Activity.

― Dominique (dleone), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:50 (nineteen years ago) link

Can't say I listen to 2 much, but I was thinking the newest one is my least favorite. Do like "Elektro Kardiogram" a lot though.

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:50 (nineteen years ago) link

x-post: really? wow, that was my core kraftwerk moment for a long time. (now supplanted by TEE, though.)

still, i suppose this is the best place to admit that, er, i actually find "the man machine" a little, umm, dull in parts.

has anybody heard the new live album? i'm halfway through it. jesus christ, that is the worst version of "the model" ever. it sounds like a casio-keyboard demo.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:53 (nineteen years ago) link

The Mix, and even that's not so bad. It just sounds like a covers album in places...

― naus, Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:55 (nineteen years ago) link

Computer World is probably my least favorite - some great tracks, but less variety than any other album. Even though it's pretty short I find it hard to listen all the way through.

― Brian Miller (Brian Miller), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 18:57 (nineteen years ago) link

I can't really tell which is my least favourite; however, while we're on the subject, I'm a big fan of this review of Electric Cafe posted on Usenet in 1986:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/net.music.synth/msg/dd8c18bd64640e58?dmode=source&hl=en

― KeefW (kmw), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:01 (nineteen years ago) link

jesus, i didn't know usenet existed in 1986.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:02 (nineteen years ago) link

Since about 1981... Read the review Simon, it's a laugh!

― KeefW (kmw), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:02 (nineteen years ago) link

Comparisons with Keith Emerson, Isao Tomita, Prince, etc. are useless

― Dominique (dleone), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:04 (nineteen years ago) link

They've finally done it- they've taken every
telephone-related sound known to man and written a song around it.

chortle!

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:08 (nineteen years ago) link

I particularly like that line... It's like their whole career has been building up to this moment!

― KeefW (kmw), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:09 (nineteen years ago) link

Electric Cafe > Tour de France Sountracks > The Mix

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:22 (nineteen years ago) link

What I've heard of the early pre-"Autobahn" stuff doesn't impress me at all. However, I would have to say the out of the entire albums I have heard, "Trans Europe Express" is the one that annoys me the ones. "Europe Endless" and "Hall Of Mirrors" are strong enough, but the title track and "Metal And Metal" get way too long and way too repetitive.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 20:16 (nineteen years ago) link

brian miller - YOU ARE CRAZEE!

CW>TEE>1/2/R&F>MM>RA (havent heard TDF or EC)

― peter smith (plsmith), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 20:24 (nineteen years ago) link

you forgot A

― a banana (alanbanana), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 20:45 (nineteen years ago) link

Mark, what's your hate on "Aero Dynamik"?

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 2 June 2005 01:27 (nineteen years ago) link

The Mix by miles

― wtin, Thursday, 2 June 2005 09:01 (nineteen years ago) link

T.E.E. I think. The title track suite and the rhythmic monotony is actually the LEAST boring part.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Thursday, 2 June 2005 09:03 (nineteen years ago) link

fucking hell, do i like a different kraftwerk to everybody else?

what are your favourites? mine would be (in this order) TEE, radio-activity and computer world. i really, really cannot understand any kraftwerk fan not loving TEE: surely it encapsulates what they're all about.

ho hum.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 2 June 2005 09:22 (nineteen years ago) link

I'll give it another go.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Thursday, 2 June 2005 09:23 (nineteen years ago) link

My favourite is clearly "The Man Machine" because it is the melodically stronger Kraftwerk album by far.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 2 June 2005 11:06 (nineteen years ago) link

actually, geir, even by that criterion i'd disagree: surely only "the model" and "neon lights" are particularly defined by melody?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 2 June 2005 13:11 (nineteen years ago) link

"The Mix", easily. It's really lame.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 2 June 2005 13:19 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm guessing it won't be the new live album.

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Thursday, 2 June 2005 13:27 (nineteen years ago) link

actually, geir, even by that criterion i'd disagree: surely only "the model" and "neon lights" are particularly defined by melody?

In the case of Kraftwerk, one has to consider all the lead melodies in the synths too.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 2 June 2005 13:34 (nineteen years ago) link

The Mix. It's boring.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 2 June 2005 13:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Electric Cafe. The Mix is a bad idea and even a badly executed bad idea in places, but those pitch bends on "Abzug" are just lovely. Electric Cafe really was a misstep. "The Telephone Call" is great, but the album as a whole sounds of its time in a way that they hadn't ever really sounded in over a decade. Haven't listened to the live album yet, but I'm not inclined to believe it could be that bad, not after having seen them play and having had me a real good time. The first Kraftwerk album sometimes hurts my head to even think about but it exists in a parallel universe to everything else they did afterwards.

― Deluxe (Damian), Saturday, 4 June 2005 10:23 (nineteen years ago) link

That usenet review is particularly fitting for KWerk, like a time capsule full of naive enthusiasm for the possibilities of technology. Some heartbreaking lines, like "I'm looking forward to a CD version to appear" and "I wouldn't want to wait another 5 years for another album"

― The Emancipation of Baaderonixx (KERERU 4 LIFE!) (Fabfunk), Saturday, 4 June 2005 10:35 (nineteen years ago) link

Poor dude, how about 17 years?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 4 June 2005 12:19 (nineteen years ago) link

Haven't listened to the live album yet, but I'm not inclined to believe it could be that bad, not after having seen them play and having had me a real good time.

the live album is patchy, but it closes with an absolutely blinding version of "music non-stop".

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 4 June 2005 15:20 (nineteen years ago) link

I haven't really made a point to keep up the past couple decades, but I've yet to hear a single song after *Computer World* that I remotely care about. (By "Tour De France" they were totally spinning their wheels, nyuk nyuk.)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 4 June 2005 21:43 (nineteen years ago) link

... and then, 20 years later, they turn a below-par song into a whole fucking album!

really. why do i not hate this band? :0

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 4 June 2005 21:45 (nineteen years ago) link

I actually love the Tour de France Soundtracks thing... It did my head in a bit. It might be my favourite record of that year, which given that it was made by a band who have existed since before I was born amazed me. The main thing that's wrong with it is that it's got the original "Tour de France" on it, which I think is great, it just doesn't fit on that record.

― KeefW (kmw), Saturday, 4 June 2005 21:56 (nineteen years ago) link

All of them, basically. Which is weird because I own them all, but hey.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Saturday, 4 June 2005 22:02 (nineteen years ago) link

x-post: !

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 4 June 2005 22:23 (nineteen years ago) link

For real!

― KeefW (kmw), Saturday, 4 June 2005 22:36 (nineteen years ago) link

The version of Tour De France at the end of that album is a re-recording - I imagine it's all part of the Hütter and Schneider plan to write Bartos and Flür right out of their history.

― Deluxe (Damian), Sunday, 5 June 2005 09:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Or so Bartos and Flür would argue, anyway...

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Not great:
Kraftwerk 2
Electric Cafe

Useless:
The Mix

I like everything else

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 09:10 (nineteen years ago) link

rockiste

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 09:15 (nineteen years ago) link

Maybe RA is my least favourite, and Kraftwerk 2 from the earlier albums, but I like all of their albums to some extent, somehow.

― Leo77, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 16:09 (nineteen years ago) link

Actually, I can't get interested in Radio-Activity.
-- Dominique

― vanessa novaeris (novaeris), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 19:07 (nineteen years ago) link

Out of the ones I've heard, I'd say the first two (though I liked the second one more than the first).

― Joe (Joe), Thursday, 16 June 2005 01:13 (nineteen years ago) link

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