The album deals with the themes of the rise of computers within society. In keeping with the album's concept, Kraftwerk showcased their music on an ambitious world tour. The compositions are credited to Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, and Karl Bartos. As was the case with the two previous albums, Computer World was released in both German- and English-language editions.
Computer World - Computer World (German: Computerwelt) is the eighth studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk, originally released on 10 May 1981. The album deals with the themes of the rise of computers within society. In keeping with the album's concept, Kraftwerk showcased their music on an ambitious world tour and issued several different versions of the single "Pocket Calculator" in different languages: namely, German ("Taschenrechner"), French ("Mini Calculateur") and Japanese ("Dentaku", or 電卓). A fifth version, in Italian ("Mini Calcolatore"), was lip-synched to on Italian television in 1981. The compositions are credited to Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, and Karl Bartos. As was the case with the two previous albums, Computer World was released in both German- and English-language editions. The title of the final track, "It's More Fun to Compute", is in English in all releases, as it is based on the slogan "It's more fun to compete!", which could be seen on old pinball machines.
Kraftwerk - Computer World (Remastered) 2009
"We live in a computerworld, so we are making a song about it." With typically obscure candour, Ralf Hütter chose these words to explain the impetus behind Kraftwerk's 1981 album Computer World. Their last great album, it is also perhaps their most prescient and, at just 33 minutes, the most efficiently pared down conceptual statement in their catalogue.
Well, simply by continuing to do what they had always been doing: stay true to their principles andlook further ahead. With Computer World and Computer Love they delivered strongsynth-pop songs like they had on the preceding albums. (By the way, didn't Coldplay nick the themefrom Computer World for one of their own hits?)But with songs like Numbers, Home Computer and It's More Fun To Compute they delivereda new outline for later generations. Numbers is pure industrial in my ears, be it done in theusual gentle Kraftwerk way. The main thing Ministry and Nine Inch Nails had to add was to make itlouder. The two closing tracks list among my favourite Kraftwerk tunes and they announce techno in a bigway. Front 242, Underworld, Orbital and many generations after them would emphasise the entrancingbeats, grooves and the typical synth sequences/bleeps that appear here. As Umur already pointed out, the sound is generally too soft and muffled here. I had hopedthe 2009 remaster would solve this but it didn't. Luckily my favourite tracks also appear on MinimumMaximum in an enhanced format. Anyway, boost the bass and treble and you have another masterpiece.Even at a length of 35 minutes I'm tempted to the maximum rate again. social review comments Review PermalinkPosted Thursday, November 19, 2009 Review this album Report (Review #251748)
After the release of"The man machine" in 1978, Kraftwerk took a three year break from the studio. They returned with an unchanged line up in 1981 with "Computer world" (or "Computerwelt" in their native German), an album which secured further critical acclaim. This success was largely on the back of the single "The model", a track from the previous album "The man machine" which had been belatedly released as the B side of "Computer love" from this album. The single was flipped over when radio stations stared to discover the B-side, and a massive hit single was inadvertently achieved. The album was released as two different versions, in German and English. While the instrumental tracks used were the same, the English language version omits some of the passages which appear on the German release. Overall though, the mechanical nature of the vocals result in the two versions sounding very similar. The album's computer theme may now seem rather prosaic in the digital age, but at the time of its release computers in the home were still a futuristic fantasy, with mainframe computers occupying entire buildings. "Computer world" finds the band retreating from the more melodic aspects of "Trans Europe Express" and "The man machine" back to a minimalist style with greater emphasis on distorted spoken vocals and repeated rhythms. This tends to make the album less accessible; those discovering the band via "The model" soon realising that there is nothing nearly as catchy here. The chosen single, "Computer love" contains a simple melody which has since been sampled or borrowed (with permission) by the band Coldplay for their song "Talk". The vocals on the song are strange in that in between the usual spoken monotone, the title refrain is actually sung. The following track "Home computer" speculates on a day when one can "program our own computer" in the comfort of your own home, pure fantasy!For me, this album was and is something of a disappointment. In the 1970's, Kraftwerk had established themselves as a pioneering band, willing to push the boundaries and explore new dimensions. Here, they rest on their laurels somewhat, and even turn backwards towards their minimalist roots. "Computer world" has its moments, but it could have been much better. social review comments Review PermalinkPosted Wednesday, August 4, 2010 Review this album Report (Review #293347)
Computer World was released the same year that I was born. My mother owned this album on vinyl LP and I used to love it when I was a child and often requested her to play it in the house. My younger sister and her husband are both big Kraftwerk fans and their albums are often played at our frequent family gatherings! Their three year old son is obsessed with trains and loves to watch Trans-Europe Express on the Minimum Maximum DVD. Sorry for this autobiographical detour.I actually still enjoy this album to the present day (even if not in the same way that I like most other music I like) and not purely for reasons of nostalgia. The progressive compositions like Autobahn and Trans-Europe Express were a thing of the past at this point and so were the mindless noise experiments of Radio-Activity. This is rather catchy electronic Pop music, but more elaborated than The Model. The sound consists to 100 % of electronic blips and beeps and the only "human" element are the vocals (many of which are processed though some device to sound "robotic"). This creates a quite mechanical and sound (which is probably exactly what they were aiming for here). The only thing that keeps it from sounding too cold and sterile is the melodies. And the humour!Like those previous Kraftwerk albums, this one too is conceptual and the concept is not hard to figure out; it's about computers. No less than five of the seven tracks have 'computer' and 'compute' in their titles. It is very hard for me to take this music seriously, but it is fun and enjoyable. Kraftwerk had a sense of humour that most of their followers like Depeche Mode completely lacked. Lyrics like "It's more fun to compute" and "I'm the operator with my pocket calculator" are simply hilarious. Computer Love is very interesting as it describes a future that is a reality today, in an age when many people employ dating websites to meet people. They sing "I call this number for a data date"! It is hard not to giggle at such crude lyrics but it is equally hard not to be impressed by the group's ability to see into the future. We do indeed live in a "computer world" today, and Kraftwerk seems to have predicted that some 29 years ago!Overall, this is a rather pleasant and entertaining album even if it holds much less interest for fans of progressive music as compared to albums like Autobahn and Trans-Europe Express. social review comments Review PermalinkPosted Sunday, August 8, 2010 Review this album Report (Review #293774)
First, a little background: I remember becoming aware of this album way back in 1981 - the popradio station where I lived played the track "Numbers" several times, probably for its noveltyvalue: a song that counted a bunch of numbers in a robotic voice set to a sequenced synthetic melodyeerily similar to that heard the prior year on Paul McCartney's synth fiasco "Temporary Secretary"(which I loved). But the seed was planted. The next time I went to a record store, I sawKraftwerk's album "Computer World" and almost decided to buy it. Eventually, I did buy it.Back then, I was in junior high school. Computers were new, a little bit alien, and kind offascinating. Kraftwerk latched on to our collective curiosity about a world with computers. Todaytheir involvement in our life seems obvious, even inevitable, but back then it was a big questionmark. Isaac Asimov and Alan Parsons were wondering if the man/machine relationship would reallyyield the utopian life the optimists anticipated. I myself composed an admittedly naive butnonetheless sincere collage piece where I questioned the wisdom of letting computers take too muchtime out of our lives. Kraftwerk, meanwhile, seemed to tell us, hey, don't worry, be happy.That is the vibe I get from Computer World. It presents man and machine working together inharmony, with the most relaxed and playful melodies you'd ever expect coming out of what sounds likea vintage 1980s Nintendo system.My epiphany came when I was driving with my family in the car. We'd had a fun day, and we went outafter dinner to get some frozen yogurt. I was driving, my wife was on her iPhone, my daughter wasin the back seat on her Kindle, and Kraftwerk was on the stereo. As the music played, I heard theblips and beeps from my family's electronic devices, and rather than feel the Techno-Fear that somany of my contemporaries feel upon realizing that their families are spending way too much timestaring at computer screens, I felt an odd sort of Harmony going on. The music on the stereo and the incidental sounds coming out of their devices were almost "jamming" with each other! Our lives and the machinery that kept us entertained blipped and beeped in the same kind of rhythmic harmony as the music I was hearing. It all seemed to fit together, and it reinforced an idea I've held for a while: Technology is not our enemy. Technology is as beautiful as a painting - or a piece of music. It's all part of the same wellspring of human ideas.Ok, Ok, not very politically correct but I'm just relating what I felt. This album really justreinforced some ideas I had first encountered in my favorite tome Zen and the Art of MotorcycleMaintenance, by Robert Pirsig, that the relationship between man and machine need not be anydifferent from the relationship between man and "nature", because "nature" also encompasses"machines". It's all just different manifestations of the same "stuff". And I will always rememberthis, and will always associate that discovery with this album.In a historical context, Kraftwerk, who had pretty much invented synth-pop during the preceding 5years, presented this album almost as a "hey, remember us?" kind of gesture. The music they hadpioneered had influenced bands that were all over the radio by then. Although this album reallybroke no new ground like Trans Europe Express had, it gave the Kraftwerk guys a well-deservedopportunity to do a "victory lap". It's ironic in this light that I first perceived them as anovelty band in 1981 - they were probably the pioneers of half the styles I was hearing on the radiofrom my favorite pop stars at the time. social review comments Review PermalinkPosted Thursday, March 5, 2015 Review this album Report (Review #1378281)
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