Devo - Duty Now for the Future / New Traditionalists
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Free Music Notes for Duty Now for the Future / New Traditionalists
Free Music Review: Two Four Star Albums in One Jewel Case!
Hit: 4 Stars
It's funny that this cd is like the Oreo cookie outside to the creamy "Freedom Of Choice" commercial success center. Looked and listened to in that perspective, it does show where the potato heads' heads were at. "Duty Now" is a really good album that came after a perfect one, and it does shrivel in comparison. The DEVO eyes had turned from the sound of things falling apart to the machinery that made it go. Having used up most of their "conceptual" songs for the debut, we were served up musings on love work and death.
In part, the blame does rest on producer Ken Scott, who obviously didn't understand the band with anywhere near the depth that Brian Eno did. Where Eno might have encouraged brighter production in (for instance) "Swelling Itching Brain," Scott instead chose to make it murkier. That most of the songs here are great overcomes the cloudy sound, and "The Day My Baby Gave Me A Surprise" is a DEVO hall of famer.
This is also the home of one of DEVO's best statement of purpose songs, the concert fave "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA." Declaring themselves to be "suburban robots to monitor reality," DEVO make the claim that they are here to protect both man and mutant, only to discover that Mr. DNA deems them fit to "sacrifice themselves so many others may live!" It also rocks harder than anything else DEVO ever recorded for the first part of their career. After this, the slick success of "Whip It" kind of tamed them...if you ever considered DEVO tamable.
"New Traditionalists" found DEVO in a precarious state. Their arty irony and brainy pop smarts had made them a flavor of the moment via the "F.O.C." hit single and video, and suddenly the whole world was chanting "are we not men?" It both emboldened them and deepened their cynicism. "Through Being Cool" rallied the alienated to rise against the ninnies and the twits at the same time "Beautiful World" wearily declared that it might have been a beautiful world for you, but "it's not for me." After all, how could you rail against the lemming/jock mentality when they were the ones donning energy domes at the football games and singing "Whip It" at corporate synergy rallies?
But having been touched by the gold finger of hit making, DEVO did their best to fill an album with enthusiastic pogo anthems about their favorite topics. "Jerking Back and Forth" and "Love Without Anger" are typical visions of human relationships ala DEVO. (The stop motion doll video for "L.W.A." is among the band's best.) "Going Under" had them tinkering with their sound a little, and "Working In A Coal Mine" was given the DEVO oldie treatment. All in all, a solid album.
As a double record on one disc, worth every penny, especially since the import individual discs are getting really hard to find.
Free Music Review: Only four stars because of New Traditionalists.
Hit: 4 Stars
Duty Now For The Future is one of DEVO's finest creations. All of the songs on this dark masterpiece are killer futurist, electro-spud rock'n'roll monsters. Duty Now For The Future is a follow lp to the great Q: Are We Not Men album and expands on the DEVO manifesto. Songs like "Clockout", "Wiggly World" and "The Day My Baby Gave Me A Suprise" are great rock'n'roll tunes while being gross and darkly humorous at the same time. DEVO was now developing and expanding the notion that DEVO was just doing a job and entertainment was just that-a job. This is the DEVO war machine at the hight of it's power! For great live footage of the band during the "Duty Now" era try to find the video The Men Who Make The Music. Too bad the original cover that featured a super-cool removable postcard and great bar-code graphics has been replaced with the UK/European version of the jacket art.Free Music Review: A good chunk of devo for a good price
Hit: 4 Stars
This album is great, wether you're a DEVO newbie or a seasoned veteran. I would recommend this album even if you have no earthly idea who DEVO is. The best songs I would say are "Secret Agent Man","Pity You", and "The Day My Baby Gave Me A Surprise."All in all, a solid album for many to enjoy.
Free Music Review: Only completists on a budget and gullible nerds need apply
Hit: 2 Stars
Neither of these are strong albums, and even at half the price this double disc just isn't worth it with such solid collections available.
If you want to check out what these albums have to offer without the chaff go for the anthology, or the hits/misses collections if you'd like to catch some of the quirkier tracks as well.
Even the packaging sucks. It's Devo! Where's the gimmicky album art and liners to distract me from all the unlistenable parts?
Free Music Review: And now, story time with Scuzzbopper
Hit: 1 Stars
Once upon a time, in the land of Virgin (where everybody was innocent), there lived a bargin price low-quality double-album Devo CD named Duty Now/Nutra. He was very lonely and his only friend was another bargin price low-quality double-album Devo CD named Oh No/Freedom. They shared many laughs together and hung out as often as possible, wondering what it was like to be an expensive, out-of-print high-quality Infinite Zero CD or even a regular-priced, easy-to-find normal-quality Warner Brothers CD.One morning, Duty Now/Nutra went to visit Oh No/Freedom as always, but found a horrifying sight. Oh No/Freedom had been shattered into little tiny pieces! Beside one of the shards, was a note written in blood that said "You're next!". Duty Now/Nutra wondered what this phrase meant as he buried the remains of Oh No/Freedom, choking back tears the whole time.
That night, as Duty Now/Nutra was walking home, he heard a noise behind him. He turned around and saw a huge long shadow looming over him. Duty Now/Nutra screamed a girly "Good gawd!" and turned to run, but tripped over his own klutzy feet. As he struggled to his feet, the shadow engulfed the poor hapless CD. He looked up and gasped in fright! It was a 20-foot tall hammer!!
Duty Now/Nutra screamed at the top of his lungs, but nobody could hear him. "Silence!", the hammer boomed. "I am Mr. Hammer! I was sent here on a mission! A mission to destroy you!! You're giving DEVO a very bad image, and frustrating many spuds and spuddesses out there! Your sound quality sucks!"
Duty Now/Nutra was never more scared in his life. "Please, don't hurt me! Go into BMI Land and kill Greatest instead!!". "It's already been taken care of!", Mr. Hammer boomed. "Now shut up and die like a man instead of a Booji boy!". Before Duty Now/Nutra could wimper out another word, Mr. Hammer's head crashed down on the poor helpless CD with full force, shattering him into a million pieces. Just for added measure, Mr. Hammer peed all over the broken shards, which was an incredible feat, considering hammers don't pee. The remains of Duty Now/Nutra were left in the Virgin Forest for weeks, until the wind blew them away, never to be seen again.
THE END