Total DEVO:DEVO

Artist: DEVO

Date Released: 1988

Label: Enigma / Restless

Produced By: DEVO

Tracklisting:
 * 1) Baby Doll
 * 2) Disco Dancer
 * 3) Some Things Never Change
 * 4) Plain Truth
 * 5) Happy Guy
 * 6) Don't Be Cruel
 * 7) The Shadow
 * 8) I'd Cry If You Died
 * 9) Agitated
 * 10) Man Turned Inside Out
 * 11) Sexi Luv
 * 12) Blow Up
 * 13) Some Things Never Change (Cassette Version)
 * 14) Baby Doll (Extended Mix)
 * 15) Disco Dancer (12" Version)
 * 16) Agitated (Hyperextended Mix)

Review: Um, I hate to say it, but, um, this album kinda blows. Hard. DEVO lost Alan Meyers for this one and got in David Kendrick of Sparks and The Gleaming Spires, and, well, while his style worked pretty well with those bands, it doesn't so much for DEVO... not that the drumming is the root of the problem. The songs are just kind of blah, too. Part of the problem is that this is the album where having witnessed the events of Kent State caught up with DEVO, and it's a much more emotional album (as is smoothnoodlemaps for that matter, but not to this extent). Where other DEVO albums were angry, this one's sad -- perhaps as a function of getting older, and DEVO not being the angry young men they once were. Either way, though, it's not that great. There're some good songs on here (I'm kind of fond of "I'd Cry If You Died", "Happy Guy", "Man Turned Inside Out" and "Plain Truth", there's a lot of them that are just not very good. Like, um, "Sexi Luv"?  Or "Agitated"?  Or the so-bad-it's-hilarious "Blow Up"?  If you must get a record from the Enigma era, go with smoothnoodlemaps, but, eh, you'd be better off getting one of the Warner Brothers ones.  Or the Hardcore stuff on Ryko!  That stuff's rad. - Rev. Syung Myung Me