Feature: A Buyer’s Guide to DEVO


Devo: Duty now for the Future

DUTY NOW FOR THE FUTURE

The second album, released a year later is arguably their most (appropriately) futuristic on every level, from the atom-age sleeve to the sleek and shiny production, courtesy of ‘Ziggy’ producer Ken Scott. Analogue synths blast and whirr like comic-book rocket boosters, the drums sound synthetic, robotic and precise, but it’s human metronome Alan Myers never missing a beat. It’s quite unlike anything really, ‘Wiggly World’ beams in like a pulsating alien scalpel drilling into your (swelling itching) brain and never lets up. ‘Smart Patrol/Mr DNA’ is a brooding call-to-arms manifesto for spudboys everywhere, with an unearthly synth blurt that defies description. Their uniform space-cadet imagery was first gestating here and would become an enduring theme. For me, Duty… is their masterpiece.

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