Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!

When Devo's debut album came out in 1978, nobody knew what to make of the mutant new-wave quintet from Akron, Ohio. With Brian Eno's skillful production, Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, Jerry and Bob Casale, and Alan Myers emerged fully formed and outrageous with their razor-sharp social commentary and exhibition of subversive media savvy. Beyond their industrial uniforms and pseudo-devolved demeanor, Devo also happened to be a rocking little band. Classic rave-outs like "Mongoloid," "Jocko Homo," and "Uncontrollable Urge" illustrate the band's perky-jerky intensity. On their inimitable cover of the Rolling Stones' youth anthem, "Satisfaction," Devo's avant-garde robot funk takes the song to a new level of alienation and discontent. While the band went on to greater fame, this was the only album they made that truly mattered. --Mitch Meyers Amazon.com

Truly Sublime

While the Devo phenomenon as a whole may be somewhat time encapsulated, this debut album has absolutely remained as cutting-edge and vibrant as the day it came out some 30 years ago. Though the band already had a great satiric concept going (de-evolution), when they teamed up with Brian Eno for this project, the stuff of demented genius was created. The sound straddles punk, new wave, and the simplistic pop ditties of the sixties. The jumpy, jagged, hypercaffeinated tunes perfectly convey Devo's warped take on pop culture, and also serve to further pop as an art form. This is not a disc that I play in heavy rotation, but it sounds fresh every time I hear it, and only gets better with time. August 25, 2008

What a Debute!

Devo emerged fully formed on this, their first album. And it's still their best album. The stand out songs are "Mongoloid", "Jocko Homo", and "Uncontrollable Urge". They introduce the concept of De-evolotion on this LP. They would futher explore and develope it on future releases.

Devo was a band that would not sit still. Each LP brought with it a new look and sound for the band. Here they popularised the yellow suits, the future would bring the energy domes and the smart patrol.

Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! Was the start of Devo's comentary/parody of modern life. As vital now as the day it was originaly released. February 17, 2008

Only Akron Could Spawn This

Devo came from Akron, Ohio... where I lived until recently. Their appeal and early success was a complete enigma to most locals. But Akron was scraping the bottom of the cultural and economic barrel at that time, so if local talent was attracting national attention it was counted as a blessing regardless. Certain influential artists (David Bowie, in particular) and critics suspected that the band was at the forefront of something revolutionary.

I've seen them linked with Kraftwerk back in their embryonic stages, and there's some logic to that. But the thing that I think is sometimes missed by people from other parts of the country is the absolute contempt that this band inspired in local people when they started. Kraftwerk may have been amusing or ridiculous to the Steve Miller Band fans of the world in 1978, but when you put on a Devo record, folks actually got mad. They'd listen for a few minutes in disbelief, and shake their heads, and then they'd get that impatient look that says, "Okay, this isn't funny anymore"... then their faces would get red and they'd demand that you turn that garbage off *right now*. Devo had an unbelievable polarizing effect, and they were extremely controversial. When they played live, they were threatened with physical violence.

I can still remember listening to Q. Are We Not Men? for the first time... and not exactly liking it, but being stretched by it. So I listened to it again. When you hear these songs now they sound pretty conventional, but at that time the whole album just sounded demented and disturbing. I may have been too young to catch all of the humor (I had probably just figured out that the sixties Batman television series was a comedy). Eventually, I liked it. And by the time the next album came out, I was a fan.

As the band "devolved" they became more of a synthpop unit, which was okay with me since I liked the music they were making. But this Brian Eno-produced debut is more of a straightforward rock and roll record ("Gut Feeling" and "Come Back Jonee", especially), with lots of guitars and Chuck Berry era influences. It holds up better today than most of their successive albums, and certainly better than much of the popular music of the time.

Lyrically, Devo is a smart aleck science. There's a loudly subversive philosophy involved that informs everything the band produces. Back when it was still vague, it passed for profound... but eventually the band couldn't poke fun at the system and participate in it at the same time, so they gave up and caved in to everything they claimed to despise. Now they work in L.A. and write toothpaste jingles.

Incidentally, Devo's greatest hits packages are totally worthless. If you want to get into this band, you have to survey the albums. This is probably a good place to start. February 11, 2008

Still fresh and interesting...

I am surprised that I not only like this album, but that I still play it quite often. I love the songs Mongoloid, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, and the Devo classic, Jocko Homo. It's actually a very good album, strange, unique, and not really as classifiable as most people think. Devo gets thrown in with the New Wave/Punk bands, but their music was more unique and interesting than the slew of New Wave bands. I was never really a fan of Whip It (especially the video, which is one of the cheesiest things I've ever seen), but Devo released many albums in their lifetime, and their debut here is one of their best. September 3, 2007

Aww, Dad: We're ALL DEVO!

Wow. I was 14 when this came out, and it really got to me: I remember staying up all hours to get a chance to film (not record, film) DEVO's early films and videos on Don Kirshner's. Just the perfect antidote to Foreigner.
Yes, it is a real grounbreaker of an album and, strangely, has an original flavor that DEVO shed as quickly as they recorded their second album. The Akron anarchy still shines through on this one, though: the sense that these guys were having such a great time playing their joke on the spudboys at Warner Bros, and disbelieving they were getting the chance. 'Course, having Eno -- while he could still take a joke -- and Connie Planck involved in the production was a big help, too. For this album, it all REALLY worked. And the album got (for 1978, when, remember, Foreigner still reigned) kind of big, at least among the colllege and art school kids. Too bad that after this, the Smart Patrol really did have nowhere to go except into Noo Wave parody. June 2, 2007

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