Computer World

The last great Kraftwerk album, Computer World captured the band right at the moment when its pioneering approach fully broke through in popular music, thanks to the rise of synth pop, hip-hop, and electro. As Arthur Baker sampled "Trans-Europe Express" for "Planet Rock" and disciples like Depeche Mode, OMD, and Gary Numan scored major hits, Computer World demonstrated that the old masters still had some last tricks up their collective sleeves. Compared to earlier albums, it fell readily in line with The Man-Machine, eschewing side-long efforts but with even more of an emphasis on shorter tracks mixed with longer but not epic compositions. While the well-established tropes of the band were used again -- electronically treated vocals, some provided by Speak and Spell toys; crisp rhythm blips; basslines and beats; haunting, quirky melodies -- there's a ready liveliness to the songs, like the addictive "Pocket Calculator," with its perfectly deadpan portrait of "the operator" and his favorite tool, and the almost winsome "Computer Love." Cannily, the lyrical focus on newly accessible technology instead of cryptic futurism and vanished pasts matched this new of-the-now stance, and the result was a perfect balance between the new world of the album title and a withdrawn, bemused consideration of that world. The title track itself, with its lists detailing major organizations presumably all wired up, echoes the flow of Trans-Europe Express, serene and pondering. "Pocket Calculator" itself is more outrageously fun, thanks to the technical observation that "by pressing down a special key it plays a little melody." Others would take the band's advances and run with them, but with Computer World Kraftwerk -- over a decade on from their start -- demonstrated how they had stayed not merely relevant, but prescient, when nearly all their contemporaries had long since burned out. 

"不但在音乐上被喻为透视了日后科技舞曲音乐的出现 也精确的预言了现今电脑纪元的生活形态。"

一个作品，可能过二十年它就不时尚了，但过三十年它又最时尚了

非常虚无空洞的专辑,这张能说有歌词吗 完全就是词语的堆积.最后一首也更印证了虚无的专辑.最后几秒的键盘音色更像是在展现一个被毁灭后的世界.不仅是人类的末日.

光是听感上就已经超越了之前“星际、列车、迷幻”的范畴，随着电子元件主题的引入，不仅是迷幻，还出现了舞曲、化框框条条感为未来预示感的机械、信息技术元素。

这张专辑今天39周岁了，是Kraftwerk第8张录音室专辑，与74-78年间连续四张的频率不同，与上一张时隔3年似乎意味着乐队在探索“人与机器，人与科技”关系上遇到了困难，如这张作品封面那样，微机在那个时代仍处在实验阶段，然而Ralf与Florian前瞻性的预见到了计算机时代的来临及对人的影响。