Midway through Fresh, the first song on Devo’s ninth studio album, lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh sings in his familiar staccato \u201cSo fresh it almost makes me want to cry\/So fresh it’s giving me a second life.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been two decades since Devo’s last studio release, and while there\u2019s plenty of adjectives to describe Something for Everybody, fresh is not one of them (sorry Mark). That\u2019s not to say Something is a poor effort \u2014 it\u2019s not \u2014 but the ground traversed here is already trampled. Of course the album\u2019s ubiquitous sound (which can be heard in newer bands such as the Ting Tings and Hot Chip) was created by Devo 30 years ago, so the band has only themselves to blame.<\/p>\n
But Devo, which re-assembled the classic lineup to create Something, isn\u2019t firmly entrenched in the past, as some of the lyrics and hooks bear out. Human Rocket offers an amusing dichotomy as electronic pings and pops meld with a chorus comfortable in any country song; Mind Games would perfectly fit on any LCD Soundsystem record \u2014 there is evidence Devo is pushing new boundaries. As for lyrics \u2014 which have never been the band\u2019s strong suit \u2014 references to \u201cnasty blogs\u201d (Later is Now), \u201chybrid cars\u201d and \u201cdon’t taze me bro\u201d (Don\u2019t Shoot (I\u2019m A Man), give the album a clear time reference.<\/p>\n
There are some bumps on the comeback road. What We Do is an example of 1980s music at it worst (remember Flash and the Pan? No? There\u2019s good reason for that), while Step Up is a cliched piece comfortable in any \u201980s movie montage (Real Genius, perhaps).<\/p>\n
But there’s a certain ingenuity in No Place Like Home as it takes the ballad to a new, futuristic level, while Sumthin\u2019 is a fun party song, even as it remarks on the New World Order, which is so 1984.<\/p>\n
Like an old friend, Devo is back- maybe not as fresh as it thinks it is, but back nonetheless \u2014 sharing good stories and lasting memories. Welcome home, fellas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Midway through Fresh, the first song on Devo’s ninth studio album, lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh sings in his familiar staccato \u201cSo fresh it almost makes me want to cry\/So fresh it’s giving me a second life.\u201d It\u2019s been two decades since Devo’s last studio release, and while there\u2019s plenty of adjectives to describe Something for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1455,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[457,458],"class_list":["post-1454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-devo","tag-something-for-everybody"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1456,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions\/1456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}