Kraftwerk / Computer World (1981) (The Catalog Box Set)
Artist Kraftwerk
Box Set Title: The Catalog (Klangbox 002) (50999 9 67506 2 9)
Album Title: Computer World (1981) (The Catalog Box Set)
Album Cover:
Primary Genre Rock: General Rock
Format CD
Released 11/23/2009
Reissue Date 11/23/2009
Label Kling Klang
Catalog No KLANGBOX 002
Bar Code No 50999 9 67511 2 1
Packaging Box Set (8 Disk)
Tracks
1. Computer World (5:07)
(Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos, Wolfgang Flur/Emil Schult)
2. Pocket Calculator (4:56)
(Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos, Wolfgang Flur/Emil Schult)
3. Numbers (3:20)
(Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos, Wolfgang Flur/Florian Schneider/Karl Bartos/Ralf Hutter)
4. Computer World 2 (3:24)
(Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos, Wolfgang Flur/Florian Schneider/Karl Bartos/Ralf Hutter)
5. Computer Love (7:19)
(Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos, Wolfgang Flur)
6. Home Computer (6:20)
(Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos, Wolfgang Flur/Florian Schneider/Karl Bartos/Ralf Hutter)
7. It's More Fun to Compute (4:17)
(Ralf Hütter/Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos, Wolfgang Flur/Florian Schneider/Karl Bartos/Ralf Hutter)
Date Acquired 12/01/2009
Personal Rating
Acquired from Amazon

Web Links

All Music Guide Entry:
Discogs Entry:

Reviews
All Music Guide Review:

Review by Andy Kellman

One of electronic music’s most crucial and lavish box sets, The Catalogue contains eight Kraftwerk albums remastered by founding member Ralf Hütter: Autobahn (1974), Radio-Activity (1975), Trans-Europe Express (1977), The Man-Machine (1978), Computer World (1981), Electric Cafe (aka Techno Pop, 1986), The Mix (1991), and Tour de France Soundtracks (2003). Some purists were upset with liberties taken by Hütter -- specific elements of certain songs sound sharpened, evidence of some noise reduction, and so forth -- but they are few in number and minor in effect. (The gripes were quite possibly made with the intent to prove that they know the ins and outs of these albums more than you do.) The box itself is 12 inches by 12 inches, rather hefty. The eight discs, nested in four dense foam compartments, are individually packaged in sleeves that replicate the original artwork, whether through the disc’s pouch or the slipcase in which the pouch is (tightly) housed. Each album gets its own 12-by-12 booklet with full-page images.



Review by Ned Raggett

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.
Cover 1
Cover 2
Cover 3
Cover 4
Cover 5
Cover 6
Cover 7