Put The Needle On The Record - Week #24

Put The Needle On The Record Week #24 Kraftwerk - Computer World

For this weeks feature we go back to May 1981 and the Kraftwerk album "Computer World".

"Computer World" was the 8th album released by Kraftwerk, and featured the classic Kraftwerk line-up, of Ralph Hutter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flur.

The amazing thing about this album is that the songs were about computers, home computers, computer dating..... such things hadn't been manufactured or existed at that point, key evidence that Kraftwerk are always ahead of the game, where technology is concerned!

It is also a very short album, with just over 34 minutes of music across 7 tracks, however, the music featured is stunning, I was totally gobsmacked when I first heard the album, the day before release I was listening to the Mark Radcliffe show on Piccadilly radio and he played some of the tracks, it was the best thing I had ever heard at that point in my life, as usual on the day of release I visited my second home, HMV on Market Street in Manchester and bought the album.

For me this is one of THE greatest albums of all time.

The album featured 2 singles, "Pocket Calculator" (which reached number 38 in the UK Singles Chart) and "Computer Love" (which reached number 36 in the UK Singles Chart), however, there was a twist regards the "Computer Love" single, DJ's started playing the B Side "The Model" on radio and it was re-released and hit the top of the UK Charts, "The Model" is a track featured on "The Man Machine" album.

A 12 inch vinyl only single of a remixed version of "Compterwelt" (Computer World) was released in Germany.

I saw Kraftwerk on the Computer World tour at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in the summer of 1981, I was in row c seat 11, facing where Ralph Hutter was standing behind his keyboards, the band transported their entire studio to be positioned on stage at the concerts, It was like watching something from outer space, an incredible sight.

The album peaked at number 15 in the UK Album Chart.

Track Listing

Computer World
Pocket Calculator
Numbers
Computer World 2
Computer Love
Home Computer
It's More Fun To Compute

So if you have the album in your collection and have n't played it in a while, dig it out and give it a spin!