Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 A must for any serious music lover May 19, 2008
Mr J.S. Rowan. (Glasgow, UK.)
The genius that is Kraftwerk is communicated beautifully in this exquisite album. For those not familiar with the band it would not be an understatement to say that they are one of the most influential of all time along with the Beatles and the Velvet Underground. Their influence is everywhere. I have been listening to this album for over 20 years and it still sounds fresh. When you consider just how long ago it was written, before the internet and all that came with it, its not just the rhythms, beats and production that were ahead of their time, the lyrics (minimal as they are) are hauntingly prophetic in terms of what has come to pass since the album's release. This album is a must have for these and many others reasons - but most of all - for the music itself - a masterpiece.
 32 minutes of genius August 16, 2007
Mr. S. R. Jackson (Huddersfield)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was a marked progression for Kraftwerk; whilst 'Man Machine' set the template by which all future electronic albums would be measured'Computer World' delves into a more melodic, lush and romantic side to their music.It sounds cleaner and crisper than previous works but with the lyrical undertones of caution about where technology is taking us,and this was in 1981,26 years ago!It is the most sampled of all their albums and still gets used today.
The only criticism that can be thrown at this album is it is a bit on the short side, but thirty two minutes of genius is better than most bands will amnage in a lifetime.
Digital Dexterity June 22, 2007
M. R. Holman (Chislehurst, Kent, England)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Computer World / Welt is the best Kraftwerk album in my view. It's ideally listened to on a top quality hi-fi, as there is so much going on. Despite comments concerning the simplicity of the production, which in some ways is true, there are hidden depths to this album, and if you hear it at high volume on a pair of high-end Senheiser headphones, you will be astounded by how much is really going on. Every time I listen to it, I hear something new. My favourite Kraftwerk track of all time is 'Home Computer', which I even have as my home phone's ring tone. The stark coldness of the piece collides head on with the increasingly manic percussion and the crescendo of bleeps and whirrs. The seamless way 'Home Computer' morphs into 'It's more fun to compute' is also amazing. The whole album was (is?) an insight into the future, not just musically, but predicts (or indeed, warns of) the now prevalent reliance we all have on computers in our everyday lives. The album still sounds fascinatingly fresh, and has been a constant source of inspiration for thousands over the last three decades.
I am adding February 1, 2007
Mr. A. Pomeroy (Wiltshire, England)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Computer World is my favourite Kraftwerk album, and I believe it is also their best. Some of their other albums had a greater impact when they were new but today they all sound dated, in different ways, whereas Computer World has not grown old. The group's earliest mainstream albums, Autobahn and Radioactivity, sound thin and old-fashioned. Trans Europe Express and The Man Machine sound too much like the early-80s new wave synthpop that they inspired. The only album of wholly new material that Kraftwerk released after Computer World was Electric Cafe in 1986. Nowadays Electric Cafe's sampled voices and sampled drums sound exactly like something from 1986. It is the only one of the group's albums that has dated badly.
Computer World, in contrast, is perfect. It sounds just as fresh today as it did in 1981. The only instruments are beeps, blips, and buzzes. The production is spacious and polished. The album's production is simple and fundamental in the same way that acoustic guitar music is simple; on this album Kraftwerk became the electronic pop equivalent of Nick Drake. With a few tweaks on the mixing desk, Computer World could be released tomorrow, and it would not sound old. Even the percussion, which so often sounds weak and comical in old electronic records, sounds awesome. The album was sampled well into the 1990s, and is still influential today.
And there is music. You can dance to it. You can hum it. You can play it on guitar. Each side of the record is programmed as a seamless set of songs which mix into each other, opening with the title track, which has a disco bassline reminiscent of the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive". Each track on the album is an influential classic (with the exception of "Computer World 2", which fades out the end of side one). You can hear house music germinating in the harsh, robotised "It's More Fun to Compute", and "Home Computer". "Computer Love" is a touching electronic soul ballad, an ode to computer dating. It is a love song, but it is not really about being in love or falling in love at all. Like Kraftwerk's other love songs it is instead about how technology can extend mankind's reach. The narrator of "The Model" would never have known about his object of desire in a world without cameras, and the narrator of "The Telephone Call" would be lost without the phone.
"Pocket Calculator" is absolutely loveable. Kraftwerk will always be remembered as an icy, grim-faced bunch of electronic futurists, but they had a wry sense of humour, and it is hard not to smile at "I'm the operator / with my pocket calculator". The original German lyrics were not quite as goofy (they went something like "I am the musician / with calculator in the hand"). The song is essentially an anthem for electronic music and electronic musicians. "Numbers" is almost an ancestor of industrial music, with its simple numeric rhythm and its fantastic "sproing" beat. It is an international digital symphony. You can dance to it. You can think about it. You can't hum it, though, and you'd have a hard time playing it on guitar.
If only the album had been longer. At a little over half an hour it is over too soon. It was released in Germany as "Computerwelt", with most of the songs in German, although the backing tracks were the same. There was also a Japanese-language version of "'Pocket Calculator", which was called "Dentaku", although again the backing track was identical. The band also went on tour to support the album, which was released at about the same time that "The Model" (from the group's previous album, The Man Machine) was topping the singles chart in the UK, and there are several bootlegs of live performances.
Hugely Influential December 4, 2006
Paul Johnson
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Kraftwerk are a band that we have all heard of, but mostly because of 'The Model' which is by some distance not what they are capable of, nor does it show how important they are. Computer World is Kraftwerk at their absolute best, basically inventing electronic music. Any band that have used synthesized music since 1980 onwards owes a huge debt of gratitude to this band and I would advise any student of music history to listen to this a great deal.
The key thing is this. Not only is it important due to it's musical influence, it's also stunningly entertaining and does not sound even slightly out of date.
It's great stuff.
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