Devo – Duty Now for the Future LP

Description

**Ltd Magenta Vinyl Edition

While the most obvious flaw ofDevo‘sDuty Now for the Futureis that the material simply isn’t as good as on their debut, their second album also captures the group in the midst of a significant stylistic shift. On their first album, for all their herky-jerky rhythms and electronic accents,Devowere pretty much a standard guitars/bass/drums rock band, albeit one with more than their share of eccentricities.Duty Now for the Futurefound them bringing the keyboards that were used as punctuation on their earlier material into the forefront, adding a new level of irony to their “little minds through big technology” philosophy. WhileDevowould later learn to use electronics with confidence and wit, they were still learning how to integrate them into their sound onDuty Now, and the results lacked the strength and coherence of their debut. Of course, it also helped that the first album had better songs; the two instrumentals on side one are merely filler, “Pink Pussycat” and “Clockout” are jokes that just aren’t funny, and “Triumph of the Will” embraces fascism as a satirical target without bothering to make it sound as if they disapprove. But “Secret Agent Man” is a wittier devolved cover than “Satisfaction,” the band rarely sounded as cheerfully creepy as on “The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize,” and the side two rave up, “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA” is superbly potent (for all their progressive trappings,Devowere formalists enough to know you make a big rock move near the end of side two.)Duty Now for the Futureis hardly a bad album, but it isn’t as strong as whatDevohad already brought to the table — or would offer later on.