DEVO: Freedom Of Choice (Rhino High Fidelity)

• AAA Cut From The Original Stereo Master Tapes By Kevin Gray
• Pressed On 180-Gram Heavyweight Vinyl At Optimal
• Heavyweight Glossy Gatefold Jacket
• Features An Exclusive Insert With Notes By Album Producer Robert Margouleff

Freedom of Choice is where DEVO sharpened their weirdness into a weapon — sleek, twitchy, and radioactive. The Akron oddballs swap some of their raw punk static for synth-powered precision, yet never lose the dystopian smirk that made them dangerous in the first place. There’s a strange prophecy in how clinical and robotic this record sounds — decades before mainstream pop would dip its toes into cold synths and irony, DEVO were already swimming in it.

“Whip It” might’ve been the accidental hit, but it’s the tip of a warped iceberg. Tracks like “Girl U Want” and “Snowball” jitter with lust, paranoia, and post-industrial frustration — like if Kraftwerk started chain-smoking and reading American tabloids. The band’s mechanical tightness feels like a factory production line glitching out under fluorescent lights. And yet, there’s heart buried under the wires — a sardonic, de-evolved pulse that questions authority, romance, and identity with the urgency of people trapped in a society speeding toward idiocy.

This is dance music for robots that dream of rebellion. And somehow, it still sounds like the future.

RUE MORGUE RECORDS