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New Traditionalists
New Traditionalists is the fourth studio album by American new wave band Devo, released on September 16, 1981, by Warner Bros. Records. The album was recorded over a period of four months between December 1980 and April 1981 at the Power Station in Manhattan, New York City. It features the minor hits "Through Being Cool" and "Beautiful World".
Following the band's success with "Whip It" and its parent album, Freedom of Choice (1980), the band's label, Warner Bros., began exerting pressure on the band to "write another 'Whip It'." As the single's success carried on into early 1981, Warner Bros. opted not to issue a follow-up single from the album and instead have Devo focus on completing their next studio album to capitalize on the momentum. However, with New Traditionalists, Devo would opt to craft a darker and less accessible album that explored their concept of "de-evolution" even further. Band member Gerald Casale later stated, "We wouldn't keep painting the same painting over and over. It wasn't in our nature."
New Traditionalists contains songs in a minimalist synth-pop style, with an emphasis on synthesizer riffs and dance rhythms, as well as an increased focus on electronic percussion. Lyrically, the album contains more straightforward sentiments than the band's previous albums, often eschewing sarcasm and irony for overt anger. Rolling Stone Australia notes that the song "Beautiful World" "waits a while to reveal its hidden darkness and cynicism", echoed in its music video, which starts out "happy" and "optimistic". In "Enough Said", Devo make one of their first overtly political statements, advocating throwing leaders into a ring and letting them "fight like hell to see who's king". The lyrics were written by Mark and Bob's father Robert Mothersbaugh Sr., who also played their character General Boy.
According to music historian Andy Zax, New Traditionalists found Devo "more than slightly ambivalent about their newfound popularity", exemplified in opening track "Through Being Cool", with its criticism of trendy "ninnies" and "twits". Zax also observed that songs such as "Jerkin' Back 'n' Forth" and "Love Without Anger" "dissect dysfunctional relationships from the inside, rather than from afar".
New Traditionalists was the band's first fully self-produced album. Unlike the band's previous records, the album features a greater emphasis on synthesizers than guitars, and several tracks incorporate a drum machine. Equipment used during the recording of the album includes several pieces from Roland, notably sequencers, the SH-101 synthesizer and the CR-78 drum machine. In a 2020 interview, Gerald Casale stated that he felt New Traditionalists "was the last [Devo] record where there was some semblance of balance between primal energy and just electronics for their own sake."
The album was recorded on a then-new brand of 2-inch tape from 3M. However, when Devo began recording the vocals for the album, the edges of the tape had begun to disintegrate. After asking Warner Bros. if they could start over and re-record the album from scratch and being denied, Devo transferred all the work they had done to digital reel-to-reel tape and finished the album via digital recording at the Record Plant in Los Angeles, California. DJ Pangburn of Reverb.com later opined that "the sound quality isn't a major problem. The deterioration of the master magnetic tape gives [the album] a darker hue—one that matches the album's even more dystopian concept and songs."
"The Super Thing" was later sampled in Devo's 2007 single "Watch Us Work It", which was remixed by Teddybears.
Devo devised the album's title while touring their Freedom of Choice album in Japan. The group had met two businessmen in a sushi bar who were wearing pins that read "New Traditionalists". Band member Mark Mothersbaugh recalled that the band were inspired by the phrase, as they wanted to create new traditions themselves.
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New Traditionalists
New Traditionalists is the fourth studio album by American new wave band Devo, released on September 16, 1981, by Warner Bros. Records. The album was recorded over a period of four months between December 1980 and April 1981 at the Power Station in Manhattan, New York City. It features the minor hits "Through Being Cool" and "Beautiful World".
Following the band's success with "Whip It" and its parent album, Freedom of Choice (1980), the band's label, Warner Bros., began exerting pressure on the band to "write another 'Whip It'." As the single's success carried on into early 1981, Warner Bros. opted not to issue a follow-up single from the album and instead have Devo focus on completing their next studio album to capitalize on the momentum. However, with New Traditionalists, Devo would opt to craft a darker and less accessible album that explored their concept of "de-evolution" even further. Band member Gerald Casale later stated, "We wouldn't keep painting the same painting over and over. It wasn't in our nature."
New Traditionalists contains songs in a minimalist synth-pop style, with an emphasis on synthesizer riffs and dance rhythms, as well as an increased focus on electronic percussion. Lyrically, the album contains more straightforward sentiments than the band's previous albums, often eschewing sarcasm and irony for overt anger. Rolling Stone Australia notes that the song "Beautiful World" "waits a while to reveal its hidden darkness and cynicism", echoed in its music video, which starts out "happy" and "optimistic". In "Enough Said", Devo make one of their first overtly political statements, advocating throwing leaders into a ring and letting them "fight like hell to see who's king". The lyrics were written by Mark and Bob's father Robert Mothersbaugh Sr., who also played their character General Boy.
According to music historian Andy Zax, New Traditionalists found Devo "more than slightly ambivalent about their newfound popularity", exemplified in opening track "Through Being Cool", with its criticism of trendy "ninnies" and "twits". Zax also observed that songs such as "Jerkin' Back 'n' Forth" and "Love Without Anger" "dissect dysfunctional relationships from the inside, rather than from afar".
New Traditionalists was the band's first fully self-produced album. Unlike the band's previous records, the album features a greater emphasis on synthesizers than guitars, and several tracks incorporate a drum machine. Equipment used during the recording of the album includes several pieces from Roland, notably sequencers, the SH-101 synthesizer and the CR-78 drum machine. In a 2020 interview, Gerald Casale stated that he felt New Traditionalists "was the last [Devo] record where there was some semblance of balance between primal energy and just electronics for their own sake."
The album was recorded on a then-new brand of 2-inch tape from 3M. However, when Devo began recording the vocals for the album, the edges of the tape had begun to disintegrate. After asking Warner Bros. if they could start over and re-record the album from scratch and being denied, Devo transferred all the work they had done to digital reel-to-reel tape and finished the album via digital recording at the Record Plant in Los Angeles, California. DJ Pangburn of Reverb.com later opined that "the sound quality isn't a major problem. The deterioration of the master magnetic tape gives [the album] a darker hue—one that matches the album's even more dystopian concept and songs."
"The Super Thing" was later sampled in Devo's 2007 single "Watch Us Work It", which was remixed by Teddybears.
Devo devised the album's title while touring their Freedom of Choice album in Japan. The group had met two businessmen in a sushi bar who were wearing pins that read "New Traditionalists". Band member Mark Mothersbaugh recalled that the band were inspired by the phrase, as they wanted to create new traditions themselves.