The news that Devo's first album in 20 years has been approved by focus groups and "corporate consensus building" suggests a band no longer in control of their own vision. However, 33 years after their debut sired a fanbase spanning everyone from Kurt Cobain to Lady Gaga, the Ohio prankster-conceptualists are having the last laugh. Arguing that "the world is now in sync with Devo", outside producers and mixers have also been indoctrinated into the Devo way. Their ability to produce electronic rhythms and melodies that twitch the human body is as undimmed as their capacity for playful, subversive thought. Claiming that the "De-evolution" they predicted in the 1970s is real, and that society is no longer sustaining its development, the band happily apply this logic to themselves. "It's all the same, there's nothing new," they sing on the album's catchiest track, handily identifying what makes Something for Everybody such an unabashed delight.
Contributor
Dave Simpson
Dave Simpson is a Guardian music critic and author
Dave Simpson
The GuardianTramp
