Devo: Duty Now For the Future

Devo: Duty Now For the Future

1979

Warner Bros

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Devo Corporate Anthem  2. Clockout  3. Timing X  4. Wiggly World  5. Blockhead  6. Strange Pursuit  7. S.I.B. (Swelling Itching Brain)  8. Triumph of the Will  9. The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize  10. Pink Pussycat  11. Secret Agent Man  12. Smart Patrol/Mr DNA  13. Red Eye


I don't think this album gets enough love...To me, this is the band's second-best album, and I happen to think this has the band's all-time best song...There's no album that screams 1979 more than "Duty Now For the Future"....It's the neither here-nor-there quality...It's not the 70's nervy punk of "Q:Are We Not Men?" nor the sleek, futuristic, plastic surfaces of  "Freedom of Choice"...It's a kind of an interestingly muted sound...The cover art also dates it to that era, with the band lampooning the now mandatory (and much hated) barcodes...

The songwriting is also a bit less consistent...Most of these songs originate before the first album was ever recorded, so there is a faint sense that this is a batch made up of left-over material (bit boyoboy, what good leftovers!)...And it also takes awhile for the album to take off, due to the fact that two out of the first three songs are instrumental, but once it gets going, there's some amazing stuff here...

I actually love the opening instrumental, "Devo Corporate Anthem...It's so grand, yet chintzy...Just like a corporate anthem should sound...As I listen to this, I can't help but thinking that I've finally won the victory over myself...

I love Big Brother!

"Clockout" finds all the office drones unloosening their ties and leaving their cubicles for the weekend:

"Take my advice,
Hear my decree,
I'm afraid the future's gonna be maintenance free..." 

This is the instance where it becomes clear that those zany keyboard noises are going to swallow up the guitars that ran the show on their previous album...They've decided to automate the business...It's much more efficient that way...

The spectre of fascism also looms large in other places on the album...Take "Triumph of the Will" which  turns sexual desire into a Nazi rally...And who is this "Mr. DNA" who demands a sacrifice in some sort of mating ritual? Speaking of "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA," I think this song just obliterates the rest of their output...One of my all-time favorite songs by anybody...It starts out with Mark, Gerald and Bob 1 swapping verses until they all come together with the unified shout:

"Smart Patrol, nowhere to go,
Suburban robots that monitor reality,
Common stock, we work around the clock,
We shove the poles in the hole"

Which leads into a cool, restrained guitar solo that eventually loses a battle with a drilling synth, eventually exploding in a laser blast that gives way to a spare, panicked groove...

"Wait a minute, something's wrong
He's the man from the past
He's here to do us a favor
A little human sacrifice
It's just supply and demand..."

Then the three vocalists start to swap lines with a greater rapidity and Devo sacrifice their lives to a chaotic swirl of guitar fragments and mind-warping keyboards until at last everything snaps back into place with the staccato opening motif and Mr. DNA takes a bow...I'm telling you, this is the best shit ever...Listen to it if you don't believe me...

Another highlight is "The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surpize" where the surprise in question turns out to be Maury-worthy...

But it's not the results of the paternity test you'll remember, it's that falsetto wooo-hoo-hoo chorus... Stays stuck in your head all day...This is possibly one of their best pop singles...

 This is also the album that has their "Secret Agent Man" cover...It's not quite the epic takedown that "Satisfaction" was, but it's a good listen anyway...They strip away all the song's recognizable features (even most of the lyrics, which take their commitment to  God and Country to scary new depths) but keep the original's mysterious tone and bend it a little...Back in the day they were one of the most interesting interpreters of other people's material...I think they lost their knack a bit later on, but we'll get to all that later...

Really, with Devo I recommend just starting with the first album and working your way up...Their music works much better that way, so check out "Q:Are We Not Men..." and then make this your second stop...

 Here's "The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize" by Devo..Enjoy...