Trans Europe Express

I decided to purchase this album due to my sustained love of house, hip hop and electro, and an awareness that Kraftwerk were influential to all these genres.Influential is an understatement. Those genres would not exist without these German geniuses. And the most remarkable fact is that Kraftwerk's music is far more dynamic than subsequent electronic outfits with access to advanced technology.

And so the music: Europe Endless is a sparkling opener , awash with vocoder , sturdy bass and a trance-inducing arpeggiated synth.
Hall of Mirrors is dark and broody - a definite influence on Joy Division. Showroom Dummies is a twitchy , melodic masterpiece. The piece de resistance of the album , however , has to be the last four tunes.

The title track and Franz Schubert have to be two of the finest pieces of electronic music ever recorded. The former had me utterly hooked to its haunting electro beats while the latter almost had me in tears with its melancholy, ghostly but ultimately uplifting vibe.

Basically, any lover of dance/electronic music should own this album. I've said enough now so just buy the album and let the music speak for itself.


Over 20 years old, yet still relevant today   September 6, 2000
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

If anyone should doubt the enduring influence of this, and other Kraftwerk albums, they should compare and contrast Madonna's hit single, "Music", and the title track of this album. Hmmm... scarily similar, huh? As another Amazon reviewer writes in his review of Autobahn, this also is a great album to listen to on headphones, but it works equally well as ambient sound on long journeys. The absence of any particularly strong lyrical content actually serves to make the music more enjoyable without having to conciously listen, thus making the album ideal music to play while driving. Alleged to be one of the bands that influenced David Bowie's own electronic trilogy of Low, Heroes and Lodger, Kraftwerk inspired many of the early electronic artists from the eighties at home & abroad, and still provides inspiration for todays generation of pop artist, who weren't around when these albums were originally released. As the fade out track suggests, the influence of this album, and Kraftwerk generally is "Endless, endless"!


A masterpiece with truly global influence.   April 13, 2000
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

Somewhere between the technologically pioneering 'Autobahn' in 1974 (which even got the group on Tomorrow's World) and the commercial success of 'The Man Machine', which eventually yielded a UK number one, came the highly accomplished and massively influential 'Trans-Europe Express' (TEE).

Not only did this spur many embryonic British acts to use synthesizers heavily in their more commercial efforts (Depeche Mode and The Human League amongst many) it also provided inspiration - and samples - for urban black America. It thus provided British groups with the means to retain musical domination globally in the early eighties AND provided the Americans with the means to take over as rap, hip-hop and techno all emerged. Besides, the track pairing of TEE and 'Metal On Metal' ran long enough to allow a DJ time to go to the toilet and the bar before having to change the record.

The lyrics are sparse, correctly allowing the music to dominate, but even 'Showroom Dummies' caused Debbie Harry to comment that it was "a song I can really relate to." 'The Hall Of Mirrors' similarly reflects on fame; TEE mentions other artists that had been drawn to Germany to record at that time - David Bowie and Iggy Pop.

I keep trying to convince myself it must sound really dated by now, but both the electronics and the tunes they make stand the test of time and remain atmospheric today. I rate this one of the three best, most influential albums of all time, with 'Sgt. Pepper' and 'Velvet Underground and Nico' for company. A must for music historians and true pop fans.