Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Mechanical Soul September 30, 2007
Mike Cormack (Aberdeen UK)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Robots Spacelab Metropolis Model Neon Lights Man Machine
Some albums open up entire vistas, suggesting not only new approaches but new musical visions. While Trans-Europe Express outlined the general approach, The Man Machine is perhaps the ultimate expression of the synthesis of man and machine that underlay Kraftwerk's approach. The voice, which was so open and optimistic in "Europe Endless" in TEE is now processed and digitised from the off, in the opener "Robots". It's a remarkable song which feels that it had to be made by someone eventually. It's both cold and mechanistic, and oddly funky and touching - I love it when they say "We are programmed just to do / Anything you want us to".
Whereas previous Kraftwerk album had featured a smidgeon of authentic instrumentation, every sound on this album is digitised. There is a sterile, cold, dispassionate splendour to the sound. On "Spacelab" this works well in evoking the cold vacuum of space, while "Neon Lights" has a wonderful (undigitised) lyric celebrating the lights of the city, and has a coda pulsing with rhythms suggesting the richness of life in the urban environment. Kraftwerk's best known song "The Model" may seem out of character with the rest of the album, being a straightforward pop song (still in the digital style) with a wry lyric on fame and celebrity, but the apparent indifference and underlying humanity fits in in with the rest of the album.
The influence of this album on modern music cannot possibly be overestimated. Electronica, synth-pop, dance music, all took their genesis from Kraftwerk. But like The Beatles, not only were Kraftwerk the first to do what they did, they were the best at it. They are the Year 0 of electronic music and this album is their finest, most completely realised vision.
As near perfect............. August 11, 2007
Mr. S. R. Jackson (Huddersfield)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I don't particularly like it when someone tells me an album is seminal, but given the debt thousands of artists owe to Kraftwerk, and this album in particular, I think the word seminal is appropriate. So there, Seminal!I bought this album 29 yrs ago,and got it on Cd recently,it still strikes me as one of the finest electronic albums ever.Kraftwerks precision, both musically and lyrically is clear, and their relevance is perhaps more so today,given the advances in technology. They are obsessed with the relationships we have with technology and robots in particular.The music on each track builds,layer upon layer, so that seemingly out of synch rhythms gradually come togethor beautifully. And whilst they seem to strive for that ultra cool,distant feel their music is decidedly human.Kraftwerk built their own instruments,and produced a wonderfull, methodical and as near perfect an album as I have heard.Still good to dance to!!
 A couple of highlights April 14, 2007
Toby Smith (Chatham, Kent United Kingdom)
1 out of 9 found this review helpful
Robots and Metropolis are great, electronic tracks but overall found this a little tame compared with Trans Europe Express, and the more conventional pop 'songs' aren't really to my taste. For me, Kraftwerk's strengths are words and music rather than melodic songs.
A Lasting Influence July 23, 2006
DSR (out beyond the sticks)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Two years after presenting the review below and I'm playing this disc again. I cannot believe how much this band has influenced modern pop and "electro funk" music. Also, the fact that Kraftwerk's material from this era still wipes the floor with modern releases so obviously descended from this era.....
Kraftwerk's previous album - Trans Europe Express - was the turning point for this band I feel and the link between the dreamy (and bland?) early works and this, the first of three albums which shaped how modern "pop" music was to be in the future.
The absolute precision in the rhythms, the short tracks and the generally "clipped" delivery was, by now, poles apart from the other german "synth" artists such as Tangerine Dream, Ashra and Klaus Schulze. Yet there is real "humanity" here, suggesting much thought and care in the composition and production of the tracks. This is music to "dance" to. Indeed, once this and the follow-up, Computer World is in your collecttion I very much doubt you'll be able to sit still impassively while playing them.
Recommended without hesitation!
The Miracle Symphony February 14, 2006
Abdu Kay (Europe)
2 out of 11 found this review helpful
The Best Kraftwerk's Album ever seen in their Music career,I think their style came from the Space not from Planet Earth.
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