You’ll find Kraftwerk on many of the “greatest albums” lists. That was pretty much the extent of my knowledge of the band. I like this album but find it flawed. Some of the songs could use some shortening. Six minutes of the same rhythm and just one simple line of lyrics repeated over and over just doesn’t interest me that much. However, I do hear a lot of things here that show up in later artists’ work in genres like new wave, hip hop, industrial and even alternative rock. Afrika Bambaata sampled some of the beats here on “Planet Rock” in 1982.1 It’s good stuff, just not something I’d personally reach for in most cases. My rating:
Retrospectively reviewing the album, Rolling Stone gave the album five stars while asserting:
Conceptually, Kraftwerk were as prophetic as Orwell; musically, they helped jump-start hip-hop with an electro shock and set the stage for techno, especially after Afrika Bambaataa borrowed the melody of “Trans-Europe Express” for his 1982 smash, “Planet Rock.” One of their inheritors, techno king Carl Craig, probably said it best: “They were so stiff they were funky.”2
While reviewing in 2010 Kraftwerk’s reissues, Uncut had this to say:
An alphabet of the people they’ve influenced would run to 2,500 names before it even got to Cabaret Voltaire. And yet, for all our clinical theories about innovative electro-pop and minimalist man-machinery, what’s striking about Kraftwerk’s catalogue – eight CDs finally remastered to Ralf Hütter’s satisfaction, after an aborted attempt in 2004 – is that it still comes down to a very basic, non-scientific response: the immediate alertness, pleasure and fascination that Kraftwerk’s icily beautiful textures trigger in our hearts and brains. Hütter and his since-departed colleague Florian Schneider were famous for pioneering tomorrow’s technology today, but they also wrote romantic music that will dance in the air forever. And that’s a clinical theory.3
In 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Stephen Dalton wrote:
A glistening panorama of elegance and decadence, travel and techno, Trans-Europe Express is a streamlined celebration of Europe’s romantic past and shimmering future…With its innovative use of early sequencer technology, Kraftwerk’s sixth album helped shape the musical climate that filled the vacuum after punk rock, alerting a new generation of record buyers to electronic music.4
Enjoy and listen without prejudice. Cheers!
Prime Playlist: 240. Trans-Europe Express by Kraftwerk
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For details about this project, read this: Project 1001 Albums
Charts
• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: n/a
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 chart: n/a
• RIAA certification: n/a
Released on March 1, 1977. Here’s what else was happening:
Pop Culture
• Number one song: “New Kid in Town” by Eagles5
• Number one album: A Star Is Born (Soundtrack) by Barbra Streisand & Kris Kristofferson6
• Number one movie: Rocky by John G. Avildsen7
• Most watched TV programs: Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Charlie's Angels, Survive!, M*A*S*H," 5; SST: Death Flight, Baretta, The Strongest Man in the World, Welcome Back, Kotter, Barney Miller8
• NYT bestseller, fiction: Trinity by Leon Uris9
• NYT bestseller, non-fiction: Roots by Alex Haley10
Some other albums released that month
• It's Alright with Me by Patti LaBelle
• Angel Station by Manfred Mann's Earth Band
• Fate for Breakfast by Art Garfunkel
• Breakfast in America by Supertramp
• L.A. by The Beach Boys
• Evolution by Journey
• Van Halen II by Van Halen
• Go West by Village People
• Just a Game by Triumph
• Desolation Angels by Bad Company11
Sport
• Mar 7 Warren Giles and Hack Wilson selected for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
• Mar 9 MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn orders baseball to give equal access to female reporters.
• Mar 23 Larry Holmes TKOs Osvaldo Ocasio in 7 for heavyweight boxing title.12
Notable Births
• Mar 9 Oscar Isaac, French Guatemalan-American actor (Star Wars, Moon Knight), born in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
• Mar 11 Joel Madden, American rock singer (Good Charlotte), born in Waldorf, Maryland.
• Mar 14 Chris Klein, American actor (American Pie films), born in Hinsdale, Illinois.13
Historical Events
• Mar 4 Pope John Paul II publishes his first encyclical "Redemptor Hominis".
• Mar 4 US Voyager I photo reveals Jupiter's rings.
• Mar 8 China withdraws invasion troops from Vietnam.14
Notable Deaths
• Mar 3 Tom Creavy, American golfer (PGA C'ship 1931), dies of a heart attack at 68.
• Mar 4 Willi Unsoeld, American mountaineer (First ascent of the West Ridge of Mount Everest), dies at 52.
• Mar 9 Barbara Mullen, American actress (Thunder Rock, Innocent Sinners), dies of a heart attack at 64.15
Dalton, Stephen, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Fifth printing, ed. by Robert Dimmery p. 373.
Dalton.
Ibid.