Album of the Day

Kraftwerk's embrace of the brave new world of synthesizers set them apart in the 1970s, but by the time of COMPUTER WORLD, the German group was perfectly in synch with the pop zeitgeist. With members Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider twiddling knobs on both sides of the board, the album offers an irresistible batch of songs like “Pocket Calculator,” “Computerwelt” (which picked up a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance) and “Computer Love,” which became a No.1 single in the U.K. While their blips, bleeps and beats are clearly audible in the music of disciples like Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk offer a playful take on technology that's uniquely their own on COMPUTER WORLD, and we'll give the set another spin to wish the band's Karl Bartos a happy birthday.