TRANS-EUROPE EXPRESS [AKA: TRANS-EUROPA EXPRESS]

Well, out of all of the Kraftwerk to review first, I decide that Trans-Europa Express is my best option, seeing as it has several of my favorites on it. Now, before I begin I must note that Kraftwerk was stuck in a limbo-like state, due to the more mainstream sound of Radio- Activity and the still remaining experimentation of Autobahn. So they ultimately decided to take a slice of both cakes and put them on the same plate. Thank god that plate didn't fall out of their hand only for the cake to make a large pile of frosting and disappointment. All similies aside, onto the review.

The album starts out with the most known track, 'Europe Endless', which reminds me of the same traveling tunes that 'Autobahn' had some of. Both are free-flowing, giving the sense of travel and adventure. They are quite nice for a car ride, or in this case, a train ride in the morning. 'Showroom Dummies' has a basic beat with a what sounds like one-man choir singing in the backround throughout the song. The song speaks of, you guessed it, the viewpoint of shop window (or in this case showroom) mannequins. It is quite interesting upon listen, it's actually one of my favorite tracks from the album. The second most known song would have to be the title track, 'Trans Europe Express', with groovy fluctuations and synth blasts. The song is undoubtedly a foot tapper, and is actually an interesting listen. This song perhaps may be my favorite song on the album (and perhaps my favorite Kraftwerk song besides 'Sex Object' from Electric Cafe). 'Metal on Metal' has the exact same beat, except this time there's different strange noises thrown in. 'Abzug' continues the similar beat, even going to far to have the same line of "...Trans- Europe Express...". Except this time, it's slightly less creative due to the lack of most any other words. This is my main problem with the album. If you're trying to have a creative album, especially one that mainly uses electronic elements, don't make a large majority of the tracks base off of eachother. Having 'Trans-Europe Express' alone would be better without these two copy songs.

'Franz Schubert' provides not much in the way of different music, in fact it's sort of bland in the way of music on this album. A nice ambient electronic track, but in no means matching the sound of the other songs. 'Endless Endless' is a really nice way to end the album, with the same free-feel that the album opener gave us. Listening to it just reminds me of a city- scape speeding by under a sky of blue. It's a quite nice little minute-long ditty.

So there you have it. Although Trans Europe Express may not be as known as Autobahn, The Man Machine, or even Computer World, I think it deserves a space up there with the bigger Kraftwerk releases.

Go give it a listen.