RADIO-ACTIVITY [AKA: RADIO-AKTIVITÄT]

I don't know if this album really deserves five stars, but that's the rating I'm going to give it.The fact is that I'd like to raise a little the average rating for "Radio-Activity", as I consider it one of the finest efforts by the band. The impression you can get from an overall listening is that, after the cybernetic "Autobahn", the Kraftwerk regained a more experimental approach to their electronic quest, indulging also in some exquisite lo-fi solutions. The title track is amazing, almost epic, the mellotron here is used better than the Moody Blues could, and the lo-fi radio effects are just adorable. The way the solemn "Radioland" shifts into the upbeat divertissement of "Airwaves" is a pure masterstroke. The forward looking futuristic dance of "Antenna" and the transfigured electronic folk of "Ohm sweet Ohm" are already history, but I wouldn't consider the other tracks just filler. If Stockhausen had written pop music, he'd surely have composed the spacey, transcendent "Radio Stars", while "Transistors" has that "Mitteleuropa" feeling which the band could interpret at its best. Finally, the "interlude" pieces are fully enjoyable, giving the album a 1970s hue which is a real feast for any prog fan ("Uranium" really sounds as if radioactivity could talk!!). Ok, a well deserved five star rating here!