SOLID STATE SURVIVOR

The ratings of YMO albums are all over the map on this website and I feel it really misrepresents them. The truth is that their *main* albums (the s/t, this one, BGM, Technodelic, and Naughty Boys) run very close in quality. I agree though that if you're a prog guy this is probably not the album for you. This is where their Kraftwerk influence is perhaps the most felt but it's really just a celebration of technology, or the promise of a "future Japan". Like the first album most of these sounds (which are commonplace today) must have blown some heads in their day. Most of this is light and very catchy but the darker tracks really do reveal a sophistication in their work. You can't put brilliant minds like this together without getting something like that. But poppier moments like "Rydeen", "Technopolis", "Behind the Mask" (ESPECIALLY "Behind the Mask" - has a greater technopop song ever been written?) and that incredible chorus in "Absolute Ego Dance" (where the vocoder comes in) are what it's all about. And if you can't tolerate an ass-backwards cover of "Day Tripper", I don't know what to tell you. Really I'd give this 4.5 stars but I was told by the rules to use 5 stars sparingly so I'm gonna save it for BGM.