LogFAQs > #956079404

122. Kraftwerk Trans-Europe Express (1977)
from the album Trans-Europe Express

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_85fUIRlmU

Key lyrics:
From station to station, back to Dusseldorf City
Meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie

Trans-Europe Express chugs along just like the international railway which inspired its creation. The robotic Kraftwerk had their eye on transportation from the beginning their first two albums feature traffic cones on the cover, while their breakthrough hit was a 23 minute epic about the Autobahn. The full album of Trans-Europe Express feels like a grand tour of the European countryside. But where album opener Europe Endless is pretty enough that it could have been used to advertise the now-defunct TEE, Trans-Europe Express kicks off side two with something sinister. While that first track simulates a peaceful trip, Trans-Europe Express mimics the harsh sounds of the train itself.

The vocals add to the industrial soundscape. At first, they are modified with a metallic layer. This dense production suggests a discordant harmony of metal scraping against metal. Even when the band sings without modification, there is an insistent monotony to their performance. This is cold and calculating in other words, efficient. Through all the tense atmosphere, there is no suggestion Kraftwerk views this machinery with disdain. Grand, rising synthesizers create a monolithic entity. Viewing the future of both transportation and music as gods from the machine, Kraftwerk cast them both as awe-inspiring, in the most classical sense of both fear and wonder.

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My top 100 games (with write-ups): https://foolfantastic.com/top-100-video-games-project/