{"product_id":"devo-duty-now-for-the-future-mobile-fidelity-numbered-edition","title":"DEVO - Duty Now For The Future (Mobile Fidelity Numbered Edition)","description":"\u003cp\u003e“Pop music needs a big enema.” \u003cstrong\u003eDevo\u003c\/strong\u003e created \u003cem\u003eDuty Now for the Future\u003c\/em\u003e with that mission statement, relayed to the press by co-founding bassist\/vocalist \u003cstrong\u003eGerald Casale\u003c\/strong\u003e, in mind. Though unfairly pegged by some as an example of the common sophomore slump, the record spurred the group’s interest in electronic instrumentation, extended its penchant for biting social satire, and contained another transformative cover song in the form of “\u003cem\u003eSecret Agent Man\u003c\/em\u003e.” Above all, the 1979 work proved the Ohio pranksters were anything but a joke even if they would have to wait one more year until for their mainstream breakthrough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSourced from the original master tapes, mastered by engineer \u003cstrong\u003eKrieg Wunderlich\u003c\/strong\u003e, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, \u003cstrong\u003eMobile Fidelity's numbered-edition 180g 45RPM 2LP set\u003c\/strong\u003e presents \u003cem\u003eDuty Now for the Future\u003c\/em\u003e in audiophile-grade sound. Benefitting from the extra groove space on this first-ever 45RPM version, it plays with enhanced definition, deep-black backgrounds, and ultra-quiet surfaces. Also available as a \u003cstrong\u003eNumbered Hybrid SACD\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough certain band members later expressed regret with some of his decisions, the merits of \u003cstrong\u003eKen Scott\u003c\/strong\u003e’s production emerge like never before. A lurking edginess serves as a signpost in Devo’s progression before it fully embraced keyboards as a primary tool. Guitars possess punch and grit and, along with the crisp arrangements, are sharpened with an ear toward accuracy and vibrancy. It all helps give \u003cem\u003eDuty Now for the Future\u003c\/em\u003e a direct immediacy that answers the complaints of listeners who felt the affair too processed or sterilized.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNotably, a majority of the material here stems from the same grab bag of songs Devo banked before Warner Bros. signed it to a deal. The album marks a capstone to Phase One of a career that for all intents and purposes began in 1973. And just like many of the group’s performances of that era, \u003cem\u003eDuty Now for the Future\u003c\/em\u003e remains just as famous for the critical disdain it inspired as the music itself. A vicious review in Rolling Stone — the very publication that a few decades later would trumpet the band as one of the most important of its age — ended with the writer offering to send readers shards of the LP he planned on smashing to bits.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePerhaps he just needed to experience this new-wave effort with the restored sound that makes everything now feel so explosive and urgent. Whatever the case, the songs hold up and, amid a contemporary period which gives increasing license to artificial intelligence and behemoth conglomerates, seem more apt than ever before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConsider “\u003cem\u003eBlockhead\u003c\/em\u003e,” which skewers the predictable appearances and numb-to-the-world actions of a rule follower. Or the similarly themed “\u003cem\u003eClockout\u003c\/em\u003e,” an uptempo ditty whose thumbing-its-nose bravado and sardonic lyrics send up corporate culture with an irresistible smirk. As for the wiry, hard-hitting urgency of “\u003cem\u003eWiggly World\u003c\/em\u003e” and \u003cstrong\u003eMark Mothersbaugh\u003c\/strong\u003e’s loud declaration that “They say the fittest shall survive\/Yet the unfit may live”: Evidence these art-school rabble-rousers still had some punk fury to flush out of their system. And the sincere allure of the charged power pop and wishful circumstances of “\u003cem\u003eThe Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize\u003c\/em\u003e” cannot be denied.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo point to an interesting bit of history that makes \u003cem\u003eDuty Now for the Future\u003c\/em\u003e all the more intriguing, particularly for the most committed Spuds, more than half its tracks were selected for \u003cem\u003eGreatest Misses\u003c\/em\u003e — a 1990 anthology that celebrates lesser-known cuts and functions as a rejoinder to a hits compilation from the same year. (The only track from the 1979 album to make the “hits” disc: “\u003cem\u003eSmart Patrol\/Mr. DNA.\u003c\/em\u003e”)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIndeed, tunes like the riff-driven albeit controversial “\u003cem\u003ePink Pussycat\u003c\/em\u003e,” atmospherically twitching “\u003cem\u003eS.I.B. (Swelling Itching Brain)\u003c\/em\u003e,” and ceremonial instrumental “\u003cem\u003eDevo Corporate Anthem\u003c\/em\u003e” may lack the catchy appeal and all-together coherence of what follows on the group’s third and most commercially successful effort, \u003cem\u003eFreedom of Choice\u003c\/em\u003e. Yet in order to get there, to de-evolve if you will, the band needed the smorgasbord that is \u003cem\u003eDuty Now for the Future\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mobile Fidelity","offers":[{"title":"Numbered 180g 2LP 45RPM","offer_id":59349165211993,"sku":"SDZ-52068","price":78.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"Numbered Hybrid SACD","offer_id":59349351596377,"sku":"SDZ-52069","price":45.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0588\/3455\/0945\/files\/DEVOO.png?v=1788956776","url":"https:\/\/spindizzyrecords.com\/products\/devo-duty-now-for-the-future-mobile-fidelity-numbered-edition","provider":"Spindizzy Dublin","version":"1.0","type":"link"}