At times wide-eyed with geeky enthusiasm and at others fearful of an isolated techno-future, Kraftwerk’s eighth LP, Computer World, was the electronic pioneers' most prescient vision.
Hitting shelves in May 1981, right as the home computing market was beginning to power-up, Computer World’s seven tracks explored the fusions of tech and soul that might (read: definitely would) result from computerisation permeating both humanity's work and personal lives.
From instant communication to finding a virtual simulation of love, to easily programming electronic music and the omnipresent threat of digital surveillance, these ubiquitous 21st century concerns were astutely foretold on Computer Love.
“Our whole society is computerised,” Kraftwerk's co-linchpin Ralf Hütter told NME at the time. “[And] each one of us is stored into some point of information by some company or organisation, all stored by numbers.”
