Oh, No! It's Devo
	Produced by Roy Thomas Baker
	Released on October 1982
	US CHART POSITION #47
	Find it at GEMM
23741-1 cover

I t was only a matter of time before the folks who found “Whip It” funny realized that the joke was on them. Oh, No! It’s Devo lacked a “Whip It” or “Working in a Coalmine” to warm up to, instead lobbing the destructive “Peek-A-Boo!” in listeners’ midst. (The video was even scarier.) What to make out of a “Time Out For Fun” or “Speed Racer?” Was Devo making fun of us? Well, sheesh, yeah... Being in a crankier disposition than usual and lacking any of the emotional or sexual tension that fueled their earlier work (“Going Under,” “Jerkin’ Back ‘N’ Forth”), Oh, No! It’s Devo comes off a little sterile. The ideas are still good, their attack on culture unmitigated, but musically speaking the whole thing’s a mechanical bore. If you can hum songs like “Deep Sleep,” “Patterns” or “I Desire,” my inverted flower pot hat’s off to ya. Depending on my mood, I tend to see this as the end of the goodness or the beginning of the badness. Good because they’re still fighting the good fight, bad because they were turning into the robots they warned us about. No such dilemma on New Traditionalists (great) or Shout (gawdawful), which is why I keep returning to Oh, No! It’s Devo waiting for the pendulum to swing decisively. It never does. Lacking a standout single (“Peek-A-Boo!” and “That’s Good” failed to chart), it’s up to album cuts like “Speed Racer,” “Big Mess” and “Time Out For Fun” to win over listeners. Like Sparks, Devo may have been a victim of their own success, but the Spuds hardly roll over here (Shout’s a different story). Oh, No! is a last ride, a final poke in the eye, but most of all it’s Devo. (Note: the elpee featured a cutout in the back cover that enabled owners to turn the album into a picture stand, if they so desired.)

23741-1 back cover	23741-1 promotional insert

TRACK LISTING

1. TIME OUT FOR FUN    2:48
2. PEEK-A-BOO!    3:01
3. OUT OF SYNC    3:34
4. EXPLOSIONS    3:01
5. THAT'S GOOD    3:23
6. PATTERNS    2:57
7. BIG MESS    2:42
8. SPEED RACER    (Mothersbaugh)    2:38
9. WHAT I MUST DO    2:34
10. I DESIRE    (Mothersbaugh/Casale/Hinckley)    3:13
11. DEEP SLEEP    3:24
    
    All songs written by Mothersbaugh/Casale unless noted

CREDITS

BOB CASALE --
GERALD CASALE --
BOB MOTHERSBAUGH --
MARK MOTHERSBAUGH --
ALAN MYERS --
Annerose Bucklers -- background vocals (11)
Gordon Fordyce -- engineer
Erik Arnesen -- cover photography
DEVO INC. -- graphic concept
Rick Seireeni -- art direction
"Spudring" manufactured by Brent Scrivner

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