Music / The Man-Machine

"She's a model and she's looking good/I'd like to take her home, that's understood/She plays hard to get, she smiles from time to time/It only takes a camera to change her mind..."

The Man-Machine is a 1978 album by the German electronic band Kraftwerk. It was first released in German through Kling Klang under the name Die Mensch-Machine, but later got an English release through Capitol Records as well. The album saw the band continue to streamline the Synth-Pop sound they had pioneered on Trans-Europe Express, and is often considered one of their best, having spawned some of their most famous songs such as "The Robots", "The Model"^note Which would be later covered by Rammstein and the Title Track. The album's campaign also marked the debut of their robotic alteregos.

Tracklist

Side One

1. "The Robots" (6:11)
2. "Spacelab" (5:51)
3. "Metropolis" (5:59)

Side Two

1. "The Model" (3;38)
2. "Neon Lights" (9:03)
3. "The Man-Machine" (5:28)

Personnel

• Ralf Hütter: electronics, keyboards
• Florian Schneider: synthesizer, vocoder, Votrax
• Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flür: electronic drums

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We... are... the... tropes... we... are... the... tropes...

• Alliterative Title: "The Man Machine".
• Bilingual Bonus: "The Robots" has a line in Russian: "Я твой слуга, я твой работник." Which translates to: "I'm your servant, I'm your worker."
• Broken Record:
  We are the robots
  The Man-Machine, machine, machine, machine, machine,...
• Concept Album: The tracks seem to be about cyborgs and robots on one hand and nostalgia for older times on the other, but there's no story going along with it.
• Design Student's Orgasm: The band members in a parody of a typical old Soviet propaganda poster, down to the typography. Ralf Hütter himself designed the artwork of the album cover and the photography was done by Günther Fröhling.
• Dub Name Change: The album was originally released in Germany under the name Die Mensch-Maschine.
• Electronic Music: One of the key albums in its development.
• Epic Rocking: "The Model" is the only song on the album under five minutes.
• Face on the Cover: The band is shown on the album cover.
• Germanic Efficiency: Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• Grief Song: "The Model", about a model that became famous, while the protagonist wants to meet her again.
• Machine Monotone: The vocals throughout most of the album.
• Man in the Machine: The title track.
• Neon City: "Neon Lights" is mostly instrumental, with the few lyrics being a tribute to the city's neon lights:
  Neon lights
  Shimmering neon lights
  And at the edge of night
  This city's made of light
• One-Word Title: "Spacelab" and "Metropolis".
• Packaged as Other Medium: The cover looks like a Soviet propaganda poster.
• Robot or Spaceman Alter Ego: Both on the album cover, as well as in the record itself.
• Shining City: "Neon Lights" describes a city full of neon lights.
• Shout-Out: "Metropolis", a track that references the 1927 German science fiction classic Metropolis.
• Silly Love Songs: "The Model", about a model whom the protagonist wants to meet again. It's especially silly due to The Stoic vocal delivery.
• Synthetic Voice Actor: As on most of their albums.
• Three Chords and the Truth: The music is very simple.
• Title Track:
  The Man-Machine, Machine, Machine, Machine...
• Trrrilling Rrrs: "Wirrr sind die Roboterrrrr". Not present in the English version of "The Robots", however, due to the vocals being processed through a vocoder.

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