Music / Trans-Europe Express

"From Station to Station, back to Düsseldorf City/Meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie..."

^{Click here to see the original German album cover} 

^{Click here to see the album cover used on the 2009 remastered edition} 

Trans-Europe Express is the sixth studio album by Kraftwerk and was released in 1977 through Kling Klang in Germany and Capitol Records internationally. Widely considered to be one of the band's best and most groundbreaking records in the history of pop music (and Electronic Music in particular).

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Tracklist

Side One

1. "Europe Endless" (9:40)
2. "The Hall of Mirrors" (7:56)
3. "Showroom Dummies" (6:15)

Side Two

1. "Trans-Europe Express" (6:52)
2. "Metal on Metal" (6:43) ^note Some versions of the album separate this into two tracks: "Metal on Metal" and "Abzug". It sounds exactly the same either way.
3. "Franz Schubert" (4:26)
4. "Endless Endless" (0:55)

Personnel

• Ralf Hütter: voice, synthesizer, orchestron, synthanorma-sequenzer, electronics
• Florian Schneider: vocals, electronics, vocoder, votrax, synthesizer
• Karl Bartos: electronic percussion
• Wolfgang Flür: percussion

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The Hall of Tropes:

• Bilingual Bonus: A French version of "Showroom Dummies", titled "Les Mannequins" was recorded. There's also the fact that this album was recorded and released in German, English and French.
• Book Ends: "Endless Endless" is a brief reprise of the opening track, "Europe Endless".
• Concept Album: European unity. "Trans-Europe Express" sounds more European than their earlier output, with both the title track and the opening track, "Europe Endless" directly referencing it.
• Darker and Edgier: A lot of the songs on this album have a much more sinister sound to them compared to their other works (looking at you, "Hall of Mirrors" and "Showroom Dummies").
• Epic Rocking: "Europe Endless", "The Hall of Mirrors".
• Face on the Cover: The band is pictured on the album cover in close-up.
• Hall of Mirrors: One track has this title.
• Longest Song Goes First: The album starts with the nine-minute "Europe Endless"; no other track goes above eight.
• Named After Somebody Famous: "Franz Schubert".
• Ominous Pipe Organ: On The Mix version of "Trans-Europe Express". Orchestration in their music is very rare, but it was of course a synthesized organ.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Ralf and Florian did, in fact, meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie, hence the name-dropping.
• Shout-Out:
  • The "eins zwei drei vier" count that begins "Showroom Dummies" was made as a reference to The Ramones' habit of starting their songs with Dee Dee quickly shouting "one two three four!".
  • The title track references a meeting between the band members and Iggy Pop and David Bowie, while they were working on Iggy's The Idiot and Bowie's Low.
  • One song is named after Franz Schubert.
• Siamese Twin Songs:
  • "Trans-Europe Express" and "Metal on Metal" are basically one long song. The first track is the vocal portion, and the second track is a mostly-instrumental coda.
    • And even still "Metal on Metal" is separated into "Metal on Metal" and "Azbug" on occasion, so it's a Siamese triplet.
  • Similarly, "Endless Endless" is just a brief finale for "Franz Schubert".
• Synthetic Voice Actor: Some of the vocals (particularly in the title track). It became one of their trademark elements (and, later on, a staple of Electronic Music).
• Title Track: "Trans-Europe Express".
• Train Song: "Trans-Europe Express" is about the train express named that way. Several electronic sounds during it mimick a train chugging.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Owing to the deadpan delivery, "Trans-Europe Express" makes traveling to hang out with David Bowie and Iggy Pop sound about as exciting as buying groceries. Florian Scheider and Iggy Pop actually did buy groceries.

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