Coming in way above their previous effort, 1990’s Smooth Noodle Maps,
Something for Everybody is the album
Devo's fans had craved for 28 long years, or maybe 29, if you fall on the sour side of the iffy
Oh, No! It's Devo. The synthetic, compressed, and punchy production -- courtesy of producer and
Bird & the Bee member
Greg Kurstin -- is a modern take on the sound of 1981’s
New Traditionalists, and if you judge by hooks, this is right in line with their 1980 breakthrough,
Freedom of Choice, although there’s certainly no “Whip It”-sized megahit here. Instead, there’s the opening “Fresh!” a herky-jerky, infectious number with lead singer
Mark Mothersbaugh stuttering as if he just created New Wave’s “My Generation.” The wicked highlight “Don’t Shoot (I’m a Man)” (“They’ll hunt you down/And tase you bro/For playing with the rules”) is the album’s other key track, thanks to
Mothersbaugh’s perfect framing of de-evolution’s give (hybrid cars) and take, take, take (Beltway snipers, overzealous cops, etc.). Both highlights are co-produced by
Santigold who, like
Kurstin, checks her ego at the door, allowing the five spud boys to sound like a functioning band. The twangy guitars of Bob 1 are perfectly balanced with the synths and electronic percussion from new member
Josh Freese, while
Mothersbaugh’s ironic downers are complemented by co-frontman
Jerry Casale’s more snide and silly songs, and the two attempts to re-create the sarcastic grandeur of their masterpiece “Beautiful World” -- with “Later Is Now” and “No Place Like Home” -- come pretty darn close. While some will complain that the satirical social commentary just isn’t as razor-sharp, and that the wild, primal nerdiness of their first two efforts is long gone, the purposeful
Something for Everybody is proudly not a nostalgia trip and is, instead, filled with age-appropriate subversion, right up to its ironic title. "Something for Veteran Fans" is more like it with "Something Surprisingly Vital" being an even better choice. ~ David Jeffries