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Devo Presents: Adventures of the Smart Patrol

And it's true that Smart Patrol's feverishly detailed future paranoia is similar to what the old Firesign Theatre comedy troupe used to create on brilliant records like I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus. Firesign, however, had a fundamentally serious social and artistic vision beneath all the Dada vaudeville. They also were funny. With merely goofy dialogue and arcane devolutionary slang, Devo are just wanking about with prefab cult iconography (Booji Boy has been the group's mascot since the late '70s), and there's nothing behind the attitude but more attitude. To paraphrase one of Smart Patrol's own pseudo-slogans, Devo have ''laid a million eggs.'' This is one of them.

For better or worse, we still have the lyrics to "Whip it" to conjure up a Devo that so many years ago managed to ingratiate themselves into our hearts and minds, those crazy days of summer. Sadly, those lyrics have new meaning now, prescribing in the band's own words the punishment they deserve for getting themselves, and unsuspecting buyers, caught up in this awful mess.

Und jetzt alle zur Melodie von Whip it: Ach, was sind wir hip und hopp, Smart Patrol - ein Riesenflop. Cool und unkonventionell, schrecklich intellektuell. Truthahnaffe, Genmanipulation, und die Kasse klingelt schon. Nur das Spiel haben wir verpennt, deshalb gibt's nur 20 Prozent. Whip it. Whit it good.