Devo “Q:Are We Not Men? A:We Are Devo!” released 40 years ago today, August 28th, in 1978. Our copy, on red vinyl, is the UK release on Virgin Records; the US version has the more familiar album cover.

Devo’s debut album hit #12 in the UK and #78 in the US and, in later years, has been hailed as one of the most significant post-punk/new wave/art rock releases of the 70′s. Ever the forward thinkers, both David Bowie and Brian Eno vied for production duties on Q:Are We Not Men? after hearing Devo’s demos; Eno won the position but Bowie did help out with some of the work and ended up remixing many of the LP’s tracks.

Many of my favorite Devo songs appear on Q:Are We Not Men? including their first single “Mongoloid” (released first on Booji Boy Records and then Stiff Records in ‘77,  Devo then rerecorded it for the LP) and its B-side “Jocko Homo” which introduced the call-and-response “Are we not men?” / “We are Devo,” which is considered to be Devo’s anthem. I also love the jerky-jerky danceable chaos of “Uncontrollable Urge,” the offbeat – literally – cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction (I Can’t Get Me No)” and the bass-driven new waver “Praying Hands.”

Allmusic says about Are We Not Men? “Produced by Brian Eno, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! was a seminal touchstone in the development of American new wave. It was one of the first pop albums to use synthesizers as an important textural element, and although they mostly play a supporting role in this guitar-driven set, the innovation began to lay the groundwork for the synth-pop explosion that would follow very shortly. Q: Are We Not Men also revived the absurdist social satire of the Mothers of Invention, claiming punk rock’s outsider alienation as a home for freaks and geeks. While Devo’s appeal was certainly broader, their sound was tailored well enough to that sensibility that it still resonates with a rabid cult following. It isn’t just the dadaist pseudo-intellectual theories, or the critique of the American mindset as unthinkingly, submissively conformist. It was the way their music reflected that view, crafted to be as mechanical and robotic as their targets. Yet Devo hardly sounded like a machine that ran smoothly. There was an almost unbearable tension in the speed of their jerky, jumpy rhythms, outstripping Talking Heads, XTC, and other similarly nervy new wavers. And thanks to all the dissonant, angular melodies, odd-numbered time signatures, and yelping, sing-song vocals, the tension never finds release, which is key to the album’s impact. It also doesn’t hurt that this is arguably Devo’s strongest set of material, though several brilliant peaks can overshadow the remainder. Of those peaks, the most definitive are the de-evolution manifesto “Jocko Homo” (one of the extremely few rock anthems written in 7/8 time) and a wicked deconstruction of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” which reworks the original’s alienation into a spastic freak-out that’s nearly unrecognizable. But Q: Are We Not Men? also had a conceptual unity that bolstered the consistent songwriting, making it an essential document of one of new wave’s most influential bands.”