Pitchfork 500: 4. Kraftwerk – Trans-Europe Express

A while ago now, a friend of mine made me a tape of the Stooges. He was convinced of their genius, and I hadn't yet explored their discography. So I listened, with some expectation. They were, of course, seminal.

My response was very simple: I heard what they were doing, I heard the effect they clearly had on rock and roll, and I heard that there was no need to ever listen to them again. They were a seismic event that were important in their influence, but all the bands that followed them did what the Stooges were doing, but did it better and more interestingly.

I'm sure a lot of people would think blasphemy, but I feel much the same listening to 'Trans-Europe Express"; it's just not very good. It goes nowhere. It doesn't build, it doesn't progress, there isn't any actual sense of movement in the track. The synth chords are too resolved, the vocodered vocals, and the synth lead just seem like individual elements that don't work together. They are just separate elements over top of the rhythm, a rhythm that would quite frankly work better without any of Kraftwerk's additions that supposedly make the song.