New Traditionalists

Very smart clean vinyl housed in good strong cover.

New Traditionalists is the fourth studio album by the American new wave band Devo. It was originally released in August 1981, on the labels Warner Bros., and Virgin. The album was recorded over a period of four months between December 1980 and April 1981, at The Power Station, in Manhattan, New York. The album's sound continued in the vein of their previous studio album Freedom of Choice, with synthesizers moved even further to the forefront and the guitars became more subdued. Some of the tracks featured drum machines for the first time on a Devo album. In addition, the lyrics are frequently dark and vitriolic. It features the minor hits "Through Being Cool" and "Beautiful World."

With the success of "Whip It" and its associated album Freedom of Choice, Devo had attracted a new, more pop-oriented audience that was less interested in Devo's artistic theories and intelligent lyrics. In response, New Traditionalists was intended to be a much darker, deeper and serious album. The lead-in track, "Through Being Cool," was a direct attack on new fans who didn't understand Devo's message.

Most of the songs on the album are darker and more direct than on previous Devo albums. The exception to this is "Beautiful World," whose message seems optimistic at first but changes as the song progresses. This is made even clearer by the song's promotional video. On "Enough Said," Devo made one of their first overtly political statements, attacking world leaders and the political process: "Take all the leaders from around the world/Put them together in a great big ring/Televise it as the lowest show on Earth/And let them fight like hell to see who's king."

As with every Devo album and tour, the band developed a new look for the album, eschewing the energy dome headgear, and replacing it with the plastic "New Traditionalist Pomp," reportedly modeled after President John F. Kennedy's famous pompadour, though in one interview, co-founder and bass guitarist Gerald Casale claims it to have been modeled on Ronald Reagan's own hairstyle. They also wore blue V-neck T-shirts with the New Traditionalists astronaut logo on the black sleeves. This shirt can be seen on the US and Australian versions of the album cover. On the European cover, Devo is seen wearing "Sleeveless Maxi-Turtleneck Sweaters." The T-shirts, turtlenecks and plastic versions of the pomps were all available through Devo's fan club catalog.