Devo

The companion record to Greatest Misses, this album focuses on Devo's best-selling songs -- which means it isn't the best representation of their huge catalog. Many of the songs come from Devo's later, Synth Pop-oriented albums. For a better, more representative collection, see The Pioneers Who Got Scalped.

Just when everybody agreed this new wave novelty act was full of poot, here came Pee-Wee's Playhouse, which was dreamt of in their "philosophy" but not mine. So OK, they were an Important Band, fabricating a minimalist funk of blatant entertainment value and covert sexuality. "Whip It" aside, what "hits" they had are the U.K. singles on the accompanying Greatest Misses, and the socialist cheapskate in me wishes they'd prepared a more economical tour--even if it would mean leaving off, say, the interlocking mechanisms of the ironically entitled "Gut Feeling," which missed me altogether on their first album. Even so, its peaks prove higher and more numerous than I'd have figured. Doody now for the future. (Grade - A-)