Tour De France Soundtracks (studio album) by Kraftwerk

It is a great pity that this album no longer bears witness to the great influence that the group exerted in the world of electronic music. I understand that musicians (and especially the Man-Machine) are also attracted to cycling, but some tracks try to match old sucesses (sometimes transparent and therefore particularly painful). It is a shame to note that, apart from Elektro Kardiogramm, the minimal but strong compositions and melodies of the past are totally absent on this album. It is with pain in my heart that I have to say this but TDF Soundtracks is globally uninspired, no longer relevant and even annoying because the repetition can no longer fascinate. How unfortunate.

A stunning comeback from Kraftwerk who provide an hour's worth of futuristic techno with plenty of their playful, dry humour along with a sense of supreme order (especially throughout the prologue to chrono sequence) that could only come from this legendary group. A concept album that is a big success ! Hopefully we'll get new material from them before they disband (it's been over 15 years so far)

From Leonard 06/14/2018 10:53

Nice but too much ambient and too less Kraftwerk ....

I can only imagine how agonising the wait for a new album would've been for Kraftwerk fans (then again, it's been 13 years since "tour de france soundtracks" to the present day), but Kraftwerk certainly met all expectations with this highly energetic album.

Filled with both playful and sublime melodies, "soundtracks" hearkens back to some of their best work back in the 70s whilst still looking firmly towards the future. The run from "Prologue" to "Chrono" is astounding; everything about the production is, in my opinion, mesmerising. The record does lose some vitality & cohesion once "Vitamin" begins, but things soon pick up after that.

All in all it's a vastly underrated, consistently great album that fits right alongside the rest of their pioneering work.