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Kraftwerk - Tour De France Soundtracks CD (album) cover

TOUR DE FRANCE SOUNDTRACKS

Kraftwerk

 

Progressive Electronic

3.37 | 121 ratings

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colorofmoney91
Prog Reviewer
4 stars Tour De France is one of my favorite Kraftwerk albums. This album retains the dark and sinister sounds of their earlier albums, but has a game-on kind of feel that is unique to Tour De France.

The first three tracks kind of run together as a single piece (Etapes 1, 2 and 3) and are fantastically trance-like and have a great beat to run along with. I'm a runner, so this album is amazing for marathon running. Robotic vocoded vocals have a very strong presence on this album, being included on almost every track. Something that stands out on this album is the choice of notes on this album. Compared to Kraftwerk's earlier electronic works, this album has a very dreamy, airy feel. The textures on this album make the music seem to be either pleasant and lucid-dream-like or dark and uncontrollable nightmare-like. I do feel that "Vitamin" adds an unwelcome touch of goofiness to the album, with lyrics about taking vitamins and whatever; I don't particularly care for it. It's kind of like when you fall asleep and have a great dream, then you momentarily wake up to an infomercial playing on your TV. "Aero Dynamik" and "Titanium" run together as a suite, utilizing some great zapping sounds that drive the tracks with aggressive force. The rest of the tracks also are entertaining, and "La Form" has some very nice development throughout the 8 minute duration. The title track starts off fairly annoying with the heavy breathing, but is actually one of the most lush and colorful tracks on this album, and is really a beautiful way to end the album.

I feel like most people don't really give this album a chance. It really doesn't sound too much different than their best material, which is completely fine with me. There are a few subtle modern touches to the material here, but it doesn't seem forced or annoying. I'd definitely have to recommend this album.

colorofmoney91 | 4/5 |

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