Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! - Reception

Reception

Initial critical reaction to Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! was somewhat mixed. Tom Carson, writing Rolling Stone, claimed that "There's not an ounce of feeling anywhere, and the only commitment is to the distancing aesthetic of the put-on", and opined that "Devo lacks most of Eno's warmth and much of Bowie's flair for mechanized melodrama. For all its idiosyncrasies, the music here is utterly impersonal." Critic Robert Christgau gave the album a positive rating of a B+, but noted, "In small doses it's as good as novelty music ever gets, and there isn't a really bad cut on this album. But it leads nowhere." Nonetheless, it was voted one of the best albums of the year in the Village Voice's influential Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1978. In January 1980, Trouser Press also named it one of the best albums of 1978.

Later reception of the album has been more uniformly positive. Steve Huey of the online music database Allmusic scored the album four and a half "stars" terming it "arguably Devo's strongest set of material, though several brilliant peaks can overshadow the remainder", and "a seminal touchstone in the development of American new wave." Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! has scored on several "best of" lists, including Spin's 50 Most Essential Punk Records, Pitchfork Media's top 100 albums of 1970s and Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It is also listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.