Freedom of Choice is the third album by New Wave musicians Devo, released on May 16, 1980 on LP and July 7, 1987 on CD.
It saw the band moving in more of an overt synthpop direction, even though guitars still played a prominent role.
The album was produced by Robert Margouleff, famous for his synthesizer work in Tonto's Expanding Head Band and with Stevie Wonder.
On the Billboard Music Charts, Freedom of Choice peaked at #22 on the Pop Albums chart. It contains Devo's most well-known song, "Whip It,"
which hit #8 and #14 on the Club Play Singles and Pop Singles charts, respectively.
The group later performed an alternate version of "Girl U Want" that appeared on the Tank Girl soundtrack.
An entire alternate demo version of the album was released in 2000 on the Rhino Handmade two-disc rarities collection Recombo DNA.
The demo version lacks "It's Not Right," "Ton o' Luv," "Don't You Know," and "Freedom of Choice," but it includes demos of the "Whip It"
B-side "Turnaround" and three unreleased tracks ("Luv & Such," "Time Bomb," and "Make Me Move").
In 2008, the album was digitally remastered and released as part of the box set This is the Devo Box in Japan.
On September 16, 2009, Warner Brothers and Devo announced a re-release of Freedom of Choice and Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, with a tour performing both albums.
Track listing
On all editions, all songs written by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald V. Casale except as noted.
Standard
• "Girl U Want" – 2:55
• "It's Not Right" (Mark Mothersbaugh) – 2:20
• "Whip It" – 2:37
• "Snowball" – 2:28
• "Ton o' Luv" (Gerald V. Casale) – 2:29
• "Freedom of Choice" – 3:28
• "Gates of Steel" (Gerald V. Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh, Sue Schmidt, Debbie Smith[4]) – 3:26
• "Cold War" (Robert Mothersbaugh/Gerald V. Casale) – 2:30
• "Don't You Know" (Mark Mothersbaugh) – 2:14
• "That's Pep!" (Mark Mothersbaugh) – 2:17
• "Mr. B's Ballroom" (Mark Mothersbaugh) – 2:45
• "Planet Earth" (Gerald V. Casale) – 2:45
(from Wikipedia)
