Shout was their sixth album for Warner Bros. Records and retained the synth-pop sound
of their previous records with a heavy focus on the then new Fairlight CMI computer synthesizer.
Despite the popularity of synth-pop in 1984, the album was a critical and commercial failure and ultimately led to Warner Bros.
Records dropping the band; they would not release another album through the label until Something for Everybody in 2010.
Following its release, the band went on hiatus for four years. One of Shout's best-known tracks is "Are U Experienced?",
a Jimi Hendrix cover that carried on the Devo tradition of 'mutating' famous songs which began with their 1978 cover of the Rolling Stones classic "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction".
Ironically, the cover was marginally more accessible than the heavily experimental Hendrix track.
Additionally, the chorus melody of Hendrix's "Third Stone from the Sun" is transformed into a guitar solo partway through the track.
The track "The 4th Dimension" also incorporates the guitar hook from The Beatles' song "Day Tripper",
"Jurisdiction Of Love" has a few notes from "Love Machine" by The Miracles, and "Here to Go" quotes a bit of the Wilson Pickett hit "Land Of 1,000 Dances."
The album was the only one to use the Fairlight CMI computer to create songs.
This approach further pushed the sound of the guitar into the background of their music.
According to a 2005 interview with Bob Mothersbaugh, "Mark and Jerry kept saying in interviews that the guitar was obsolete and wanted to prove it with the Shout album."
Drummer Alan Myers left the band shortly after the album's release, citing feeling creatively deprived, partially from the band's use of drum machines and the Fairlight.
Music Videos
Alavish video for "Are U Experienced?" was produced by the band and Ivan Stang of the Church of the SubGenius.
Its many highlights include Devo as floating blobs of 'wax' in a lava lamp (a definite '60s image) and Hendrix
(played by an impersonator) stepping out of his coffin to play a solo. Despite being one of Devo's most visually impressive (and expensive) videos,
it wasn't included on the 2003 DVD-format video retrospective The Complete Truth About De-Evolution (although it had been included on the Laserdisc of the same name issued in 1993).
This is explained below in an extract from an interview with Gerry Casale for Earcandymag.com:
E.C.: Speaking of de-evolution, why didn’t the Hendrix estate give you permission to put the “Are U Experienced” video on the DVD?
Gerald Casale: Further de-evolution. You understand that the consortium of people that now represent the Hendrix estate are basically run by lawyers;
the lawyer mentality. Lawyers always posit the worst-case scenarios.
Though that video was loved for years by anybody who saw it including the man who commissioned it —Chuck Arroff, a luminary in the music business,
who still claims to this day that it was one of his five most favorite videos ever—,
they [the lawyers] didn’t get it and assumed we were making fun of Jimi. That’s like saying “Whip It” makes fun of cowboys. This is so stupid it’s unbelievable."
Tours
As the band were dropped by their record label and went on hiatus following Shout's release,
there was no tour to promote it. They had apparently planned a show with a video projection backdrop similar to the Oh, No! It's Devo tour of 1982.
Track listing
On all editions, all songs written by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald V. Casale except as noted.
• "Shout" – 3:15
• "The Satisfied Mind" – 3:07
• "Don't Rescue Me" (M. Mothersbaugh) – 3:07
• "The 4th Dimension" – 4:24
• "C'mon" – 3:15
• "Here to Go" – 3:18
• "Jurisdiction of Love" (M. Mothersbaugh) – 3:00
• "Puppet Boy" – 3:10
• "Please Please" – 3:04
• "R U Experienced?" (Jimi Hendrix) – 3:08
(from Wikipedia)
