Devo - Freedom Of Choice (White Vinyl)

White Vinyl, Start Your Ear Off Right 2020

This is Rhino's white vinyl pressing of Freedom of Choice, issued on January 17, 2020 in the second weekly batch of that year's Start Your Ear Off Right campaign, a run of limited color pressings sent to brick-and-mortar record shops and a few larger retailers. The edition is limited to 3,650 copies. Ian Sefchick cut the lacquers, the label reads RCV1 3435, and the red back cover carries the original Side One and Side Two running order and credits.

Freedom of Choice was Devo's third album. Warner Bros. had told the band that sales needed to rise or the contract would end, and Devo turned to Robert Margouleff, drawn by his work with Stevie Wonder and Tonto's Expanding Head Band, to co-produce with them. The album was recorded and mixed in six weeks at the Record Plant in Los Angeles, with bass, drums and guitars played live together and the synthesizers and vocals added afterward.

Warner Bros. released it in May 1980. It peaked at number 22 on the Billboard album chart and was certified platinum by the RIAA in 1986. "Girl U Want" was the first single and did not chart; "Whip It," the video above, followed in August 1980 and reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 8 on the club play chart. The twelve songs run 32 minutes and 14 seconds.

Gerald Casale wrote the title song about the conservative political shift in the United States ahead of Ronald Reagan's election. On the cover, the band wear silver Naugahyde suits Casale designed, and the red energy domes were inspired by Art Deco light fixtures he remembered from his grade school.

Tracklist

Side One

1. Girl U Want (2:55)
2. It's Not Right (2:20)
3. Whip It (2:37)
4. Snowball (2:28)
5. Ton O' Luv (2:29)
6. Freedom of Choice (3:28)

Side Two

7. Gates of Steel (3:26)
8. Cold War (2:30)
9. Don't You Know (2:14)
10. That's Pep! (2:17)
11. Mr. B's Ballroom (2:45)
12. Planet Earth (2:45)

Complete the Collection

Devo albums in the shop, 4 counting this one:

• Freedom of Choice (this pressing)
• New Traditionalists
• Now It Can Be Told (Devo At The Palace 12/9/88)
• Nitrous Nightmare Halloween Live '75 - Haunted Striptease