Kraftwerk
Autobahn
The electronic landmark Rolling Stone dismissed as inferior to Wendy Carlos
Released in Germany on 1 November 1974, Autobahn became Kraftwerk's international breakthrough. A contemporary hostile review, alongside chart results with their dates.
The verdict at the time
Mendelsohn dismissed the album with sarcasm, writing that Kraftwerk's music was 'nicht so gut as Walter Carlos' (Wendy Carlos) and comparing the band unfavourably to Bachman-Turner Overdrive. He treated the record as a joke, devoting much of the review to a car owner's manual parody rather than engaging with the music.
Chart peaks
European positions are listed by country. Later chart entries are labelled separately.
Sources & context
One critic's opinion, summarised from John Mendelsohn's original Rolling Stone review of 19 June 1975. The album is now recognised as a foundational document of electronic music and the 'kosmische' sound, cited by David Bowie, Simon Reynolds and countless artists as a seminal influence on synth-pop, techno and modern electronic music.
