Smooth Noodle Maps
| Smooth Noodle Maps | ||||
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| Studio album by Devo | ||||
| Released | June 1990 | |||
| Recorded | October 1989–January 1990 | |||
| Studio | Master Control Studios, Burbank, California | |||
| Genre | New wave | |||
| Length | 34:28 | |||
| Label | Enigma | |||
| Producer | Devo | |||
| Devo chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Smooth Noodle Maps | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |
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| Robert Christgau |  |
Smooth Noodle Maps is the eighth studio album by the American new wave band Devo. It was originally released in June 1990 and would be their last album released through Enigma. The album was recorded over a period of three months between October 1989 and January 1990, at Master Control Studios, in Burbank, California. Smooth Noodle Maps was Devo's last full-length studio album until the release of Something for Everybody in 2010, as well as the last Devo studio album to feature David Kendrick on drums.
The album includes a cover version of Bonnie Dobson's song "Morning Dew," transformed into a dance song.
The album title refers to a kind of discrete mathematical system—a noodle map—which may exhibit chaotic behavior, similar to the standard map. The adjective smooth refers to the lack of kinks or discontinuities. This is referenced in the song "Devo Has Feelings Too", which include the lyric "snake through the chaos with a smooth noodle map."
The front cover of the record (and the fold-out of the CD version) featured the members of the band emerging from a strange circle. The liner notes from the "Post Post-Modern Man" single revealed that the circle is actually a computer simulation of the planet Jupiter. This image of Jupiter was provided by Philip Marcus and Nicholas Socci.
Two videos were made for the album's second single, "Post Post-Modern Man". The first, which was directed by Devo co-founder and bassist Gerald Casale and was never officially released, saw the band driving a Lincoln Town Car along the desolate Interstate 10 in Southern California. According to Casale, when the finished video was delivered to Enigma, they demanded the video include March 1990's Playboy Playmate of the Month, Deborah Driggs, in order to make it more marketable. After acquiescing to Enigma's demands, MTV then rejected the video because it used the Macro Post Modern Mix instead of the "college alternative track" they wanted to market, as featured on the original album. This resulted in a second video directed by Rocky Schenck which featured Devo in a spoof of Home Shopping Network, selling various Devo-related merchandise.
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