In three years Kraftwerk had progressed from the motorways to the train track. Hardly a major step up on the travel scale but in 'Trans-Europe Express' they gave us arguably the definitive Kraftwerk album. By this time Messrs. Bartos, Hutter, Schneider and Schult could deliver their longing for technology and transport to shorter, more tuneful songs without losing any of their unique qualities. 'The Hall Of Mirrors' and 'Showroom Dummies' demonstrate a mastery of brittle electro-pop; the former deals in proto-trip-hop, the latter delivers with its rudimentary click-clack beats yet each have a timeless, spine-tingling aura which their electro-pop successors rarely understood. In contrast, 'Franz Schubert' and 'Europe Endless' border on the classical. Yet the best moments are best reserved for the 'Trans-Europe Express/Metal On Metal' suite; a beautifully evocative train ride shrouded in an escapable sense of melancholia, shuddering to a halt after fifteen minutes of perfection. And lo, the first classic electronic album was born.