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Service
Studio album by
Yellow Magic Orchestra
ReleasedDecember 14, 1983
RecordedSeptember – October 1983
StudioAlfa Studio “A”, Shibaura, Minato, Tokyo
GenreElectronic, dance, experimental, rock, J-pop, new wave, synthpop, musique concrète[1]
Length50:44
30:18 (original EU pressing)
LabelAlfa
ProducerYMO
Yellow Magic Orchestra chronology
Naughty Boys
(1983) 		Service
(1983) 		After Service
(1983)
Singles from Service
  1. "You've Got to Help Yourself"
    Released: September 28, 1983
  2. "Every Time I Look Around (I Hear the Madmen Call)"
    Released: 1984 (EU only)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]

Service is the seventh studio album by Yellow Magic Orchestra, released on December 14, 1983. The band dissolved the following year after a world tour, but would later reform in 1993 for a one-off reunion album, Technodon. Like ×∞Multiplies, it contains a mixture of YMO songs and comedy sketches performed by Super Eccentric Theater, or S.E.T. The first Dutch/German edition of the album omitted the sketches, effectively cutting the album's length in half. In 1999, the album was remastered under Hosono's supervision with new liner notes provided by lyricist Peter Barakan.

Service features "You've Got to Help Yourself", which was previously featured in instrumental form on the previous album, Naughty Boys Instrumental. The 2nd "S.E.T." track's intro featured Casiopea's song "Time Limit" from their album Mint Jams. "以心電信" more accurately transliterates to "Telegraph from the heart".

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Limbo"Yukihiro Takahashi, Haruomi Hosono, Peter BarakanTakahashi, Hosono3:21
2."S.E.T."  4:21
3."The Madmen[3]"Hosono, BarakanHosono4:40
4."S.E.T.[4]"  1:23
5."Chinese Whispers"Takahashi, BarakanTakahashi4:27
6."S.E.T."  4:16
7."You've Got to Help Yourself" (以心電信 Ishin Denshin)Hosono, BarakanRyuichi Sakamoto, Takahashi4:45
Side two
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."S.E.T.+YMO"  5:53
2."Shadows on the Ground"Sakamoto, Takahashi, BarakanSakamoto, Takahashi4:20
3."S.E.T."  3:25
4."See-Through"BarakanYMO3:36
5."S.E.T."  4:09
6."Perspective"Sakamoto, BarakanSakamoto5:12
7."S.E.T."  0:46

Personnel

Yellow Magic Orchestra – arrangements, electronics, mixing engineers, producers

Guest musicians

Super Eccentric Theater

Staff

References

  1. ^ Stout, Andrew (24 June 2011). "Yellow Magic Orchestra on Kraftwerk and How to Write a Melody During a Cultural Revolution". SF Weekly. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  2. ^ Allmusic review
  3. ^ This song was inspired by Daijiro Morohoshi's comic Mud Men.
  4. ^ The introduction is "Time Limit" by Japanese jazz fusion band Casiopea.
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