Freedom of Choice

After Duty Now for the Future was not as well received, Warner Bros. told Devo it would drop them unless the next album sold. For the first time the band wrote all new material rather than drawing on the 1974 to 1977 backlog, working from a rented space on Wilcox Avenue in Hollywood. Casale and Bob Mothersbaugh shared a love of R&B, and the band moved toward a funkier sound. Casale recalled treating it as a self-imposed challenge to see whether they could write songs.

They chose Robert Margouleff, known for his work with Stevie Wonder and the synthesizer pioneers Tonto's Expanding Head Band. He co-produced with the band and co-engineered with Howard Siegal. The album was recorded and mixed in six weeks at the Record Plant on a 24-track machine. Bass, drums and guitars were cut live together, with synthesizers and vocals added later. Casale played a Moog bass synthesizer, and the other instruments included a Minimoog, a Moog Liberation and a custom Moog called the Devobox. The mixes were dry, with the rhythm section close and prominent.

The cover shows the band in silver Naugahyde suits and the red energy domes. Girl U Want, the first single, failed to chart, but Whip It, released on 13 August 1980, climbed to number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album reached number 22, was certified platinum by the RIAA on 13 May 1986 and is their biggest seller. In Trouser Press, Scott Isler and Ira Robbins called it the band's most evocative pairing of words and music.