Autobahn

Recorded at Kling Klang and mainly at Conny Plank's new studio in a farmhouse outside Cologne, on Plank's equipment. Early in 1974 the band bought a Minimoog, which they used alongside customised Farfisa and Vox drum machines. Hütter and Schneider are credited with concept and production, Plank as engineer, although Röder said Plank mixed everything and assembled the individual sounds into a whole. Hütter said the idea came from driving the autobahn, and he called the title piece a sound painting. Emil Schult, who had studied under Joseph Beuys, co-wrote the lyrics and painted the cover. Phonogram's British edition used a blue-and-white motorway logo instead, and that design became the default sleeve on later reissues.

Side two holds four shorter pieces. The two Kometenmelodie pieces were inspired by Comet Kohoutek, which passed Earth in 1973. Hütter said Morgenspaziergang was written when the band left the studio after working at night, when everything seemed fresh and silent. MOJO judged Kometenmelodie 2 as good an indication of where Kraftwerk were heading as the title track.

Philips released it in Germany, where the mainstream press largely ignored it. Flür said success abroad finally brought good headlines at home. Vertigo issued it in the United States in January 1975, the band's first album released there, and it reached number 5 on 3 May 1975. In Britain it reached number 4. Rolling Stone's John Mendelsohn thought it inferior to the music of Wendy Carlos, and Robert Christgau gave it a C+, later raising the grade to B-minus. In 1985 Simon Witter wrote in NME that it had enormous historical significance. Pitchfork's Tom Ewing described the title track as a perverse take on psychedelia, a recreation of the low-level trance of day-to-day travel. The album entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014, and a 50th anniversary Blu-ray edition with a Dolby Atmos mix by Hütter appeared in 2025.