[11][12] By February 1977, Devo were also performing "Shrivel-Up" live, as well as early versions of "Uncontrollable Urge," "Praying Hands," "Mongoloid," "Too Much Paranoias," and "Jocko Homo.

In 1977, David Bowie and Iggy Pop received a tape of Devo demo songs from the wife of Michael Aylward, guitarist in another Akron, Ohio, band, Tin Huey.

[18] In October 1977, Patrick Gleeson invited the band to record "Come Back Jonee" and "Shrivel-Up" at his Different Fur studio in San Francisco.

[20] Eventually, Eno was chosen to produce the album at Conny Plank's studio near Cologne after a series of engagements prevented Bowie from undertaking the recording.

With their bassist missing, the rest of the group spent the day playing with Eno, Bowie, Holger Czukay of Can, and Dieter Moebius of Cluster and Harmonia.

The cover was illustrated by Joe Heiner, based on an image of golfer Juan "Chi-Chi" Rodríguez that the band had found on a golf strap.

The manager of the company's art department, Rick Serini, recommended an artist who could airbrush and alter the face of the picture, while lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh offered a picture he had procured from a local newspaper that morphed the faces of U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

According to Casale, "we were able to come out with something that by the corporate interference and misunderstanding of the business side of Warner Bros. Records, actually unwittingly produced something far more Devo than the original image.

The European version had completely different artwork, featuring stills taken from the band's short film The Truth About De-Evolution.

[30][35] Tom Carson, writing in Rolling Stone, claimed that "There's not an ounce of feeling anywhere, and the only commitment is to the distancing aesthetic of the put-on", and opined that "Devo lacks most of Eno's warmth and much of Bowie's flair for mechanized melodrama.

"[40] Record World said that the single "Come Back Jonee" "utilizes [Devo's] unique tongue-in-cheek approach to its maximum" and praised Eno's production.

[41] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice reacted with muted praise, highlighting Devo's "catchy, comical, herky-jerky rock and roll" while concluding: "In small doses it's as good as novelty music ever gets, and there isn't a really bad cut on this album.

[43] In a retrospective review, Steve Huey of AllMusic deemed it "arguably Devo's strongest set of material" and "a seminal touchstone in the development of American new wave.

As the show would continue, the group's signature yellow suits would be gradually torn, until "Jocko Homo", where Devo would strip down to black shorts and T-shirts with knee and shoulder pads.

The show was ultimately concluded with lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh becoming Booji Boy and singing "Red Eye" and "The Words Get Stuck in My Throat".

[53] On May 6, 2009, Devo performed the album live in its entirety for the first time at the Forum in Kentish Town, London, as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival's Don't Look Back concert series.

[56][57] The album's opening track, "Uncontrollable Urge", has been used in several films and television shows, including The Wolf of Wall Street,[58] Fun with Dick and Jane,[59], Outerbanks,Ridiculousness[60] (as a cover along with Mark Mothersbaugh and "yeahs" provided by Rob Dyrdek)[61] and Jackass.

[better source needed] "Gut Feeling" appeared in the 2004 film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,[62] as well as the 2007 video game skate.