The Age of Plastic

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The Age of Plastic is the first album by synthpop/New Wave group The Buggles, which consisted of Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, released on Island Records on 4 February 1980. The album is a concept album, with themes of intense nostalgia and anxiety about the possible effects of modern technology. It followed the success of their first single, "Video Killed the Radio Star", which had reached No. 1 in the UK singles chart in 1979. Three subsequent singles, "Living in the Plastic Age", "Clean Clean" and "Elstree" were released from the album, but met with considerably less success.

The title of the album, The Age of Plastic', and the title track, "Living in the Plastic Age", allude to the 1924 novel and consequent 1925 silent movie The Plastic Age.

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn, except where otherwise noted.

Original LP release Side one

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"Living in the Plastic Age" – 5:13
"Video Killed the Radio Star" (Horn, Downes, Bruce Woolley) – 4:13
"Kid Dynamo" – 3:29
"I Love You (Miss Robot)" – 4:58

Side two

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   1. "Clean Clean" (Horn, Downes, Woolley) – 3:53
   2. "Elstree" – 4:29
   3. "Astroboy (And the Proles on Parade)" – 4:41
   4. "Johnny on the Monorail" – 5:28

Bonus tracks on 2000 CD re-release

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9. "Island" – 3:33
10. "Technopop" – 3:50
11. "Johnny on the Monorail" (A very different version) – 3:49

Bonus tracks on 2010 Japanese CD re-release

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The album was re-release on February 24, 2010 in Japan in its remastered version.[1] The re-release album added 9 tracks (3 of the nine tracks get from the 2000 re-release album).

9. "Video Killed the Radio Star" (Single version) – 3:25
10. "Kid Dynamo" (Single version) – 3:29
11. "Living in the Plastic Age" (Single version) – 3:51
12. "Island" (Edit version) – 3:33
13. "Clean Clean" (12 version) – 5:15
14. "Technopop" – 3:50
15. "Elstree" (Single version) – 4:06
16. "Johnny on the Monorail" (A very different version) – 3:50
17. "Elstree" (Special DJ edit version) – 3:36