Tour de France Soundtracks

Tour de France Soundtracks is the tenth studio album by the German electronic group Kraftwerk, released in August 2003. In October 2009 it was re-released under the title, Tour de France. The album is not to be confused with their 1983 single of the same name, though the theme and cover artwork of both releases are nearly identical. The album was recorded for the 100th anniversary of the first Tour de France bicycle race, although it missed its original release date during the actual Tour. The announcement of the release caused much anticipation, as it had been 17 years since the group had put out a full album of new studio material since 1986's Electric Café (also known as Techno Pop) Unusually for a Kraftwerk album it did not have separate German and international vocal mixes, but was released only in one version, with a mix of French, German and English. The lyrics were co-written by Ralf Hatter and Maxime Schmitt who had previously been manager of the Capitol label at Pathé-Marconi (part of the EMI group, the company that distributed Kraftwerk's music in France) and had been involved with the band since the mid-1970s.