War Babies (Hall & Oates album)

War Babies is the third studio album by American pop duo Daryl Hall & John Oates. Released in November 1974, it was the duo's final album for Atlantic Records, and was produced by rock musician Todd Rundgren, who also plays guitar on the album, alongside members of his band Utopia.

Wishing for a stylistic change from the Philly soul and blue-eyed soul that had characterised their prior work, Hall and Oates conceived War Babies as a radical, experimental departure, mixing progressive rock, hard rock and R&B into an urban-oriented style with heavy synthesizer work. A loose concept album, the album was inspired by the perils of touring and the struggles of baby boomers, with Rundgren and the duo aiming to achieve a bleakness reflective of growing up in the nuclear age. Further inspirations on the album included glam rock and David Bowie, who the duo opened for in 1973.

On release, the album reached number 86 on the Billboard Top LPs and Tape chart, becoming their first charting album, but was deemed a commercial failure, leading to the duo being dropped by Atlantic. It alienated music critics and fans of the duo who expected softer music comparable to their earlier records. Hall and Oates subsequently signed to RCA Records for their breakthrough album Daryl Hall & John Oates (1975), which abandoned the experimentation of War Babies for a more mainstream sound. War Babies was re-released in 2017.