Fenner Pearson curates the ultimate playlist for the electronic pop legends Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. He also interviewed the band extensively about their 45-year career for The Art of Longevity podcast.
It’s hard to imagine in these days of the Web and Spotify how isolated one could be as a music lover. In Seventies, the teenage years of Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, one would have heard new music by word of mouth, from the music papers, and DJs like John Peel, and it is one of these channels that would have led the young Andy McCluskey in September 1975 to see Kraftwerk play at the Liverpool Empire.
It's lazy to suggest that Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark were entirely influenced by Kraftwerk, after all both founder members were keen music lovers and had performed together in a band called The Id, but their debut single Electricity wears that influence quite baldly on its sleeve.
However, the remainder of their eponymous debut album, whilst fundamentally electronic, displays a range of influences. If you were to buy me a pint and had half an hour to spare, I could tell you just why I believe their third single, Messages, to be the very birth of synthpop, reaching the UK’s top twenty a year before the cascade of electronic pop from Ultravox, The Human League, Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, et al.
I’ve indulged myself by including the track Pretending To See The Future, which I find to be the most enduring track on the album. That said, it’s extraordinary that over forty years after its release, it remains a strong album that has only dated, if at all, in terms of the equipment and production available to the young band.
The second album, ‘Organisation’ – named for an early incarnation of Kraftwerk – is a more sombre affair, whose success lies ultimately on a single song: the nostalgia favourite, Enola Gay, written at the time of the first album, where it could seamlessly have fitted in. I was 14 when ‘Organisation’ was released and to be honest I was hoping for something a bit more poppy, like their debut album. But I did settle on loving Motion and Heart, and over the years, decades in fact, I have come to view Stanlow, written about the refinery in Ellesmere Port where two members of McCuskey’s family worked, as one of their finest pieces of work.
There were some classic synthpop albums released in in 1980 and 1981 but in terms of maturity and sophistication, none came close to ‘Architecture and Morality’, OMD’s third album. Their pop credentials were undiminished, though, as demonstrated by two singles, both called Joan Of Arc (albeit one with the subtitle Maid Of Orleans), and the other nostalgia fave Souvenir, which unfortunately I never liked. (I have however included a remix in the playlist.)
OMD arguably took a wrong turn with their fourth album Dazzle Ships, released in 1983. By now, I was old enough to appreciate its avant garde edge, and also to recognise its congruity with Kraftwerk’s album ‘Radio-Aktivität’, but even the ostensibly poppy lead single Genetic Engineering was not enough to convince the record buying public. I’ve included on the playlist my two favourite tracks: the leftfield Dazzle Ships (Parts II, III and VII), and the sometimes contender for my all-time favourite OMD track The Romance Of The Telescope.
It is an accepted wisdom that the lack of commercial success that arrived with ‘Dazzle Ships’ unnerved the band and they swerved to a more poppy, less experimental sound. Even if true, it shows their strength as songwriters that they were able to switch horses mid-stream, and pen hits such as ‘Locomotion’ and Talking Loud And Clear. As it happens, the parent album, ‘Junk Culture’, was the soundtrack to my ‘A’ Level revision, but I have never tired of it, regularly returning to tracks such as Junk Culture and Tesla Girls.
But my favourite aspect of the whole album was the free single that came with it, featuring a track entitled (The Angels Keep Turning) The Wheels Of The Universe, which I took as indisputable evidence that the OMD that I truly loved was alive and in fine creative fettle.
I was a little less enamoured with the subsequent two albums, which seemed to me to display a gradual creative decline, although these LPs , ‘Crush’ and ‘The Pacific Age’, spawned strong singles in the form of Secret and (Forever) Live And Die, respectively. That said, there remains some fantastic creative energy on ‘Crush’, and I still return to 88 Seconds In Greensboro and The Native Daughters Of The Golden West.
It was at the end of the Eighties that McCluskey and Humphreys parted ways, both pursuing solo careers, although McCluskey retained the OMD name. Both produced some very good work during that time but we pick up with them again in 2010 when they regrouped and released an album called ‘History Of Modern’.
The band returned with a swagger that they’ve sustained ever since. They seem to me to have entirely resolved the fact they were capable of both experimental and popular work, without losing the tension between the two. There’s something entirely carefree about New Babies; New Toys, the opening track of ‘History Of Modern’, which is maintained across the whole album. Just listen to the unforced and effervescent Sister Marie Says and Pulse.
For me, the subsequent album, ‘English Electric’ is in the same vein, although I don’t mean to damn it with faint praise. I don’t think there is a particular standout track, but The Future Will Be Silent, Our System, and Kissing The Machine are all indicative of both OMD’s consistently strong songwriting, and McCluskey and Humphrey’s enduring love of messing with the form. It should be noted that ‘Kissing The Machine’ was written with Karl Bartos, late of Kraftwerk, a fact that has a poetic completeness to it.
If I’m honest, I was expecting much the same from 2017’s ‘The Punishment Of Luxury’, only to find myself listening to an album that I would confidently place in the top three albums OMD had released to date. Imagine! Almost forty years after they first got together, a band that was still adding to its finest work. As with all of their best albums, I’d recommend listening to it as a whole, but if I had to pick some tracks to whet your appetite, I’d recommend The Punishment Of Luxury, Isotype, and La Mitrailleuse, the last of which has an animated video that is worth seeking out on YouTube.
Which brings us to the forthcoming album, ‘Bauhaus Staircase’. So far, the three tracks that have been premiered point to an album every bit as strong and interesting as ‘The Punishment Of Luxury’. I’ve included all three on the playlist: Bauhaus Staircase, Slow Train, and Verushka.
One thing that I haven’t mentioned here is just how good OMD are in concert, and there is a plethora of live albums available to stream that demonstrate that fact once you’re familiar with the source material. And if this is the last album, as has been rumoured, then this might be the last chance to see them playing live. Don’t miss it!
Bauhaus Staircase is out October 27th. Pre-order here. The band’s tour starts January 2024.