Put The Needle On The Record Week #77 Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
For this weeks feature we go back to February 1980 and the self titled debut album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
I actually discovered OMD by listening to a session they recorded for John Peel and also bought their singles, "Electricity" (how this wasn't a massive hit I will never know, quite possibly one of the catchiest songs ever released!) and "Red Frame White Light", a song about a telephone box in Liverpool the band used as their "business office".
It is such a raw sounding album, which for me, makes it a fabulous album, a fine example of this is the version of "Messages" that is on the album compared to the re-recorded version released as a single. Lots to enjoy on this album, my favourite tracks are "Bunker Soldiers", "Almost" (B-Side of the "Electricity Single"), "Electricty" (obviously), "The Messerschmitt Twins", one of my favourite OMD tracks, "Messages", "Red Frame White Light" and "Pretending To See The Future", the only track that I have never liked on the album is "Dancing".
The concept of the album is centred around war themes, the album was self produced at their own studios in Liverpool, built from their advance received off the record label, however, Andy and Paul were never happy with the production and described their efforts as naive.
It was at this point that OMD expanded to 4 members, with Martin Cooper and Malcolm Holmes joining the band, they had performed as a duo up until that point and used backing tapes on a 4 track tape recorder that was given the name "Winston".
Reviews of the album were generally positive.
I bought the LP on the day of release from a record store in the Arndale Centre in Manchester, possible called "Bradley's", an interesting bit of information for you, the LP included an address that you could write to for more information on the band, which I sent a letter too and actually received a reply from Andy and Paul and they enclosed information about the bands history, typed information sheets about the instruments they used and they were signed by Andy and Paul, 45 years on I still have this wonderful artifact, so it is probably extremely rare!
3 singles were released off the album, "Electricity", (which reached number 99 in the UK Singles chart - baffling beyond belief!), "Red Frame White Light" (which reached number 67 in the UK singles chart) and "Messages" (which reached number 13 in the UK singles chart)
The album, reached Number 27 in the UK chart album chart.
Track Listing
Bunker Soldiers
Almost
Mystereality
Electricity
The Messerschmitt Twins
Messages
Julia's Song
Red Frame White Light
Dancing
Pretending To See The Future
If you have this album in your collection, dig it out and give it a spin!
