release date: Nov. 8, 1981
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,02]
producer: OMD, Richard Manwaring and Mike Howlett
label: DinDisc - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: 1. "The New Stone Age" - 2. "She’s Leaving" (4 / 5) - 3. "Souvenir" - 4. "Sealand" - 5. "Joan of Arc" (4,5 / 5) - 6. "Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)" (5 / 5) - 7. "Architecture & Morality" - 8. "Georgia" - 9. "The Beginning and the End"
3rd studio album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark making this the band's third studio album release in less than two years, which really says a lot about their productivity level, and when one looks at the reception the albums met, it's clear for even the blind that this band has much to offer. At this point they make experimental art pop, synth pop but at the same time great and much more mainstream pop music, which could turn out as a conflict of interests but they keep to their own style and sound without getting trapped between a commercial and artistic output, or so it seems, 'cause later on they ended up finding it difficult to navigate in this spectrum. Anyway, this is one of their best reviewed albums ever, and it is today included on many 'best of' album lists. Most of the songs were written by the band's two founders, Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys but as with most of their cleanest pop songs and single hits throughout their career, it was McCluskey who wrote these compositions, and that include "Joan of Arc" and "Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)" on this album. It's also the band's best selling album in the UK, reaching number #3 on the albums hit list, which only Sugar Tax (1991) equaled, and the compilation album The best of OMD (1988) beat by reaching number #2. The album is the only by the band to be enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Her Before You Die".
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Records Collector, Q Magazine 5 / 5 stars ]
