release date: Oct. 24, 1980
format: vinyl (reissue - DID 6) / cd (2005 remaster)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,18]
producer: OMD and Mike Howlett
label: Dindisc - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: 1. "Enola Gay" (5 / 5) - 2. "2nd Thought" (4 / 5) - 3. "VCL XI" (4 / 5) - 4. "Motion and Heart" (3 / 5) - 5. "Statues" (3 / 5) - 6. "The Misunderstanding" (4,5 / 5) - 7. "The More I See You" - 8. "Promise" - 9. "Stanlow"
2nd album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark released on Dindisc (sublabel of Virgin) only 8 months following the debut album, which had been Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphrey's project, but for this they have included drummer Malcolm Holmes as full-time member of the band.
This was the first album I heard with the band. At the time of its release, I was somewhat sceptical. I liked the synthpop and pop-elements, although, it was quite a new mix, and it felt very strange to someone who loved the energy and 'up-yours'-attitude of the contemporary punk rock. So my hesitation was really just a matter of not compromising myself by admitting to like something too attached to the contemporary popular culture. Anyway, I soon found that OMD was too extravagant, too modern, and perhaps to art pop-styled to fully attract a mere pop audience. Besides, I didn't care much what other people thought, and the band soon became another favourite of mine. "Enola Gay" was the hit single at the time but the album really contains so many great tracks. "VCL XI" ('VCL 11') was actually the name of the band (taken from an electrical diagram on the back-cover of Radio-Aktivität, 1975, by Kraftwerk) before choosing the longer name that eventually was abbreviated to just OMD. This early album is one of the band's best ever. On this one will find the original sound, a new wave and synthpop style that is anything than the hardrockin' attitude of other artists. The style is a mix of influences. Their biggest source of inspiration is Kraftwerk, which comes through in the more instrumental electronic parts, and even more so on Dazzle Ships (1983). The German band never mixed traditional instruments, bass, drums, and vocal arrangements like OMD, and with Organisation they became themselves the biggest source for other synthpop and electronic artists to follow in Britain, and also contemporary synthpop artists are hard to imagine without a link to OMD.
[ allmusic.com, Q Magazine 4 / 5 stars ]
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| org. 'grey' Dindisc cover |
