release date: Jun. 17, 1985
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Stephen Hague
label: Virgin Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "So in Love" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Secret" - 3. "Bloc Bloc Bloc" (4 / 5) (official video) - 5. "Crush" - 6. "88 Seconds in Greensboro" - 8. "La femme accident" - 9. "Hold You"
6th studio album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The album starts off with three great synthpop tracks but then sort of fades out too fast. It's a kind of a strange album, as it both signals the polished mainstream pop they had turned to on Junk Culture but also contains more daring compositions and elements, which in a way points to the band's eternal dilemma: being both pop and art pop, and how they were mostly unable to choose.
I played the album a lot for a shorter period of time, then quickly grew tired of it, thinking it was too slick, and I couldn't hear it throughout, although, I found that it was definitely bettering its predecessor, which I found a surprising low-point.
Returning to the album, I find it more than decent, though. It contains several great tracks but also, and which is why I tired of it in the first place: contain a number of evident fillers that drag the whole album down. Some have called OMD a singles band, and I do understand that term in referring to OMD 'cause they have some truly great individual songs, even on mediocre albums, but it really becomes valid when you begin to compare individual compositions on a particular album. On Dazzle Ships people tend to focus on one song as that album's strength, which it really isn't, but on this and later albums they present one or two tracks released as singles that should sell the album - a bit like artist did in the 60s and 70s - only with OMD the remaining tracks would be very different.
Anyway, without being great I think this is better than its reputation.
[ allmusic.com 2 / 5 stars ]
