release date: Apr. 8, 2013
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]
producer: OMD
label: Sony Music Japan - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 2. "Metroland" - 3. "Night Cafe" - 5. "Helen of Troy" - 7. "Kissing the Machine" (live) - 9. "Stay With Me" - 10. "Dresden"
12th studio album by OMD originally released by 100% (aka 100% Records) is the band's second studio release after its reformation in 2006 and it features the same original line-up.
Compared to its predecessor History of Modern from 2010 this contains more songs written by McCluskey & Humphreys, and it generally contains newer material written after the reformation. The style has been altered to reflect a more "pure" synthpop form building strongly on electronic - as OMD shaped its music in the early 80s bonding with both the pioneering minimalism as exemplified by Kraftwerk and the more spacious synths as played by Jean Michel Jarre.
The album was met by positive reviews and also became the band's best charting album since 1991 reaching #12 on the national album charts list, which at the time of its release placed it as the 6th highest charting OMD studio album.
I do understand the fine reviews as it both appears brand new but at the same time contains much of the band's original sound and almost perfectly bonds with the original incarnation of the band. The album comes with pure pop songs that could easily be whistled on your way to work, and a fundamental electronic sound that almost pays tribute to Kraftwerk and Jarre, and to top it all: there are experimental traits memorising the band's incorporation of musique concrete and more experimental electronic compositions they played with in the early days.
It took me a few years to appreciate this one, though. Initially, I found it too "willed", in the sense that it seemed so obvious an attempt to recreate an album that would be compared to and linked with Dazzle Ships blended with Architecture & Morality. They may have had that combo in mind, and so what? They are fully legit aspirations and the resulting work is really more than a decent collection of songs.
Finally, OMD has created a fine studio album - again!
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, Mojo, Pop Matters 4 / 5 stars ]
