release date: Sep. 1996
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,16]
producer: Andy McCluskey, Matthew Vaughan, David Nicholas
label: Virgin Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 2. "Walking on the Milky Way" - 3. "The Moon & the Sun" - 9. "The Boy From the Chemist Is Here to See You"
10th studio album by OMD still reduced to a Andy McCluskey one-man project. Stylistically, McCluskey continues his journey with europop, although the drums and dance element have been reduced so the album turns out as a more mainstream pop / rock album and on some tracks with the addition of a britpop feel, like on #2. Three tracks are co-written with Stuart Kershaw and two tracks with former founder Paul Humphreys (tracks #5 & 10).
Track #2 peaked at position #17 on the national singles chart list but the album was met by luke-warm reviews, although topping at number #24 in the UK, only second-lowest of the band's albums - the debut reaching number #27, which had come out of the blue and with no expectations.
I only listened to the full album around 2012 and I'm not a big fan of it, although, I find it clearly bettering the poor Liberator (1993). It's really not all bad, but its biggest problem is its lack in direction. It contains tracks, which could be included on the predecessor, on a few older albums, and then it lays out several tracks of mainstream pop / rock and a few britpop-styled compositions, not to mention strong differences between ballads and pure dance pop, which makes it a bit of a mishmash alltogether.
A decline in national radio airplay and in sales numbers made McCluskey decide to call it a day in late '96. OMD was now history, or at least for the next decade.
[ allmusic.com 2 / 5 stars ]
