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OMD – English Electric

A review by Ange Chan

“English Electric” is the latest album by the once was “Orchestral Manoeuvre’s in the Dark” who are now-a-days known by their catchier acronym of OMD.

Their previous album “History of Modern” changed direction for OMD and was a fresher, cleaner synth sound, which revived interest in the band, who had been quite diverse and samey in their previous releases due to changes in musical direction by its members.

This album sees a heavy nod to OMD’s 4^th album, “Dazzle Ships” both musically and aesthetically in the album’s artwork, with the prophetic statements such as, “the future that you anticipated has been cancelled”.  I’m also reminded of New Order in the overall feel of “English Electric”.  This is completely by design, as the artwork is by Peter Savile who worked on so many of NO’s albums.

The lengthy first single off the album “Metroland” sets the tone for what is to follow.  Clean synth sounds with catchy melodies and a futuristic odyssey feel a la Kraftwerk.   Long-time collaborator, Claudia Brucken ex of Propaganda (and who also formed electro-duo “OneTwo” with OMD’s Paul Humphrey’s) features in spoken word form on the track “Kissing the Machine” which was a Karl Bartos (of Kraftwerk) collaboration.

The track “Night Café” maintains the electro momentum which is reminiscent of OMD’s hit “Messages” which was also sampled on their previous album in the highlight of that album “Save Me”.  The Kraftwerk retro-modernistic feel is continued in the track “The Future Will Be Silent” which has a distinctly experimental vibe to it.  The album’s forthcoming second single, “Dresden” is reminiscent of “Sister Marie Says” from “History of Modern” with its driving bass line and an epic synth sounds.

In summary “English Electric” is well worth a listen, and I’d go as far to say the best thing that OMD have produced in a very long time.  Not only does it reflect on the best of their past glories, but it gives us a taste of what to expect from the band in the future.

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Posted by 80sHog on Apr 17 2013 Filed under 80's Buzz, Headline. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry