I listened again , you are right, I hear that something strange happened to the sound, I always thought this was some kind of artistic Choice to put some filter on the sound which cause this change , It never bothered me to enjoy the song and concentrate it but now after I read about this glitch I'm afraid it will. what can I say , life was easier before I read about the glitch
I bought the Souvenir DVD from their website when it first came out and it is indeed superb. I've met Andy and Paul twice and they are unequivocally two of the loveliest, most approachable musicians one could meet.
I know that tape glitch! I've always wondered about it. It's on my LP, which happens to be a Canadian pressing.
Architecture and Morality 1981 Produced by OMD, Mike Howlett and Richard Manwaring For many, this is the one. Considered at the very least one of the finest electronic albums ever made and in many circles one of the finest albums made....period, 1981's Architecture and Morality continued OMD's upward trajectory and if they hadn't been up to this point, registered the band as serious contenders for the title of "important", "influential" or even "legendary". Pop bands come and go, pop songs are remembered for a while, classic pop songs are remembered longer, classic albums become part of not only the era they were created in but also become part of the permanent musical foundation that allows lesser albums to be propped up for a while until they either take their place among the icons or fall by the wayside..............Architecture and Morality belongs among the icons that make up those one page collages that contain "Blonde on Blonde", "Dark Side of the Moon", "Joshua Tree", "IV" and even "Revolver", "Nevermind", "Kind of Blue", "Station to Station", "Pet Sounds" and the mighty "Pepper". Many purists discount 80's music as being artificial and "soulless" due to the inclusion of synthesizers and drum machines, fashion or an over emphasis on hair but albums like this contain as much humanity as any of those that live on top of those "Best Albums Ever" lists and deserve to be heard. Just like many of those "classics", when you listen to this one you stop and wonder if those involved knew what they were on to while it was being made as it is one of those instances where all the right pieces seemed to just fall into place. Architecture and Morality is considered by many to be the seminal album by one of the great bands in music but that doesn't mean everyone will like it, it's an amazing album and to me that means that everyone who hasn't heard it may really be missing out on something special. Track Listing: Side One 1. "The New Stone Age" 2. "She's Leaving" 3. "Souvenir" 4. "Sealand" Side two 1. "Joan of Arc" 2. "Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)" 3. "Architecture and Morality" 4. "Georgia" 5. "The Beginning and the End"
When I'm asked what my favourite album of all time is, I say, "Architecture and Morality by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark". It has the perfect synergy of industrial electronica and pop sensibilities. As Andy says in the Souvenir documentary, the title conveys that duality. Here is something that makes a statement. This is what OMD are about. Something that's very carefully structured and yet has a heart. It is rare in sophisticated pop music - particularly at the start of the 1980s - to successfully blend the two, but Architecture and Morality manages it, so much so that the three utterly gorgeous, effortlessly likeable hit singles don't even jar with the rest of it, some of which could even be regarded as "difficult", or - at the very least, a bit more challenging. Testament to how good it is would be to consider that The Romance of the Telescope and Of All The Things We've Made were from the same sessions and didn't make the album. It is a remarkable record. Age cannot (and will not) wither it.
Architecture and Morality. For me this is OMD's best album, the most complete, the most satisfying. The opening "New Stone Age" is fab, a right old racket, but terrific fun. "Sealand" is stately, magnificent and, oh to hell with it, glacial. (I don't like using that word unless I'm describing Sigur Ros, in which case it's mandatory!). "Souvenir" is delightful and delicate and "Georgia" is such a good pop song that I can't understand why this wasn't chosen for a single. And then there's the two "Joan Of Arc"s. Both are really excellent but you can imagine the bafflement at the record company - "OK, so you have two songs with the same title, you want them both to be singles and one of them has a load of weird noises at the start then breaks into a waltz as the keyboards pretend to be bagpipes. Yup, that'll be a hit…" But, brilliantly, it was. They both were! The cover was great too, with a square of cardboard cut out and all those slanty patterned photos. Wonderfully arty and a little bit pretentious. I loved it. Just what I wanted back then. Here's a question for the OMD hard core fanatics - I'm definitely certain that before A&M was released the boys played a Radio One session. It must've been for the early evening show, probably hosted by Richard Skinner (or perhaps Kid Jensen). It was a month or so before the album was released as the songs were unfamiliar to me and they played "Sealand". I was utterly blown away by this song, to the extent that when the album came out a some weeks later I would tell people that, good as "Sealand" was, it was even better on that session. So this isn't my memory cheating, or a case of rose tinted, er, earphones... this is what I thought way back in 1981. I've never heard this session since, and despite the OMD John Peel recordings being issued some years ago, this evening session remains unreleased. I can't even find a record of the date it was aired - all the Peel sessions are very well documented, but details of other Radio One sessions are oddly scarce. I suspect that if I was to ever hear this session again, it probably wouldn't be a good as my now sketchy memory, but I'd love to hear it all the same. Anyone know anything about it?
I had, but now you've reminded me, you swine! I remember when Atomic Kitten were having their 15 minutes of fame my daughter, then about 3, thought their name was Automatic Kitchen, which I always thought would make a cracking name for a band.
I remember that they got John Peel back to do Top of The Pops in 1982 for some reason, I don't know why. I think he had some input on the line-up for the show because it featured current Peel favourite Theatre of Hate as well as Soft Cell and then OMD doing Joan of Arc, I think he was pleased he had a band from Liverpool on the show.
Architecture and Morality I liken to New Gold Dream - brilliant albums from start to finish that didn't get the credit they deserved and have a dreamlike quality.
They are both brilliant albums, I'm pretty sure both did get the credit, both sold shedloads when released.
I just checked the chart placings of the relevant singles from those albums - SM had 13/16/36 and OMD 3/4/5 - whcih is pretty amazing for OMD, I didn't realise the singles got so high in the charts. So perhaps you are right, it just didn't seem like they were very big at the time.
The two "Joan of Arc" singles were massive. I also have a 7" of She's Leaving which I think was only issued in The Netherlands, I remember buying it in Amsterdam.
Souvenir = I picked up the 10" single when I first saw it and it's still my favorite single by OMD. The perfect moody synth pop song!
Dazzle Ships = Radioaktivitat for sure. Not sure what Kraftwerk album A&M would be. Trans Europa Express, maybe?
A&M was actually the very first full length I bought from OMD. See, I'm a bit younger than most of you, and my intro to OMD was If You Leave when that blew up the US charts, and I wasn't a huge fan of it. But when I realized several years later that they had this sizable body of work from before which I'd heard was insanely good, I started keeping an eye out for their records in the used bins, and A&M was the first one I found - a perfectly near mint US pressing in the dollar bin at a local record store! Cleary a dollar well spent. Firstly, I was totally wowed by the album cover, which on the US version is different from the UK. I love the design of both versions, but there's something about the US one that I like a little more. To this day I have a second copy hanging on the wall in one of those record cover frame things. I was immediately blown away by The New Stone Age, in part because it was not at all what I was expecting. I set the needle down in anticipation of some catchy pop ditty, when instead I get this raging angst-fueled storm of minor chords, desperate vocals, madly strummed electric guitars, weird factory machine noises, and a synth that sounds like it's been possessed and gone off the rails. Wow! I was instantly hooked. That, of course, was followed by the sublime lush pop of She's Leaving, a simple but highly effective and emotionally resonant song that certainly kept my attention. Souvenir ups the pop ante with spine-tinglingly beautiful melodies and hauntingly gorgeous synth sounds. Side two seems to be centered around the two Joan of Arcs, the poppier (but still intensely romantic and steeped in atmosphere) Joan of Arc, and the mesmerizing and ghostly build up of Maid of Orleans. They left the super upbeat pop nugget Georgia for the the penultimate track, which I suppose is a bit of a throwback to songs like Enola Gay, even if it's not as good as that. Still a burst of hook-filled genius, though. All in all, a wonderful album that showed that these guys seemed to have a limitless pool of inspiration and talent.
Sure but I'm only relaying the sentiments of many in the music world. I personally believe this album is a classic but am not crediting any of Kraftwerk's trail blazing to OMD. My first love with respect to music was the early "sing-song" Beatles songs with those perfect melodies and harmonies and this informs the rest of my musical tastes. Where Kraftwerk sounded experimental and innovative, OMD added more accomplished melodies IMO. Kraftwerk albums are such that for me, each song sounds better in the context of its place in the album where OMD songs work both ways for me. don't be name dropping and winking at me or you'll be wearing hitlerz underpantz very soon
It's pretty interesting to see how these supposed "obscure" albums seemed to have been selling like a Rick Astley album in England. Those Brits had it going on in the early 80's where mum and dad were buying Sons and Fascination for their 11 year old son. Architecture and Morality may as well have been "Appetite for Destruction" or something when it came out. In the U.S. you usually have to reference the "Pretty in Pink" soundtrack when explaining the legends who crafted A&M when you're playing it in front of the uninitiated.
Well everyone knows that (apart from soul/rap etc) the UK are 5 years ahead of the US and we have far better taste.
My two favourite quotes from the Synth Britannia documentary... On Maid of Orleans: "We were on Top of the Pops with Bonnie Langford and Elton John and Cliff Richard, among others, and we were going on with a song in waltz time which started with forty-five seconds of distortion and had no chorus..." On the perception that writing hit singles was easy: "The amount of people who said, "Oh, it's the technology. If we had all the equipment, we could do the same". F**k. Off". Ah, the wit and wisdom of Andy McCluskey.
I'm a bit late on responding to A&M, and with all the great comments up to this point, I feel I can't offer up much more than "Me too." So, yeah. Me too! Love this album; one of their best!
