Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

[Gavin]

One of the best bands of the whole of the 80s, no doubt, and synth pioneers, OMD came along and challenged everyone to remember how to spell "manoeuvre".

Often I remember songs because of their lyrics or titles and this one came into my mind as I reflected on a year of this forum. It's a late one from OMD, a simple one - some say derived from a Roxy Music track. So many good tracks to choose from with OMD though!

[Michael]

A favourite of mine by them. The lyrics are wonderfully subtle. I particularly like "It's eight fifteen, :



Featured, pointlessly, during the Olympic opening ceremonies. Just the thing for an event supposed to symbolize peaceful competition and enjoyment of sport - a song about the annihilation of a Japanese city in a nuclear firestorm. I haven't heard such a misplaced song since the closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where they had the gall to play Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell", a song whose conceit is that a group of skinheads are warning .

[Gavin]

What a classic - that's one of my favourite tracks by them, and as you say totally inappropriate for the Olympics. That just shows how hollow the enterprise was - they didn't really understand or appreciate the music at all - the tracks were just inserted as a series of token efforts for show.

[Elliott]

OMD are one of my favourite groups - possibly joint favourite with Kraftwerk.

The feelgood later stuff is not my thing, but I just love the first half of their career, from 1978 to 1983.

Melody-wise, it is impossible to beat Enola Gay, and they were undoubtedly masters of this (Messages, Joan of Arc, Maid of Orleans, Telegraph...).

But I also love their more obscure, experimental songs. They had an incredible knack of building a unique soundscape. And with the tools they were using (analogue, tape reels, etc.) it never sounded sterile.

This one, for example, is about an oil refinery...


This one should be listened to at a low volume, but certainly listened to...


This one is just beautiful...


And this one, I nearly made a video for, back when I was 16 and trying to get into art college. The video was going to be of a little boat sailing around a lake in the night time (it would have been a model floating around a bath, probably, but with the right lighting and editing it would have been lovely).


This song is less experimental, but you would still never hear it in the charts, despite its melody and beauty! (Takes a few seconds to start)

[Gavin]

[Gavin]

[Gavin]

[Gavin]

This is certainly from the "late" OMD period, but it's widely considered an under-rated track. Shows their usual strong grasp of melody! Cheerful for a lovely sunny day like today (despite the lyrics!).

[Gavin]

OMD certainly returning to the style of their heyday with this track, from their latest album English Electric:

[Gavin]