I knew nothing of this when the single came out, only being amazed that a band was allowed to use the word 'gay' in a song title, let alone have the lyrics published in 'Look-In' (I was 10 at the time). But it is one of the all time great examples of a massive pop record being based on an unpromising subject matter, namely the US plane that dropped the first bomb on Hiroshima. (Perhaps in retalliation, McCluskey initially disliked 'Souvenir', Humphreys' offering for the next album, on the grounds that it was 'too soft'). Offered by Andy McCluskey as his first solo composition for the band, it met with resistance from Paul Humphreys who, clearly sticking to OMD's experimental agenda, complained that it was 'too poppy'. Considering that it is such a major song in their canon, it is interesting to note that it was the cause of disagreement within the OMD camp. The casual fan is most likely to bypass 'Organisation' and opt instead for a singles compilation in order to add 'Enola Gay' to their collection. The band have said that the recent death of Ian Curtis cast a shadow over the recording sessions and one song supposedly features lyrical reference to him (OMD's early tour with Joy Division must have presented a unique opportunity to see the era's two worst dancers sharing the same bill). 'Organisation' came hot on the heels of the debut and although it contains one of OMD's most famous singles, it is a one-hit album due to the fact that much of the remainder of the music is deeply melancholy, a mood perfectly matched by the gloomy cover photograph. 'Junk Culture', 'Crush' and 'The Pacific Age' all contain many fine moments, and the tendency to experiment with strange textures and samples is still there, but the early purism has gone, allowing some of the more unfortunate trends of the mid-to-late 1980s creep in.īut there is one album I have missed out, and it is all too easily overlooked. The fact that this LP contained large chunks of abstract experimentalism suggested to the band that they could push further in this direction and still sell by the bucketload, but the relative commercial failure of the ultra-weird 'Dazzle Ships' resulted in a loss of nerve that saw the band play safer for their remaining albums. A reworked 'Messages' began the accidental but hugely successful assault on the UK singles chart, culminating in the million-selling 3rd album 'Architecture & Morality'. The self-titled debut album fulfilled this initial promise with a collection of songs that mixed twitchy electronic pop with eerie atmospherics and moments of plain weirdness. Debut single 'Electricity', released on Factory records at the insistence of Tony Wilson's wife, still sounds like a thrilling cross between 'Radioactivity' and 'Teenage Kicks'. Armed with a Korg Micropreset and a reel-to-reel tape recorder they named Winston, their aim was to produce experimental music in the style of their Krautrock heroes, although the results inevitably had a D.I.Y. If they did they wouldn't have chosen such an unwieldy and frankly ridiculous name as Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark. ![]() Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey did not originally set out with the intention of making hit records.
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