New OMD

Unlike nearly everyone else on this board, I know dick about OMD outside of "If You Leave" (which I dislike) and the song that's in URGH! A Music War (which I like). But since so many folks here are fans, you might wanna know that they have a new album coming out on Sept. 1, according to a press release I just got. You can listen to the first single here. I haven't a clue how it fits in with the rest of their catalog.

The same release announces U.S. tour dates, but it's only two shows, in San Francisco and L.A. Then they go off to Mexico and Europe.

That might be the most non-single-sounding single I've ever heard. Very interesting, that's for sure.

Thanks muchly for the link, good sir Toland. Boy, I was not expecting much at this late date, but: atmospheric, dystopian, experimental...OMG, is OMD back? Not a really strong tune, but this is the closest OMD has sounded to their classic early years in ages. Fingers crossed on the new album.

And so far as "I haven't a clue how it fits in with the rest of their catalog", OMD started off closer to Throbbing Gristle than the Thompson Twins, what with tape loop experiments rubbing shoulders with post-Kraftwerk avant-pop. The song you remember from "Urgh!", "Enola Gay", is about Hiroshima, and a loose Cold War theme ran thru their masterwork, "Architecture and Morality." They lost me on their 5th album, "Junk Culture", which found them moving down the commercial road to the sort of John Hughes soundtrack fare (e.g. "If You Leave") that neither of us care for. But this new track suggest that they're finally returning to their roots. Never thought that would happen. First the Cubs win the World Series, now this. Maybe a Husker Du reunion really is a possibility!

I'm a total OMD geek [posted about this album hours after news broke] but don't use Google products so I guess I'll have to wait to hear it elsewhere. I'm encouraged by the thoughts here. OMD have been making great strides toward getting their mojo back since reforming in 2009. Their 2010 album "History Of Modern" was definitely the most played album for me of the new millennium. That in spite of three really bad tracks because the rest was so good. Their last album, "English Electric" had great songs; it was sort of a breakup album for Andy McCluskey. I did not care for the sound design, which I thought was too simple and straightforward. I'm hoping that there is more complex and intriguing sound on this new one since I think that is their forté.

Mr. Toland: You can't go wrong with the first four OMD albums. Try them in sequence for best results.

McFab: I was completely on board with "Junk Culture" since it was [at the time] a completely new thread of visceral, emotional songwriting for the band. Stuff like "White Trash" was completely unexpected from them. True, by the next album, "Crush" it was "boiling frog syndrome" by which time we could look back from the vantage point of "The Pacific Age" and see where it all started going wrong.



Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

new OMD? OMG!

any band from the eighties that wrote and played songs back then about someone that would take a paycheck from the government and cash it after destroying hundreds of thousands of people with atom bombs and is still alive to tell about it, deserves to be loved.



Post Edited (05-18-17 22:15)