Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark: The OMD Singles

This album starts OK, then it builds in quality up to the peak of the two songs about Joan of Arc. Then it falls off a cliff, before rising more slowly towards the end again, but never achieving the same heights.

At least that's the way I see it. I admit I don't know any of the songs after Maid of Orleans very well. I just remember hearing the early singles on the radio at school. The year of Joan of Arc and Maid of Orleans, 1981, was after all the time when I was getting into Tangerine Dream. I would hear the opening part of Maid — the first minute of the song still sounds avant-garde — and think, "That's not bad, that…" Great melody, too.

In the CD booklet, Andy McCluskey explains that OMD were trying to sound like NEU! and Kraftwerk, and hadn't noticed that quite a lot of Mersey pop had crept into the songs they had written. I'm waiting for the Atomic Kitten singles compilation that explains how, when he formed that band, he wanted them to sound like Diamanda Galas and Dagmar Krause.

I got this second hand from Polar Bear in 2001 for £7.99. It was probably the Moth Wranglers' cover version of OMD's Souvenir that reminded me I had once thought, "That's not bad, that…"

MusicBrainz entry for this album