Architecture & Morality [Original recording remastered, Extra tracks]

Returning to Architecture and Morality after a 26 year gap is quite an enlightening experience.

By the time this album was released in 1981 OMD were on the way to becoming a regular chart act and this album was in effect the bands great leap forward.With an impressive three U.K. hit singles,it could be argued that Architecture And Morality was merely the latest in a long line of very impressive electronic albums released around the same time,but that would be doing the band and their music a disservice.

A product of its time, Architecture And Morality has a slightly urban feel that connects well with the dark days of the early Eighties,and whilst arguably it has a cold heart the songwriting and vision has a certain charm that still resonates to this day.Classic singles like "Joan Of Arc",and the irrepressible"Souvineer" still sound great,whilst supporting tracks like"The New Stone Age" and the albums title track show that OMD would comfortably overcome any notions that they were merely a disposable chart act.

An obvious reference throughout this set is Kraftwerk's "Radioactivity" album,but fortunately OMD were shrewed enough to avoid being completely overcome by the German's influence,and this album sounds more like a northern British relation rather than a carbon copy.Consequently the real strength of Architecture And Morality lies in its willingness to acknowledge its influences,not replicate them.

Now expanded to include lost 'b'sides [although i am finding it difficult to tell the difference between the two versions of "Souvineer" on this set!] and a very impressive dvd[including tv appearances and a live concert from 1981],this is a brilliant package that offers a full insight into OMD at the most crucial time in their career.

Ultimately this is a great example to other artists on how to reissue their most important albums, breathing new life into established work,whilst offering the punter enough value and reasons to buy the album again.

I've been an OMD fan since buying the "Messages" single in 1980 and a quarter of a century later, I still stick an OMD CD on every now and then. I usually choose this CD, Architecture & Morality as, for me, it's the most complete album of t heir career.

Album releases really were a whirlwind in those days and A&M was the third full length album in under two years for the dynamic Liverpool duo. That kind of release schedule would be unheard of nowadays, but back in the late 70's/early 80's that was par for the course.

I'll get the singles out of the way first; there's the shimmering beauty of Paul Humphrey's Souvenir, one of the classic OMD singles in every sense complete with the obligatory choral voices which became their trademark around this period. Then there are the two Joan Of Arc singles. One was a great slice of up-tempo - popiness (Joan Of Arc) while the other (Maid Of Orleans took the lead from Paul's Souvenir with its wall of choral voices.
Almost without fail, every track could have been a potential single from the excellent Georgia with its added radio samples or the breathtaking She's Leaving. Why Virgin never released that as a single, I'll never know.
This is also the first OMD album where Andy McCluskey let's rip with his guitar and this adds yet another element to the OMD sound. The opener New Stone Age is virtually new wave!
If you're going to buy one OMD album, then make sure this is the one, with the added bonus tracks, it's even better value, particularly as the best EVER OMD track, The Romance Of The Telescope is included.

Despite the tragic association with the second series of Alan Partridge, which has helped assist a snobbish response to O.M.D. by default, I feel the need to defend the band mostly known as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. 'A&M' took its title from a book entitled 'Morality & Architecture', the title suggested by Martha Ladly once of Martha & the Muffins and later associated with the Associates. The title fits perfectly the brilliant cover from Peter Saville Associates, who designed the majority of their sleeves (many of these are in an excellent book on Saville, well worth tracking down).

This version of 'A&M' is an extension of the extended/remaster from a few years ago, the major addition being the second disc which has DVD elements (video/live), mostly culled from a performance at Drury Lane. This is the deluxe version of the best-selling OMD album, one the fan's will have to get - if you're less certain, plump for the single disc remastered version which has all the b-sides/bonus tracks. I am one of the few who are hoping their masterpiece, 1983's 'Dazzle Ships' gets the same treatment.

The original nine-track LP is pretty perfect, advancing on the promise of the previous two albums and proving that the perfect pop of 'Enola Gay' was no one-off (which some might think when hearing the bleak electronic soundscapes of 'Organisation'). There is subversive pop, akin to 'Enola Gay', the subject this time being Joan of Arc, a figure who has been read in many ways (perhaps they had just overdosed on 'The Passion of Joan of Arc'?). 'Joan of Arc' is a gorgeous pop single, though it is the relative 'Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)' that seems more powerful, taking the ambient synths that are also found on 'Souvenir' and 'Sealand', prior to a huge classical synth motif and military drums whacked out by robots. The other single was the huge hit 'Souvenir', sung not by Andy McCluskey, but by Paul Humphreys who wrote it with Martin Cooper - more sublime pop perfection, the 'Extended Souvenir' is pretty similar, just a few extra words you might not require...

Things start more oddly with 'The New Stone Age', which has a minimal guitar sound (like Joy Division with banjos!), a metronomic drum machine and whoozy ambient drones as McCluskey sounds possessed, barking out the words: "Oh my god, what have we done this time?" The song goes into overload at the end, feeling like an advance on the Joy Division inflections of 'Organisation.' Following the dark opener, we get some more gorgeous electronic pop in the form of 'She's Leaving', which probably should have been a single - amusingly enough it would be ripped-off for 'Number One' by Goldfrapp, a band who are hip where OMD definitely aren't...

The centrepiece of the LP remains 'Sealand', which may or may not be a nod towards 'Seeland' by Neu! (OMD paid tribute to the Krautrock gods with b-side '4 Neu' a few years later), but advances on the 'Organisation'-epic 'Stanlow.' Just under eight-minutes in duration, it's a fan favourite and OMD at their most ambient, this direction would conclude with Dazzle-joys like 'International', 'The Romance of the Telescope', & 'Silent Running.' The title track predicts large aspects of the follow-up album, leading the way to the concluding tracks 'Georgia' (industrial electronic pop about a state of the Soviet Union, which like 'Enola Gay' sounds perky!) and 'The Beginning and the End' which blends Philip Glass-style minimal elements with guitar and percussion. Still great stuff, a definite perky LP and the choice OMD album (though I remain a 'Dazzle Ships' fellow myself).

The bonus tracks are another reason to buy this reissue, including a re-recorded 'Motion and Heart', tracks that would appear on 'Dazzle Ships' ('Romance of the Telescope', 'Of All the Things We Made'), and the fantastic 'Navigation', which would later give its title to a b-side collection of OMD works - one cd well worth tracking down.

Despite the later descent into stock 80s pop, session musicians and John Hughes soundtracks, OMD were once a great band, like Simple Minds, I tend to plump for the early stuff, picking only a handful of tracks after 1983. A key LP of the era, 'Architecture & Morality' feels as significant as 'Big Science', 'Dare!', 'Music for Parties', 'Non Stop Erotic Cabaret', & 'Penthouse & Pavement.' A key electronic album, even if Alan Partridge digs it!