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OMD had always been a bit odd, though. There was little doubting their sincerity or their credentials, but in the end, they always looked as if they were fronted by Keith Harris dancing very badly at the office party. So when they turned up at the peak of their success with an album bereft of melody but long on east European sound effects, it was somewhat difficult to latch on to.
Let's be honest, there had been some precedent - their previous album, the chart smash, Architecture And Morality, had hardly been long on laughs. But this was bizarre. Borne out of the writer's block they had experienced after the global success of their previous album, Dazzle Ships took its predecessor's pitch black elements and somehow made them darker. Inspired by the 1919 painting by Edward Wadsworth, Dazzle Ships In Drydock At Liverpool, the album clicked and whirred; with its found voices and political undercurrents, there was little here for pop fans to sink their teeth into.
Although the 1981 outtake, Telegraph, was a sop to pop audiences, ABC Auto Industry referenced Syd Barrett-era Floyd, with its childlike repetition and sound effects. The inclusion of 18-month old B-sides (Romance Of The Telescope, Of All The Things We've Made) suggested a degree of artistic bankruptcy, as well. ''Dazzle Ships is a strange LP'' Andy McCluskey suggests today ''because obviously it was possibly the lowest selling album that we ever released and yet I am inordinately proud of it. Maybe we did something that was commercial suicide, but we did that album for the right reasons. It has a painful beauty''. Painful, it is, at times (how many times would anyone want to hear its title track). Yet beautiful it is too: Very, very much so. --Daryl Easlea
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"It was a crashing disaster." Andy McCluskey, Vox, July '93
"...the whole concept of the album lacked vision and cohesion." J. Waller / M. Humphreys, Messages (the official biography), 1987
"...shorter tracks... frustrating irritations..." Messages again.
Even it's creators, perhaps in a conscious or unconscious effort to retain credibility with an apparently hostile public, denied it thrice.
Messages suggests the `failure' of the album was due to a confused record buying public. Was the album synth-pop or was it avant-garde? This of course is twaddle. People don't buy albums because they are a `cohesive end product'. Some buy albums because they saw and liked the band live, but that's a relatively small number of people most of whom are already converts. Some buy because the songs have had lots of exposure on the radio, thanks to a very small but powerful group of DJs. Others buy because a very small but powerful group of reviewers have said nice things about the album. Neither of the latter things happened in the case of Dazzle Ships, hence low sales.
O.K., so low sales don't prove an album is bilge-water, but can we ever prove that Dazzle Ships isn't bilge-water? Aha, here we've hit the conundrum, since the whole thing about art of any kind is that, of course, there is no good or bad. Art is purely subjective.... Read more ›
Poppier than Sugababes, more avant garde than "Kid A", it bombed and almost destroyed their career. They got timid after this and never produced anything else in the same league.
The digital remaster is certainly worth having - the older version of the CD sounds a bit tinny next to the vinyl (this happened with a lot of CDs before mastering engineers got used to the medium) whereas this sounds warm and clear.
The extra tracks are a mixed bag - the early version of "Telegraph" is very much for completists only and the 12" version of "Genetic Engineering" doesn't really add anything to the original, but "4 Neu" and the extended version of "Telegraph" are excellent.
But what an album. Misunderstood by many, worshipped by few, Dazzle Ships not only broke the rules, but doused them in petrol and set them ablaze. With no hits or radio friendly pop tunes, the album was destined to commercially sink like the Titanic. But to those that could (and still can) appreciate what McCluskey and Co. crafted into each of the 12 masterpieces, we have been blessed and privileged to bask in its splendor. Whilst others just scratch their heads and wonder what on earth was going on.
But OMD strived to be different and Genetic Engineering sought to promote the idea that GMO could be useful after all, a debate which was ahead of its time. It's also a damned good tune! There are some thought provoking moments on the album too: the recorded news piece on the intro of International detailing the misery and intolerance of war and hate.
The atmospherics are evident on the title track with its klaxons and hooters which scared the life out of me live! You could see people jump! Highlights for me include the euphoric Telegraph, Radio Waves (a song from their earlier days in The Id) and the haunting Romance of the Telescope, a track I enjoy playing now with my band, Souvenir.
It was OMD's first album to feature samplers, the old Emulator 1 doing its stuff. It's a great album and shows OMD possessed a fine grasp of the light and shade of sound as well as a well-developed knack of writing great pop songs. Respect is due.
Al Ferrier 20.3.01
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