Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Second album but never second best, 19 April 2005
Hard as it is to believe in these days of three or more years between albums, OMD released two albums within nine months in 1980, Organisation being the latter.The first self-titled album was a hard act to follow: songs like Electricity, Julia's Song, Mystereality and Messages a superb showcase for their two-blokes-with-some-help-from-two-other-blokes setup. If you're looking for stuff like the seminal electronic pop of Enola Gay, this is probably not the best place to start as Organisation is at once moody and balanced with pop savvy. You've the contrast of the magnificent Stanlow (Andy and Paul received special permission to visit the massive oil refinery and record sounds there for the track) and 2nd Thought and brilliant pop gems like The More I See You (a cover of the Chris Montez hit), Promise - the first time Paul Humphreys had taken lead vocals - and Motion & Heart. This release features the early live tracks (recorded at the legendary Liverpool club Eric's) that were featured on a seperate 7" with the initial copies of the vinyl album. They were friends of Joy Division, hailing from not far away on the Wirral peninsula, fellow Kraftwerk devotees, they'd recorded for JD's label Factory (briefly) and played gigs with the awesome Mancunian quartet so the links are apparent. It's a quarter of a century since this album saw the light of day. So much has happened in music since but OMD were a great band who are underated even now. Buy all their albums and see the evolution!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dark and brooding, just like its cover......, 12 Jan 2004
By A Customer
OMD's second album is a much more coherent and mature piece of work than the eponymous first album. Less of the twee percussion, and much more use of atmospherics. Humphreys and McCluskey openly admit that their interest in Joy Division was a major influence, and it shows. That said, OMD manage to coax a wonderful soundscape from their vintage synths, and the results are well worth hearing, especially on the brooding "Statues" and the magnificent "Stanlow", a homage to the oil refinery of the same name near Ellesmere Port, with its mixture of soaring synths and clanking industrial noises - a real innovation at the time. This remastered version sounds nice and clear, and has some great bonus tracks to boot.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nearly perfect, 9 Dec 2006
OMD became horribly unfashionable, and when Andy McClusky emerged as the man behind Atomic Kitten, their legacy looked horribly shaky!
But one listen through to this should change all that. It's a remarkably dark, brooding and miserable listen, that somehow lifts the spirits rather than squashing them flat. From the I-only-learned-to-play-keybaords-last-night riffs to the affectingly over-dramatic vocals, something about Organisation works as a cohesive whole.
The cheesy pre-set-sounding keys sounds and the hilariously robotic nod-to-Kraftwerk drum patterns are curiously affecting, almost as if this wasn't pop music, but actually something REALLY important!
Enola Gay remains as energetic and uncompromising as does OMD's "I am a geography teacher"-chic comments from the time.
The experimentation element of their sound is still in place at this time, and if you can overlook the travesty of (some of the) later albums, and the outrageous pretension of their moniker, this is a strong, early 80s album with a lot to recommend it.
It's the sound of young men taking themselves very seriously, and woe betide you if you disagree.
See me later for plate tectonics!
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