Disco de Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: “Best of OMD”

I've always looked upon The Best of OMD as the most disposable CD in my collection, so I thought it would be fun to review it, as a change of pace if nothing else. I can't begin to say how many years it had been since I listened to this album. It's actually a bit serendipitous, as just recently I've begun trying to get a handle on this whole "synthpop" thing, never remembering I had a musical retrospective of one of the more influential synthpop groups close at hand all the while. I still can't tell you exactly what synthpop is, at its simplest, it's pop music played primarily on synthesizers. To me, though, synthpop primarily translates to musical memories of the 1980s, and I've never made a secret of my love for all things 80s, especially the music.

Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark had a long and successful career, but they achieved mega-success with only one song. If You Leave, from the soundtrack of that seminal 80s film Pretty in Pink, towers over the musical landscape of the 1980s. If I had to pick one tune that represented the decade of my youth, I would probably choose If You Leave. I'm still perplexed why the song never rose above #4 on the US charts. I originally bought this CD because of that one awesome song, and this probably explains why I didn't really "get" this music at the time, especially since a majority of the tracks date back to the group's earlier years. OMD first appeared on the music scene in 1979 with the song Electricity, a catchy but rather ephemeral track that managed to win them a recording contract. Their early recordings are hard for me to classify; I believe Enola Gay made the top ten in the UK in 1980, but this song always seems to hang around in my head to the point of being annoying after I listen to it. Tracks such as Joan of Arc and Maid of Orleans demonstrate the growing musical maturity of the group, though.

OMD began to hit their stride with the release of the album Junk Culture in 1984. Tesla Girls, in particular, is a much tighter, certainly much more energetic song from the somewhat experimental products that had come before. This song almost demands to be danced to (but not by me, of course) and had what earlier tracks did not - pop appeal. Locomotion has a more pop-oriented sound, as well, but its good points are all but nullified by the constant repetition of a certain silly phrase. Talking Loud and Clear, a third track from Junk Culture, also suffers from repetition and a stultifying level of musical restraint. The group's pop-oriented synthpop sound continued with the album Crush in 1985, with OMD finally finding significant success in America with the single So in Love. Secret taps into the kind of teenaged lovesickness that fueled much of the best of 80s music; back then, a crush could actually be an innocent albeit heart-wrenching thing that basically defined adolescence. For the first time, OMD was beginning to sound (to me, anyway) like the group that would go on to record the era-defining song If You Leave.

A defining sense of melancholy seemed to characterize all of OMD's music, from weighty songs such as Forever Live and Die to pop-oriented tracks such as the excellent Dreaming. This collection's final two tracks, 12" versions of We Love You and La Femme Accident, close things out with great energy, but the songs you take away from this album are those more poignant offerings from the mid-80s, great tracks such as So in Love and If You Leave. Listening to this album now, I think I appreciate the music much more than I did all those years ago. OMD may not have hit the charts all that often, but theirs is a typically 80s sound that helped define the decade and did much to shape the development of synthpop. Needless to say, I am no longer inclined to look upon this CD as in any way disposable.

I originally bought this CD for the well-known "If You Leave" track. I honestly never listened to any other songs until my husband and I went on a road trip. It is AWESOME! Honestly, I was just a little kid in the 80's but have always loved the music. And this CD is a great one to have if you're trying to build up a good 80's collection! The best songs (in my opinion) on the CD are: Electricity, Enola Gay, Souvenir, So in Love, Secret, If You Leave, and (my husband's favorite) Dreaming. Get this CD...you'll love it!

Though I was a child of the 80's, I was too young to truely appreciate most of the music. I am a relative new comer to OMD though I have known a handful of their hits for a longtime now. I bought this CD recently and I listen to is all the time. The songs are so pretty and fun to listen to. I get so may of the songs in my head!!! Highly recommended if you love that classic New Wave sound!

The compilation pretty much spans the work of the band during the entire 80's decade. For those unfamiliar with OMD, the tracks can all be grouped into the 1980's synth / electronic pop category. It was the catchy tunes, and decent lyrics that made this band stand out above the rest of the genre.

Most tracks are arranged in chronological order, and so it is interesting to hear the subtle changes in the band's direction from one song to the next. On of the tracks, "If You Leave", cannot be found on their other albums, and for a fan of OMD this is more than enough reason to buy the CD. Another great bonus is the 12 inch version of "La Femme Accident".

All in all, a top class compilation with wide appeal. Go and get it.

I was a massive fan of OMD way back in the early 80s, and have stayed a massive fan of them ever since. I actually bought this on cassette when it first came out in 1988 and then later replaced it with this CD (probably in about 1990). This contains all of their big hits from 1978 to 1988. They were popular in England long before they were popular in the US. In their early days, OMD didn't seem to follow the standard verse-bridge-chorus-verse style of writing of their songs, which made them different. To be honest, the fact that they were different is probably what made me such a big fan. While most other bands were doing that slushy love stuff, these guys were singing about their local telephone box, genetic engineering, the atom bomb and Joan of Arc.

After the Dazzle Ships album in 1983, they seemed to get a bit more timid about trying something different and became more safe and standardized and, although still quite experimental compared to a lot of other bands and it was still great music, it was a bit more mainstream than their earlier stuff.

The best song, for me, has to be Maid of Orleans, which the band actually weren't going to put on the Architecture and Morality album and then changed their minds at the last minute, in the UK it turned out to be one of their biggest singles. The instrumentation on it is superb and I still think it's is one of the best songs to come out in the 1980s.

All in all, if you're new to OMDs music, then I'd start with either this or their 1981 album, Architecture and Morality, which will give you a great idea as to what they're all about. After the departure of Paul Humphreys, Martin Cooper and Malcolm Holmes in 1989, although the music was still great, it just wasn't quite the same. This is, by far, the best collection you'll find of OMD.