Look behind the austere design and photography (and the forbidding title) of Architecture & Morality and you will find a collection of three and a half minute long nuggets of pop gold. Critics hold varying opinions on different stages of their career but OMD always made pop music of one kind or another. One group more than any other managed to successfully combine yearning, lovelorn, romantic content within a futuristic, 'European', supposedly 'cold' form however and that was Liverpool's Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark. Once when out with a much more demonstrative European girl from sunnier climes, she asked him: "Is this why you have no emotions - because you have a robot heart?" Sometimes when listening to synth pop I automatically think of a Mancunian friend with a pacemaker who has the demeanour that is common among many of us who are born in the North Western rain shadow area. But this is also a confusion between form and content. Of course some of this was down to that old chestnut about how real music containing real soul and real emotion was played on real instruments such as guitars and drums. There is an almost baroque level of (exquisitely judged) romantic melodrama to Soft Cell's 'Say Hello Wave Goodbye' despite Gary Numan's dead-eyed automaton image, Tubeway Army's 'Are "Friends" Electric?' is quite clearly a very fragile and keenly felt song about heartbreak and the early releases of Blancmange, Depeche Mode and Eurythmics were torrid with the emotion expressed. While there certainly were acts who came across as detached or alienated (Cabaret Voltaire, The Normal, John Foxx) if anything, the opposite was generally true. The vinyl contains a triple gatefold sleeve, silver-board & emboss detail, and a download card and is available to pre-order now from HERE.A lazy but widespread criticism of the English synth pop scene of the early 80s was that it was soulless or lacking in human warmth. Now, for the first time, the band will release the hits as three 12" singles on 45 rpm colored vinyl. To this day, they remain the "Holy Trinity" in the middle of our live stage performances, and the audience reaction is always rapturous." The three singles' Souvenir', 'Joan of Arc,' and 'Maid of Orleans' all went top five in the UK. "Once again, we had followed our raison d'ĂȘtre of changing musical style, but we seemed to have really hit upon a sound that resonated with a wide audience. "The success of Architecture and Morality took us all by surprise," Andy McCluskey commented. It was an album that further solidified OMD as the Kings of the synth-pop world. The three singles from the album, " Souvenir," " Joan Of Arc," and " Maid Of Orleans," all reached the top 5 in the UK singles chart and sold a total of eight million copies combined. Its iconic use of the Mellotron and choral samples resulted in international critical acclaim and has sold over four million copies worldwide. Released in 1981, Architecture & Morality was OMD's third genre-defying studio album. The announcement follows their incredible "You Me & OMD" Livestream at London's Indigo at The O2. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) have announced that they will release " Souvenir," " Joan Of Arc," and " Maid Of Orleans," the international hit singles from their 1981 album, Architecture and Morality, on 12" vinyl on October 15th on UMe.
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