Celebrating the Haunting, Melancholic Electronic Music of OMD as they are currently ON TOUR. 🙂 It’s their “Souvenir – OMD 40 Years Tour, their 40th Anniversary UK & European Tour.
The Music of OMD
I always thought the songs from the English, Electronic Pop band, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) had an Eerie, Melancholic, Supernatural, Otherworldly feel to them, that kind of set them apart. Really atmospheric.
Souvenir – my favourite song
None of their songs embody this quality more than “Souvenir”, which is one of my most favourite songs ever, it’s just absolutely beautiful and hauntingly melancholy.
It has a real sad sound to it, an Enchanting softness, yet at the same time it’s kind of uplifting and hopeful. The lyrics. the melody, the energy, the vibration, just totally resonate with me. What can I say, it’s on my Frequency! Perhaps like no other song in the Universe. 🙂
It was the first single released from their massively successful album, “Architecture and Morality” and their highest peaking single in the UK Singles Chart, reaching No.3 in 1981. It was a major International Hit and received great critical acclaim. Dave Thompson of AllMusic wrote that the song possesses “an exquisite lightness” capturing “OMD at their most luminescent”.
Eighties Melancholy
It was referenced in the IPC Media special, “501 Lost Songs” as a “classic piece of early ’80s melancholy” and was described as “one of the most majestic singles of the post-punk era” by a critic from NY Music magazine, Trouser Press. It is Majestic and an 80’s Music Classic without a doubt.
Souvenir Video set in Buckinghamshire
The video featured fantastic scenery, with the classic red convertible on the tree lined open road, passing open fields, the grounds of a stately home, a beautiful lake and a palladian bridge. The video was very popular on MTV and was filmed on the grounds of Stowe House in Buckinghamshire.
Who are OMD?
OMD are an English Electronic Band from Merseyside, that were big in the 1980’s New Wave scene. The most well known band members are Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys. They fit into several music genres including Synth Pop and Experimental. One of their biggest influences was German Electro-Pop band, Kraftwerk, as well as David Bowie and Roxy Music.
Electricity and Enola Gay
They got together in 1978, releasing their debut single, “Electricity” in 1979. They became popular throughout Europe with their Anti-War song, “Enola Gay”. Named after the USA air craft that carried the first atomic bomb to be used in an act of war, killing over 100,000 people, it raised questions on the dropping of this bomb in Hiroshima, Japan in 1945, during the end of Word War II and was their first Top 10 Hit in the UK.
Maid of Orleans and Joan of Arc
“Maid of Orleans” and “Joan of Arc” were two of their songs that people seem to confuse quite a lot. Probably because they were both about the French Saint, Joan of Arc. And also because Maid of Orleans was also called Waltz Joan of Arc.
Both atmospheric tracks featured on their 3rd studio album, “Architecture and Morality”. Both reached No.5 on the Singles Chart in the UK and Ireland, with Maid of Orleans being more popular internationally, also becoming the biggest selling single in Germany in 1982. It was written in 1981 on the 30th of May on the 550th anniversary of the French Heroine’s death.
I like both songs but Maid of Orleans is my favourite as it’s got a real unusual, intense, haunting energy about it and the video sets it apart too, with the medieval imagery, snow and chess game. There’s a real power in that song.
Electricity
“Electricity” was OMD’s debut single and highlighted society’s wastefulness of energy sources. Due to it being a major hit with DJ John Peel, it got a lot of air play and subsequently, New Music Express (NME) cited it as “the best example of Factory Records to date – excellent, melodic, synthesiser pop.” Factory Records was the Manchester label that signed them. Tony Wilson, the founder bought the track and released it as a single. It’s success led to them securing a 7 Album Record Deal.
Sailing on the Seven Seas
“Sailing on the Seven Seas” was released in 1991 from their album “Sugar Tax” on the Virgin Records Label. It was the single that reached the highest in the singles chart, (As well as Souvenir), peaking at No.3. The song references the work of 2 Rock Groups, “The Velvet Underground”and “The Who”. It was their first single without original band member, Paul Humphreys who had left to form his own band, “The Listening Pool”.
The Punishment of Luxury
Those are some of my favourite songs from OMD. I thought they were a great group of their Era. They broke up and got back together on several occasions, faded in the 90’s and had a revival in 2007 with an extensive UK and European Tour. Their 13th Studio album, “The Punishment of Luxury” was released in 2017.
40th Anniversary of OMD
They have recently released a new album, called “Live with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra”. They also recently released a book called “Pretending to See the Future” celebrating their 40th Anniversary.
New Greatest Hits Collection
They have just released “Souvenir – The Singles 1979-2019” a new Greatest Hits and Deluxe Boxset on October 4th on 2 CD and 3 LP formats. It is a comprehensive collection of all 39 of their singles from Electricity to What Have We Done, plus a brand new 40th single, Don’t Go. A limited edition 5 CD and 2 DVD career anthology boxset has also been released. Nice.
Cult Following
Their music was different. It had an intriguing, haunting, ethereal quality and that’s why the band have stood the test of time with a Cult Following. I still don’t know how they got their name though… But that only adds to their intrigue…
SOUVENIR – OMD – 40th UK & EUROPE TOUR on NOW! I want a ticket. 🙂
Check out their Website and Facebook page for events.
(“Forever Live and Die”, 1986, “The Pacific Age” Album.)
If you liked this post, you may also like my post on Julia Dream by Pink Floyd and my post on Space Music
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Supernatural Hippie 
another band I’ve never heard of! not usually my kind of music, but it’s always nice to get exposed to something new. And I like that they had an anti-war song!
Gosh OMD were so famous! But maybe not in America then…
so strange that a band could be a big hit in one country andnot another…
Yeah it happens all the time.
I knew OMD only from the Pretty in Pink song “If you leave.” Love that song! Will have to give some these a listen. 👂
I just checked out that song, “If you leave” and can’t remember it all. Bizarre because I watched “Pretty in Pink” a few times. Interesting the songs you remember from movies.
Yes it is. That song has always been one of my favorites. Love the movie too.
Yeah me too. Good movie. There was a lot of the films of that era I loved, as well as the actors and actresses and the soundtracks. In those movies the music was a huge part of the whole package. 🙂 Kind of inseparable from the film.
That’s true. Most all of the big movies back then had major theme songs. I guess that’s not as common these days.