UNIVERSAL
That OMD’s first four albums arrived between February 1980 and March 1983 – with the first two only eight months apart – was remarkable enough. That they could bang out songs of enviable purity and deceptive simplicity with such ease was even more exceptional. Launched on the back of 1979’s Kraftwerk-esque Electricity, released by Factory Records, their 1980 debut broke the Top 30, fuelled by Red Frame/White Light’s spikier pop and the trembling (re-recorded) Messages. Organisation, released later that year, delivered their first truly sublime hit, Enola Gay; but revealed a darker side on Statues and, especially, the stately Stanlow. Architecture & Morality, however, represented their earliest masterpiece, with the perfectly formed Joan Of Arc, Souvenir and Maid Of Orleans… bedewed with the creeping melancholy – absent only on the perky Georgia – which saturated the sparse, soulful Sealand and haunting title track. Born of writer’s block, meanwhile, 1983’s prescient Dazzle Ships set them back commercially – but remains fascinating.