OMD:
English Electric:
100% Records:
Out Now:
9/10
There are so many harks back to OMD's past endeavours that English Electric, their first studio-album since 2010's meandering History of Modern, sounds like a 'best of'. Suffice to say that this collection is the comeback album they should have issued a few years back, in place of the haphazard History of Modern - it's right up there with their best, borrowing heavily from the band's key earlier period, as well as a few later glories and, of course, their peers.
Ironically and tellingly, McCluskey and Humphreys have, by turns, emulated the unpredictable quirkiness of their poorest-selling album, the untouchable Dazzle Ships, cheekily recycled large swathes of Junk Culture and Architecture and Morality and dusted it all down with a sprinkling of Kraftwerkian, Neuristic and New Orderesque fairy-dust for good measure. And boy is it good.
Short interludes permeate the track-listing in much the same way as Dazzle Ships, with a similar degree of disguised protestation and social commentary (Atomic Ranch mentions 'A house, a car and a robot wife'), while the potential for releasing every other track as a single is prevalent. One such track has already been lifted for a 12" release - Metroland ranks as their best single since Telegraph, albeit far longer and almost bordering on 'hands to the lazers'.
As with many other songs on English Electric, Metroland encompasses the duo's shameless hawking of Kraftwerk's melody vaults - and who can blame them? Europe Endless is the track of choice here, ramped up to twice the speed and benefitting from sounding like a classic '80s remix.
Pop's radio-friendly sensibilities recur on Night Cafe, Helen of Troy and Kissing The Machine, with the latter reproduced from a previous incarnation included on Karl Bartos' long-forgotten Electrik Musik album Esperanto (it originally featured McCluskey on vocals). Only Stay With Me hovers around disposable twee territory, recalling OMD's flavourless forays into trans-Atlantic bland-dom a la Universal or Pacific Age. It's just a blip though - later on, Dresden becomes a melange of Sister Marie Says and Enola Gay, while the closing (and admittedly pretty) Final Song captures their trademark spirit of ending album sides with partly-sacred and partly-plaintive melodies - think The Beginning and The End and Messerschmitt Twins.
I feared for OMD after growing tired of History of Modern so quickly - with English Electric, they've created a genuine winner that should last and last.
English Electric:
100% Records:
Out Now:
9/10
Ironically and tellingly, McCluskey and Humphreys have, by turns, emulated the unpredictable quirkiness of their poorest-selling album, the untouchable Dazzle Ships, cheekily recycled large swathes of Junk Culture and Architecture and Morality and dusted it all down with a sprinkling of Kraftwerkian, Neuristic and New Orderesque fairy-dust for good measure. And boy is it good.
Short interludes permeate the track-listing in much the same way as Dazzle Ships, with a similar degree of disguised protestation and social commentary (Atomic Ranch mentions 'A house, a car and a robot wife'), while the potential for releasing every other track as a single is prevalent. One such track has already been lifted for a 12" release - Metroland ranks as their best single since Telegraph, albeit far longer and almost bordering on 'hands to the lazers'.
As with many other songs on English Electric, Metroland encompasses the duo's shameless hawking of Kraftwerk's melody vaults - and who can blame them? Europe Endless is the track of choice here, ramped up to twice the speed and benefitting from sounding like a classic '80s remix.
Pop's radio-friendly sensibilities recur on Night Cafe, Helen of Troy and Kissing The Machine, with the latter reproduced from a previous incarnation included on Karl Bartos' long-forgotten Electrik Musik album Esperanto (it originally featured McCluskey on vocals). Only Stay With Me hovers around disposable twee territory, recalling OMD's flavourless forays into trans-Atlantic bland-dom a la Universal or Pacific Age. It's just a blip though - later on, Dresden becomes a melange of Sister Marie Says and Enola Gay, while the closing (and admittedly pretty) Final Song captures their trademark spirit of ending album sides with partly-sacred and partly-plaintive melodies - think The Beginning and The End and Messerschmitt Twins.
I feared for OMD after growing tired of History of Modern so quickly - with English Electric, they've created a genuine winner that should last and last.