And Time Stood Still

Side 1 of an Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark mixtape, compiled 6th to 7th July 1990. A month on from recording the first volume of the All Wrapped Up twin set, I spent a Friday and Saturday night working on volume two. As mentioned in the previous feature on Volume 1, Side 2, the first cassette covered the years 1980-1983 spanning an unbeatable quartet of albums from the eponymous debut through to Dazzle Ships, with associated B-sides.

 

Volume 2 focuses on 1984-1986, where decreasing commercial success was matched by an increasingly more commercial sound, eschewing a predominantly experimental, electronic approach for live instruments, ubiquitous 80s gated drums and stuttering samples and, controversially, Latin and calypso influences.

 

1984's Junk Culture was another UK Top 10 album, preceded by divisive single Locomotion, itself a Top 5 hit. For some O.M.D. fans, it was an unacceptable turning point for the band and a trend that would continue for the subsequent two Stephen Hague-produced albums, 1985's Crush and 1986's The Pacific Age. 

 

It was an equally troubled time for O.M.D., with just one more single, Dreaming, to accompany The Best Of O.M.D. collection in 1988, before Paul Humphreys, Martin Cooper and Malcolm Holmes took their leave of the band. Andy McCluskey subsequently regrouped and relaunched O.M.D. in 1991, to a degree of chart success but arguably even less critical acclaim. I bought a few singles by 'O.M.D. Mark II', skipped all of the albums and did not not feel the least bit inclined to resurrect the All Wrapped Up mixtape series for a Volume 3.

 

Unpopular though the 1984-1986 years were by comparison with the imperial period that preceded it - The Pacific Age was later dismissed by the band, McCluskey describing the album as O.M.D.'s "musical nadir" - in isolation, there is still something to love in the songs from this era. Tesla Girls for example feels like a natural progression from previous singles Telegraph and Genetic Engineering. Lyrically, whilst there was a heavier quota of pop/love songs, there were still the occasional surprises such as 88 Seconds In Greensboro's focus on the 1979 massacre in North Carolina.

 

The selection starts off with a slight red herring, a somewhat overblown, portentous instrumental given away as a freebie single-sided 7" with Junk Culture, physically and musically out of place with the parent album. Follow up fifth album Crush is poorly represented on this side, the balance redressed on Side 2, giving the impression that I like Junk Culture and The Pacific Age more. I don't: both albums contain some of my least favourite O.M.D. singles in Locomotion and (Forever) Live And Die, but have perhaps been enhanced in my rating by memories of experiencing pumped up, fun versions when I saw O.M.D.in Bristol in 1986, during The Pacific Age tour. 

Locomotion is a strange beast, a smash hit single but the antithesis of everything I liked about O.M.D. at the time. I really didn't care for the single at all in 1984 but when I picked up the 12" single secondhand a few years later (signed by Andy and Paul and still priced at £1.90), perversely I liked the extended version a lot more. I was more of a fan of Talking Loud and Clear, despite not being able to unsee the excruciatingly awful video that accompanied it, but I opted here for the instrumental version that formed the first of the two-part extended version on the 12" single.

If You Leave was recorded for the Pretty In Pink soundtrack, a late substitution after original offering Goddess Of Love had to be dropped due to a rewrite of the film's ending. It was a hit single in America, pressurising an already strained and creatively spent O.M.D. to rush record and release a follow up album. Artistically if not commercially, it was probably the right call not to include If You Leave on The Pacific Age, but it's perhaps no surprise that none of the three single releases matched previous successes. In a hint of record label desperation and a lack of outtakes and additional songs for B-sides, the latter two singles came bundled with previous singles from the golden era of 1980-1983.

Still, if you can temporarily take this selection out of the context of O.M.D.'s discography, perhaps even forget for a moment that you're actually listening to O.M.D., then it's not a bad compilation of mid-1980s pop music. Yes, even Locomotion.

 

1) (The Angels Keep Turning) The Wheels Of The Universe (Single Version By Brian Tench & O.M.D.) (1984)

2) White Trash (Album Version By Brian Tench & O.M.D.) (1984)

3) Southern (Album Version By Stephen Hague) (1986)

4) Locomotion (12" Version By Brian Tench & O.M.D.) (1984)

5) Tesla Girls (Single Version By Brian Tench & O.M.D.) (1984)

6) 88 Seconds In Greensboro (Album Version By Stephen Hague) (1985)

7) Talking Loud and Clear (Instrumental Version By Brian Tench & O.M.D.) (1984)

8) Goddess Of Love (Album Version By Stephen Hague) (1986)

9) Shame (Album Version By Stephen Hague) (1986)

10) If You Leave (Album Version By Tom Lord-Alge & O.M.D.) (1986)

11) Watch Us Fall (Album Version By Stephen Hague) (1986)

 

1984: Junk Culture (ltd 12"+7"): 1, 2

1984: Locomotion EP: 4

1984: Talking Loud And Clear EP: 7

1984: Tesla Girls EP: 5

1985: Crush: 6

1986: The Pacific Age: 3, 8, 9, 11

1986: Pretty In Pink OST: 10

Side One (46:00) (Box) (Mega)