Everyone Gets A Second Chance

45 years after their live debut at Eric's in Liverpool, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark released their latest single, the title track from forthcoming album Bauhaus Staircase.

 

Co-founder and front person Andy McCluskey has made no secret in recent interviews that this will very likely be O.M.D.'s swansong album. I've really enjoyed the three post-reformation O.M.D. albums to date - History Of Modern (2010), English Electric (2013) and The Punishment Of Luxury (2017) - and seeing them perform live in 2019 was an exhilarating experience so if they decide to bow out with Bauhaus Staircase, it will undoubtedly be on a high.

 

The single is accompanied by a visually arresting video created by Cine1080Studio and according to Andy, the lyrics are "a metaphor for strength and artist passion in the face of criticism and adversity". It couldn't be more timely given the increasing devaluation of the creative arts and failure to credit the creators and artists themselves.

 

The song is named after a painting by Oskar Schlemmer, a German polymath associated with the Bauhaus movement and creator of the Triadic Ballet, also referenced in the lyrics. Bauhaus Staircase also name checks Weimar (the birthplace of Bauhaus), Albers (I like to think Anni as well as Josef), Pere Ubu and their debut album The Modern Dance, released in 1978, the year that O.M.D. formed.

There's a lovely sequence in the closing part of the video where the characters race through a gallery, featuring representations of O.M.D.'s cover artwork from their eponymous up to and including the essentially Andy-solo final album Universal, then a gap before the quartet of 21st century albums, ending with Bauhaus Staircase.

If this is the last new material we get from O.M.D., then so be it. What a way to go, though.

I want to kiss on a Bauhaus Staircase
I want to love with an open heart
Got to live in a clean and clear space
I'm gonna kick down fascist art

I want to dream on a Bauhaus staircase
I want to sleep under Weimar skies
Need to dance in a Triad Ballet
See the world through Albers' eyes

'Cos everyone needs a Bauhaus staircase
Everyone gets a second chance
All the world needs art and passion
Pere Ubu and "The Modern Dance"
Pere Ubu and "The Modern Dance"

Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu and "The Modern Dance"

So build a world on a Bauhaus staircase
See the future in yesterday
Don't you ever waste this moment
Never beg nor kneel or pray
 

Never beg nor kneel or pray

 

I want to kiss on a Bauhaus Staircase

I want to kiss on a Bauhaus Staircase

  
Terrified on a Bauhaus staircase
Breaking down from the weight of pain
Climbing high atop the Bauhaus staircase
The revolution comes again
The revolution comes again
Again again
The revolution comes again

So rule the world from a Bauhaus staircase
Spread the love right across the globe
Elevate the weak and weary
Educate and truth be told
Truth be told

Truth be told
Truth be told

I want to kiss on a Bauhaus Staircase
I want to kiss on a Bauhaus Staircase
I want to kiss on a Bauhaus Staircase
I want to kiss on a Bauhaus Staircase