How unlikely is it that a moribund British band with one of the most pretentious names in pop history (ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK, for fuck’s sake) comes roaring back from the dead to make one of the more catchy and enjoyable albums of 2010? The core duo of Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys hadn’t even recorded together under the OMD name since 1989, when Humphreys (semi-acrimoniously) left the popular group in the capable hands of McCluskey.Their heyday together, of course, was a bright flourish of arty left-of-center synth tunes in the early ‘80s followed by an equally strong run of New Pop chart gems in the middle ‘80s, the pinnacle of which being their John Hughes-blessed instant eternal classic “If You Leave,” the soundtrack to countless gelled-hair gropefests of a generation. Bracket that smash with hits like “So In Love” and “(Forever) Live And Die” and you have a track record worthy of, if not the Hall Of Fame, at least a bold footnote in the tome of pop history.
And yet, here is History Of Modern, more than thirty years after McCluskey and Humphreys first plugged in as OMD, and if they were trust fund kids from Brooklyn, the press would be losing their collective shit. It’s as if both dimensions of their creativity and talent – “art” and “pop” – finally stand side by side, sometimes even in the same song. Just bathe in the digital bath of the leadoff track “New Babies: New Toys” with rock attitude and ping-pong pop holding hands and smiling wide. “Save Me” features a vocal turn from Aretha Franklin (!) and her joyous delivery oddly fits right in to the OMD worldview.
“Sister Mary Says” is the closest they ever come to condescending to their past, but if only all backwards glances could be so winking and winning. Otherwise, they touch all the bases: Kraftwerk bounce, milky Brit soul, Mellotrons and more. And it all sounds like OMD, a revitalized brand and band for the new millennium, and the most welcome musical surprise of the year.
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