OMD's History of Modern album was one of my favourites of last year, a real masterclass in how to do synthpop well. After all, as one of the chief innovators of the sound back in the early 80s, you'd expect them to know a thing or two about it.
The band are now set to release a live CD of the album's accompanying tour, recorded at The Tempodrome in Berlin on the 18th November.
As a special limited collectors edition, the CD also comes with an exclusive embossed book featuring photos and lyrics. It all sounds very glossy and fabulous indeed! As does this brilliant taster track from the album, a live version of the band's most recent single: History of Modern (Part 1).
The History of Modern Tour - Live In Berlin CD is released on the 8th August and can be pre-ordered here.
It's not often a music video really knocks you for six and makes you go WOW. But this one sure does. It's part of a movement a number of bands are going for recently where they hold an open competition for fans to create their own video for their latest single and the best one gets the accolade of becoming the 'official' video, going on to be serviced to the media etc. It cuts down costs for the band/record label and the fans get a cool competition and potential massive-kudos, acclaim and all round feeling of amazingness if their entry is chosen as the winner.
And so we have OMD's new single History of Modern (Part 1) - directed by Sweden's Lapantafilm, I love their stop-motion approach to the video. I don't know how long it must have taken to film but the end result is absolutely incredible. The references to past OMD album covers is very cool too, as is the a-ha Take On Me vibe that the whole thing has. Brilliant stuff.
OMD, as a band, are masters of indentifying the best parts of their extensive back-catalogue and skilfully re-investing them them back into their newest project – re-enhanced sounds for a new audience but with all the familiarity the long-term fans will adore too. If You Want It was the triumphant return, packed with all the epic grandeur the band could master, twinned with a knack for lyrics that at their best are pure poetry in motion.
In the case of History Of Modern (Part 1), there’s a definite vibe of perhaps their most well known hit Enola Gay. It’s got that optimistic, cheery skip to it – an almost call-and-response synth line. There’s a constant, thumping beat to it too; relentless, energetic – a reminder that even now, more than 30 years since OMD graced the airwaves, that they are still just as talented as songwriters, just as enthused about making great synth-pop for the masses.
Sister Marie Says was a slightly predictable single choice, with its impact also rather dampened by the fact a demo version of it had already been given as a free download in the run-up to the album release. So it’s something of a joy to see the band go for this, a more adventurous single choice from an album where so many of the tracks could be singles. Hey, it even has a cool title in the form of that rather marvellous (Part 1). Now how many song names have that in them?
You also get the gorgeous cover artwork too – I’ve always been a fan of all the singles from an album era having similar covers that tie together; so when those covers are made by design legend Peter Saville, that idea of cohesion is emphasised even more. There’s something inherently collectable about them all – just imagine them looking all neat and glossy next to each-other!
The CD release of the single is conveniently packed with all the b-sides from across the entire album era and a number of new remixes of History Of Modern itself, including one by Selebrities which you can hear below.
History Of Modern (Part 1) is released February 28th.
I’ve been listening to OMD’s brilliant new album History of Modern a fair bit recently, so I was rather excited to hear there’ll be a second single taken from it, coming out next month! Sister Marie Says is classic OMD, a massive synth hook propelling a track that could have come straight out of the band’s 80s heyday. And for that, the song works a treat. The band have always excelled at blending catchy melodies with quirky, witty lyrics, and this track doesn’t disappoint.
For me, it doesn’t quite reach the joyous anthemic qualities that the album’s lead single If You Want It boasted, but it’s a more than solid contribution to OMD’s stellar discography. Oooh, and the prospect of new b-sides and remixes is always rather exciting too.
