This piece on commercial suicides of the early 1980s takes a closer look at one of my favorite albums from that period–Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s Dazzle Ships, which has a deluxe reissue coming out later this month–and how the band removing what OMD lead singer Andy McCluskey called its “sweet wrapper” resulted in it losing roughly 90% of its audience. Essential reading, and there are bits about ABC and Dexys Midnight Runners as well. [Guardian]
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I stand by this album still, wittered on a bit about it in the AMG years back. I’ve been waiting for this reissue for years, since they did the first three!
Great story! I’m a huge fan of that era in British pop. And, actually, I’ve always had a secret boner for ABC’s “Beauty Stab” — despite the awful lyrics, which aren’t limited to the single. The low point: “She’s vegetarian except when it comes to sex.”
Dazzle Ships is still my favorite OMD album (if not one of my favorites from all of 1983) and I can’t wait for the reissue.
I kinda liked Beauty Stab when it first came out, but it hasn’t aged very well. I’m surprised that Stanley didn’t notice that it was ABC’s Roxy Music tribute album - even hiring on Roxy’s rhythm section.
I understood neither the “Lexicon of Love” worship nor the scorn piled upon “Beauty Stab.” Now, I LIKE “LoL” alright, but I guess you had to be 20 years old and on the dole in Sheffield to appreciate it as much as the Brits did and still do.
As for “Stab,” well, “Power of Persuasion” rocks.
On topic: OMD! Yay, etc.
Oh, how I love this record.
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