It’s just that while they were toiling for the advancement of earnest electronica, they were also firing out whopping great mainstream chart bullets. And let’s not deny this footprint: OMD’s formative singles Messages, Electricity, Enola Gay and Souvenir – a roll-call of evergreen synth riffs – are a bedrock of modern 80s revivalism. Fat, singalong hits don’t fit with a narrative that rates OMD a profound influence on hip 21st century acts like LCD Soundsystem and The xx.
Revisionists have got to grips with Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (let’s use OMD) recently, boiling them down to their more experimental passages on 1983’s serious electronic classic Dazzle Ships, glossing over later Brat Pack anthems ‘If You Leave’, ‘(Forever) Live And Die’ and the successful early-90s full-pop comeback ‘Sailing On The Seven Seas’.
