in which I pretend to know from music: OMD's History of Modern

[jinian]

I like to think I am an OMD fan. I went to see OMD in the early 00s, when it was really "Paul Humphreys from" in small letters and "OMD" in huge letters: they played "Dreaming" twice because they hadn't quite anticipated having to do encores for Seattle's gay district (how dumb were they?) and thus failed to learn "Tesla Girls"* (which we yelled for). I don't even think I'm showing my age except in being mad about synth-pop generally; my favorite OMD is the older stuff from well before I listened to modern radio.** On the other hand, I do not own most of their albums and mainly listen to the 1988 Best of OMD compilation, so I am clearly not the purest form of fan.

For the last few weeks, I've been hearing lots of "Sister Marie Says" on KEXP, which is what we mostly listen to in the lab, and wondering how it came to be the most played single. I don't think it's anything like as strong as OMD's major stuff, but it has a very striking "this is OMD right here" feeling that could be what someone was going for, especially in light of the fact that there hasn't been an album released for some years. In fact, on checking Wikipedia (the band's official site being somewhat disorganized and uninformative about significant dates) I found that "Sister Marie" is not the only single released so far, so either KEXP really likes this one or there was some distribution problem.

As it happened, the way I started listening to the album was playing my "Never Been Played" list in iTunes, which included plenty of other artists first, so OMD's History of Modern begins with a zingy thrill and what is that? -- "New Babies; New Toys" is not a complex song, but it's headed toward "Tesla Girls" territory, nearly giving me goosebumps, an excellent place to start. (Songs do that occasionally, and are worth treasuring even though it eventually wears off. Unlike people who induce such responses, the songs don't change, but I get used to them some.)

"If You Want It" has high, sparkling synths and emotional vocals. I'd compare it to "Enola Gay": wistful, oddly triumphant, straining a little to sing through a tight throat. One of the reviews of this album nailed it with "elegiac".

"History of Modern, Pt. 1" makes me smile, little runs up and down on the keyboard and happy and perhaps a hint of "Locomotion". The lyrics are not cheerful, but with the synths they feel life-affirming.

"History of Modern, Pt. 2" is not the same song at all; were they just fighting over the title? It has the swelling and soaring of "Maid of Orleans" and -- aha! Welcome to my "More Churchbell" playlist, "HoM2". (Let's try to guess which of these songs was supposed to have had its title changed to "The Big Bang Theory"! My vote is for part 1.)

"Sometimes" has operatic soprano samples like those in "Sister Marie" and that I don't particularly enjoy. The reason for the title is that sometimes a female vocalist feels like a motherless child, FYI. This isn't awful or anything, but the record scratching is a bit weird and it's not doing much for me in general.

I know from Wikipedia that "RFWK" is the first initials of the members of Kraftwerk, so I was excited for this one, and it does have a more industrial sound than usual to start. Sadly it's a rather ordinary melody and not much difference between verse and chorus, though with more beepy/screechy accompaniment than usual. I do not come to OMD for clever lyrics, so I can't complain too much about that bit, but when the melody doesn't get me emotionally it's a lot more noticeable. I think without the extra anticipation I'd have liked the song a lot better, though.

"New Holy Ground" works better: it's quiet and a little monotone, but the choral sounds and piano set an atmosphere that feels a bit more coherent to me.

"The Future, the Past, and Forever After" is... OMD doing Pet Shop Boys? I like it! A bouncy bass line and scratchy cymbals make for a harder sound than the vocals quite match, but it's fun.

Here's "Sister Marie Says" at last. It does have a very classic OMD sound plus memorable/repetitive lyrics, and thus a headsticky quality. According to the trusty Wikipedia, it's had a long prerelease career, partly written in 1981 and recorded but unreleased in the 90s.

From distillation of OMD to completely unlike OMD: "Pulse" is something else. I optimistically thought that they were going for Depeche Mode at the beginning, but I think they landed squarely at Prince: lots of heavy breathing, snares, and mixed vocals. This is an acceptable Prince song but sounds seriously out of place here.

"Green" is hitting a sweet spot for me, though. Not a single, perhaps, but a solid mellow bit of album.

Disconcertingly, "Bondage of Fate" has a pronounced waltz rhythm. Overall I vote yes on that, yes on the choral synth for a change, no on the weird little "la la" bits, yes on the echoing male vocal. I love the sizzling bridge, but we wait a bit too long for it and then it's gone again.

"The Right Side?" is one of the tracks with the best reviews, so I was looking forward to it. Plinking and edges of dissonance in the choral synths are interesting but not compelling. I think this one could grow on me, though. It's long and pleasingly meditative, and eventually does some different things that I also like (despite never appreciating the kind of female vocals they like to use).

[end of album proper]

Bonus track "Save Me" seems out of place; they mashed up some Aretha Franklin with their own "Messages", and I am not into it. It works as a remix, no problem, but the mashup aspect is weak.

Bonus track "Idea 1" has lovely piano and echoing vocals, a touch overlooped but quite pretty. It reminds me a bit of Imogen Heap's better improvs from her last tour.

Wow, buying this on iTunes got me videos! "If You Want It" is oddly made up but lovely modern dance, nicely choreographed and shot. (WOW look at her thigh muscles!) And there's a six-minute artist commentary that's pretty interesting. (They played at Bletchley Park? How cool is that?!)

The album hangs together pretty well, with the glaring exception of "Pulse" -- it's not among the great narrative albums or anything, but I'll likely make a point of listening to it as an album rather than just throwing it into random mixes. What it doesn't have is a hit song, the bouncy singability of "Telegraph" or the sweet catchiness of "If You Leave", though I guess "Sister Marie" really is the closest. The album's far more interesting and listenable than it is singable, though, so it's definitely worth checking out.

I wish the US tour had come a bit closer to me than San Francisco. I'd love to see the original lineup with orchestral accompaniment sometime. If they plan a date here, I am definitely writing to tell them to practice "Tesla Girls" for me.


* It's, embarrassingly unironically, one of my favorite songs, but one of the worst videos ever (with some moments of hilarity but much more plain wtf). Check it out.

** Listening to modern radio began at age 10, with the gifted program in my school district. Those of us not lucky enough to go to the elementary school where it was held got to take the regular bus to our designated schools and then a vanpool to Suquamish. No idea what the kids who got bused there did in the meantime. The program was good, much more fun than regular school, but the vanpool was my first real peer group; we all listened to the radio together, and I still remember the morning DJ's name and how he played a whole lot of Wham. Now that shows my age.