Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, the duo of Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, celebrated 45 years of making high quality electronic music in September of this year. When I spoke to them before the release of ‘Bauhaus Staircase’, Humphreys was quick to point out that it was very much in the spirit of OMD to release a completely new album rather than commemorating their anniversary with what might have been expected – namely yet another compilation of their career-surveying finest moments.
And yet, in some ways, ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ could very much be seen as a catalogue of their best bits. It just happens to take the form of a new album. All of the elements that make OMD so consistently compelling are here in abundance – artsy flourishes (just how resolutely OMD is that album title?), dreamy torch ballads (‘Look At You Now’, ‘Where We Started’), vital, upbeat, dramatic energetic pop filled with persuasive melodies (‘Don’t Go’), poetic lyrics (‘Aphrodite’s Favourite Child’), political awareness (‘Anthropocene’, ‘Kleptocracy’). Oh, and the choral sample that has become their sonic signifier since they first employed it on ‘Souvenir’, way back in 1981.
Elsewhere, the plaintive highlight ‘Veruschka’ is an ode to film noir, named after a German model who appeared in one of the last ever recognised movies in that genre and featuring lyrics formed through McCluskey immersing himself deeply into cinema’s rich history. It is stylistically reminiscent of ‘Pandora’s Box’, itself a heartfelt eulogy for the golden age of the silver screen and the silent movie actress Louise Brooks.
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The thing is, as faithful as these songs might be to their back catalogue, OMD have never been ones to repeat themselves, and everything here shines with an intense and neon-lit originality. Divisive though it’s been among fans, that approach is best exemplified by the track ‘Slow Train’, which McCluskey admits was him “channeling my inner Alison Goldfrapp”. Though it might nod firmly and reverently in the electro-glam direction of Goldfrapp’s ‘Train’ and ‘Strict Machine’, it also acts as connective tissue to McCluskey’s ‘Sailing On The Seven Seas’ and his warm affection for glam that existed from well before OMD were formed.
A band who’ve been around this long are faced with an invidious and unsolvable conundrum: to go through the motions and please their fans, while being accused of never doing anything ‘new’, or stay true to themselves and risk alienating fans by being brave and adventurous. If this really is to be OMD’s concluding statement – and we can only hope that isn’t the case – ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ somehow manages to walk the precarious tightrope between those two choices with absolute power, determination and conviction.
“Don’t ever waste this moment,” sings McCluskey on the title track, framing a fitting mantra for everything he and Humphreys have always striven to achieve in their music.
9/10
Words: Mat Smith
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Related: OMD Interviewed