Titled, Dazzle Ships (Parts II, III & VII) this two and half minute track starts with nautical sounds, emergency sirens and spoken snippets before calm down to an atmospheric keyboards track. If the first side (remember this was in the time of Vinyl) was deemed experimental, then the opening of side two would be even more confusing. The second track, Genectic Engineering is a more accessible pop track followed by another experimental number ABC Auto Industry. ‘Radio Prague’ is the actual interval signal of the Czechoslovak Radio foreign service, including the time signal and station ID spoken in Czech. If their audience had been weaned on easily accessible opening tracks (Bunker Soldiers, Enola Gay and The New Stone Age opened their first three albums) then Dazzle Ships was set to be a shock. “Dazzle Ships” explores a range of social and political issues, including the Cold War, nuclear weapons, and the role of technology in society. One of the album’s most notable features is its complex and thought-provoking themes. For their fourth album they OMD chose to go back to their original influences to create an album that passed more than a nod to their love of German bands Kraftwerk and Neu! This confused founders Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys forcing them to reconsider their approach to music. Going Back to their electronic Rootsĭespite chart success of their first two albums, the commercial reception for Architecture & Morality their third album was muted. The artist Peter Saville created the album cover taking inspiration from the camouflage and the paining ‘ Dazzle-ships in Drydock at Liverpool‘ by Edward Wadsworth. OMD had been formed across the Mersey in the Wirral and identified with Liverpool as their home city. Here I want to set the record straight and suggest why Dazzle Ships is worth a listen. ![]() What I had been missing was an ‘experimental’ album full of eclectic songs with a few singalong hits thrown in. So I loved OMD, but never bothered with this album for a good twenty years. This, at a time when the band were riding high in the charts with songs like Joan of Arc and Locomotion. At school I was always told that OMD’s Dazzle Ships was a rubbish album and it wasn’t worth listening to.
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