OMD celebrate ‘Crush’ 40-year anniversary “We made a much better album than we knew at the time”

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) today announce an expanded, 40-year anniversary edition of US breakthrough album ‘Crush,’ available October 10 via UMR/Virgin. 

“The 40th re-release of Crush has been a wonderful opportunity for us to re-assess the album,” said Andy McCluskey. “1985 was a period of great intensity with constant touring and time pressure in the studio, but we created a powerful collection of songs and lyrical themes. In hindsight, we made a much better album than we knew at the time. Two hit singles ‘So in Love’ and ‘Secret’ remain live set constants to this day.”

“There is raw energy and anger in ‘88 seconds in Greensboro,‘ [below] swaggering pomp of ‘The Native Daughters of the Golden West’, and the melancholy shroud of the title track ‘Crush’ juxtaposing relentless samples of Japanese TV adverts against the weary vocals and somnambulant instrumentation perfectly captures the jet lag induced dream state of global touring. We changed style and musical palette, but ‘Crush’ retains a confidence and energy that I am very proud of.”

‘Crush,’ the band’s sixth album, became an instant hit with US audiences spearheaded by ‘So In Love,’ and crashed into the Billboard Top 40, while peaking at #13 on the UK Official Album Chart.

Working from a batch of demos, McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, along with multi-instrumentalist Martin Cooper and drummer Malcolm Holmes, began recording Crush in Liverpool’s Amazon Studios before relocating to The Manor, in the heart of Oxfordshire, where producer Stephen Hague was tasked with pulling the record together. 

“We felt for the first time like we needed somebody to help us focus on the production,” added McCluskey. “We were too close to these half-written songs and needed someone who could be a little bit more objective. Stephen had a very slick production sound. Maybe unconsciously, we were also thinking, ‘If we’re going to break America, we need to be a bit more polished,’ and we managed to create an exceedingly good album, we are very proud of every track.”

Further details HERE