The Best of OMD

The Best of OMD
Compilation album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Released	12 March 1988 (1988-03-12)
Recorded	1979–1988
Genre	Synthpop
Label	Virgin
Producer	OMD Mike Howlett Richard Manwaring Rhett Davies Brian Tench Stephen Hague Tom Lord Alge
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark chronology
The Pacific Age (1986)The Pacific Age1986 The Best of OMD (1988) Sugar Tax (1991)Sugar Tax1991

The Best of OMD is a compilation album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, released in 1988.

The record essentially delineates the group's experimental early years from their pop-oriented later work: side one features recordings from 1979–1984, while side two is drawn from the group's 1984–1988 efforts. It was a worldwide success, becoming a Top 5 hit across Europe and achieving 3x platinum sales in the United Kingdom. "Dreaming" was released as a single and made little impact on the UK charts, reaching no. 50, but it was a hit in the US (no. 16), Germany (no. 26) and South Africa (no. 2).

Album information

The version of "Electricity" used is the same as the one featured on their debut album (which itself is the band reworking Martin Hannett's original Factory version). The band was originally going to use their very first version of this song, but found the drumming to be inferior and so settled for the remix of the track instead. "Messages" is the more popular 10" single version. "Tesla Girls" and "Talking Loud and Clear" are both 7" edited versions. The Australian version of the album featured "We Love You" since that song had been a popular hit there. The CD, MiniDisc and DCC versions of the album are resequenced and feature four extra tracks not present on the LP version: "Telegraph" (a unique mix differing from the album version), "Genetic Engineering", and 12" versions of "La Femme Accident" and "We Love You". There was also a video compilation released with the promo videos of some of the songs featured on the album.

It was the group's final album release of the decade, effectively closing a chapter on their history, and just before founding members Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys split in 1989, leaving the group name to McCluskey. According to Andy McCluskey, OMD made the album in order to pay off debts owned to Virgin Records.^[1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Robert Christgau	B+[3]

Robert Christgau noted that the album includes "technocratic dance-kitsch as amusing as 'Electricity' and 'Enola Gay', and 'Talking Loud and Clear', their cutest and catchiest romantic medium-tempo [song]". He added that "the many others here included will certainly entertain the hookily inclined."^[3]

Mike DeGagne in AllMusic also highlighted the band's knack for strong hooks, and referred to The Best of OMD as an "excellent compilation" from a group who "were responsible for some of the catchiest and brightest synth pop that the '80s had to offer".^[2] Trouser Press called it "a concise recapitulation of the band's artistic development".^[4]

Track listing

All songs written by OMD, except "Locomotion" written by OMD and Gordian Troeller. "So in Love" written by OMD and Stephen Hague.

Vinyl LP and Music Cassette

Compact Disc, MiniDisc and Digital Compact Cassette

VHS Video

Release history

Credits

• "Electricity" and "Dreaming" are produced by OMD.
• "Messages", "Enola Gay" and "Souvenir" are produced by OMD and Mike Howlett.
• "Joan of Arc" and "Maid of Orleans" are produced by OMD and Richard Manwaring.
• "Telegraph" and "Genetic Engineering" are produced by OMD and Rhett Davies.
• "Tesla Girls", "Locomotion" and "Talking Loud and Clear" are produced by OMD and Brian Tench.
• "So in Love", "Secret", "(Forever) Live and Die", "We Love You" and "La Femme Accident" are produced by Stephen Hague.
• "If You Leave" is produced by OMD and Tom Lord Alge.

Notes