A few highs aside, this is a poor return from the 80s hit-makers.
In the late 70s OMD were early synthesizer adopters and pop musicians with a serious avant-garde bent, who were looking to Kraftwerk and Harmonia for inspiration before most people had even got to grips with punk. This combined with a warm-hearted, Liverpudlian melodic sensibility saw them turn out four great albums, two of which (Architecture & Morality and Dazzle Ships) were touched with genius. Like other bands to emerge from the post-punk era, such as Simple Minds, they came to a perceived crossroads and elected to take the route marked Top of the Pops, not realising – and why would they? – just how much the acid house revolution was going to change the future of electronic music. And, like Simple Minds, this fateful course change was taken after their inclusion on a John Hughes movie soundtrack.