Memory Games

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, or OMD as everyone calls them for obvious reasons, were and remain a force to be reckoned with in that most Eighties of sounds, synth-pop, for the simple reason that their songs have been consistently excellent for the last four decades. Real bass guitar parts, courtesy of frontman Andy McCluskey, have always underpinned the keyboard washes and melodies that made the tunes so persuasive, leading to a sound that many of OMD’s colleagues in the synth movement couldn’t match. The public responded keenly, leading to 25 million single and 15 million album sales, barely-digestible figures by the standards of today’s shriveled music industry.

Little wonder that their longtime label Universal has released a five-CD, two-DVD box set called , also containing prints, a poster, and a hardback book, alongside various greatest