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Dazzle Ships (album)

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Dazzle Ships
Studio album by
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Released4 March 1983 (1983-03-04)
Recorded1982
Studio
  • The Gramophone Suite (Liverpool, England)
  • Gallery (Chertsey, England)
  • Mayfair (London, England)
Genre
Length34:43
LabelTelegraph (Virgin)
Producer
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark chronology
Architecture & Morality
(1981) 		Dazzle Ships
(1983) 		Junk Culture
(1984)
Singles from Dazzle Ships
  1. "Genetic Engineering"
    Released: 1 February 1983
  2. "Telegraph"
    Released: 1 April 1983

Dazzle Ships is the fourth studio album by English electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), released on 4 March 1983. The title and cover art (designed by Peter Saville) allude to a painting by Vorticist artist Edward Wadsworth based on dazzle camouflage, titled Dazzle-ships in Drydock at Liverpool.

Dazzle Ships was the follow-up release to the group's successful Architecture & Morality (1981). OMD, then at their peak of popularity, opted for a major departure in sound on the record, shunning any commercial obligation to duplicate their previous LP. The album is noted for its experimental content, particularly musique concrète sound collages, and the use of shortwave radio recordings to explore Cold War and Eastern Bloc themes. It spawned two singles: "Genetic Engineering" and "Telegraph".

Dazzle Ships met with a degree of critical and commercial hostility. Opinion of the record has changed in the years since its release, and it has come to garner critical acclaim and a cult following among music fans. The album has also been cited as an influence by multiple artists.

Background

Dazzle-ships in Drydock at Liverpool (1919), the ultimate source of the album's name

Paradoxically, in light of the eventual critical reaction to Dazzle Ships, the more experimental direction taken on the new LP was partly a response to muted reviews of the preceding Architecture & Morality (1981). Speaking to the BBC's Richard Skinner during a radio interview prior to its release, singer Andy McCluskey said, "We didn't think [Architecture & Morality] got the respect it deserved. We put a lot into it and we really loved it and you know us, we worry at the best of times. So anything which undermines our own unstable balance creates a problem for us... [S]ome of these worries we had after Architecture and Morality have forced us into new areas on this [album]."[1]

McCluskey later recalled, "We wanted to be ABBA and [Karlheinz] Stockhausen. The machinery, bones and humanity were juxtaposed."[2] The album contains conventional pop songs, complimented by experimental tracks.[3] Two ballads, "The Romance of the Telescope" and "Of All the Things We've Made", were remixed versions of songs the band felt they had wasted as B-sides to earlier singles (on the "Joan of Arc" single, however, "The Romance of the Telescope" was specifically described as "unfinished"). "Radio Waves" was a new version of a song from McCluskey and Paul Humphreys's pre-OMD band, the Id.[4]

OMD were encouraged by critics to become more political on the album.[5] "Radio Prague" is the actual interval signal of the Czechoslovak Radio foreign service, including the time signal and station ID spoken in Czech. "Time Zones" is a montage of various speaking clocks from around the world. Neither "Radio Prague" nor "Time Zones" carry any writing credit at all, with OMD being credited only for arranging the tracks. "This Is Helena", "ABC Auto-Industry" and "International" also include parts of some broadcasts recorded off the air (a presenter introducing herself, economic bulletin and news, respectively).[4]

The band's former record company, the independent Dindisc label, had recently ceased trading, and so the group's contract was transferred to Dindisc's parent company, Virgin Records. However, to maintain the image of being signed to an "indie" label, the record sleeve purported that the album was released by the fictitious "Telegraph" label.[4] The record was released on LP, compact cassette and compact disc.

The cover art was created by longtime OMD collaborator Peter Saville. Dazzle-ships in Drydock at Liverpool, the painting which inspired the album's title and artwork, is in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.[4][6]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[7]
Encyclopedia of Eighties Music[8]
Pitchfork8.4/10[9]
PopMatters8/10[10]
Q[11]
Record Collector[12]
Record Mirror[13]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[14]
Smash Hits8/10[15]
Times Colonist[16]

Contemporary reviews of Dazzle Ships were mostly unfavourable.[9][17] NME's Chris Bohn wrote, "Once Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark get any place, you can guarantee Kraftwerk were there at least five years previously".[18] Jim Reid of Record Mirror slammed the album as "nonsense played without feel or feeling",[13] while the Leader-Post's Michael Lawson said that "too much attention [is] given to soundtrack-like effects that only clutter what decent electropop baubles there are here – and there is indeed some good, if limited, work."[19] In a largely dismissive review, Maxim Jakubowski acknowledged that a few of the tracks "recapture the melancholy brilliance of the past".[20] More forgiving was Paul Colbert of Melody Maker, who wrote that "as an album from start to finish it's a challenge and a reward".[21] Smash Hits reviewer Johnny Black hailed the new musical direction, saying, "the songs are waiting to be found and are as melodic, passionate and vital as ever".[15]

Dazzle Ships peaked at number five on the UK Albums Chart and remained in the top 20 for six weeks (rising from number 19 to number 16 in its second-to-last week),[22] and achieved sales of 300,000 copies.[2] It was deemed a flop in comparison to multi-million selling predecessor Architecture & Morality (1981), which prompted OMD to move in a more conservative musical direction on future releases.[2] In The Guardian, Bob Stanley commented on its limited impact: "[It] contained no obvious hits and soundtracked the cold war at its coldest... Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's Dazzle Ships came to be viewed as a heroic failure – the ultimate commercial suicide."[2]

The record later experienced a critical reappraisal and a resurgence in popularity.[23][24] Pitchfork's Tom Ewing wrote, "Luckily, you don't need a contrarian streak to love it... history has done its own remix job on Dazzle Ships, and the result is a richer, more unified album than anyone in 1983 could have imagined."[9] In a five-star review, Daryl Easlea of Record Collector observed the album's "consistently eccentric" and "dark and detailed" content, adding that it "remains a weirdly satisfying listen".[12] Quietus reviewer Luke Turner asserted, "Try reading Andy McCluskey's lyrics in hard print and they at times feel as empty as a wide horizon. But when harnessed to the deeply elegiac melodies (those rich synth tones, slow-marching drums), and a battery of sounds evocative of war at sea and radio propaganda, the whole comes alive with undeniable panache."[25] Ned Raggett of AllMusic said the record "beats Kraftwerk at their own game, science and the future turned into surprisingly warm, evocative songs."[7] He and colleague David Jeffries hailed the album as a "masterpiece"[26][27]—an opinion echoed by numerous critics.[28][29]

Legacy

Dazzle Ships has been identified as a "cult classic",[30][31] and one of the great, underrated albums of its era.[a] It was the subject of Mojo's August 2007 "Buried Treasure" feature (which spotlights a "wrongly forgotten" record),[35] and was included in The A.V. Club's "Hall of Fame".[37] PopMatters' John Bergstrom wrote, "It's becoming all-too-common to re-brand yesterday's commercial failures as 'overlooked masterpieces', but Dazzle Ships' critical salvage job was well-deserved."[23] Stuart Huggett of The Quietus charted the record's journey "from 1983 release to 2016 Classic Album", noting that it features some of the band's strongest work but is "likely to remain too off the wall ever to permanently join the general public's Classic Albums canon".[38]

Quietus critic Ian Wade described Dazzle Ships as "deeply influential".[39] Saint Etienne have cited the record as a major inspiration, particularly on their 1991 album, Foxbase Alpha.[1] Founder member, music journalist Bob Stanley, asserted that it is now "accepted as a great record".[40] The album has also heavily influenced Death Cab for Cutie,[41] Future Islands,[42] and Telekinesis,[43][44] who has named Dazzle Ships as his favourite record.[45] Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie described Dazzle Ships as the record that "everyone points to as [OMD's] magnum opus", adding, "It's really a gorgeous album. It's daring and it's weird and it leans a lot on the paranoia of the Cold War."[41] Owen Pallett played an encore of songs from the record on their 2006 tour.[46] Rapper Kid Cudi sampled "ABC Auto-Industry" on his 2009 track, "Simple As...",[47] and Another Sunny Day and Eggs each released a cover of "Genetic Engineering" as a single.[38]

Dazzle Ships has received further endorsements from Angus Andrew of Liars,[3] Animal Collective,[48] Amanda "MNDR" Warner,[49] physicist/musician Brian Cox,[50] and producer Mark Ronson, who was "completely floored" by the album.[49] Andrew named it one of his favourite records, adding, "[T]his album is such a cohesive statement, portraying a bleak and lonely environment of a different sort [...] It's such an incredible feat to feature experiments like 'Dazzle Ships, Pts. 1-3', and have them compliment and enhance an album with more straight forward tracks."[3] Novelist and visual artist Douglas Coupland included the record on his list of "12 must-have CDs", stating, "Dazzle Ships is amazing. It's like a love letter to machines. Like caraway seeds or hot mustard, it's an acquired taste."[51]

A 25th anniversary remastered edition of Dazzle Ships was released in March 2008. Reflecting on the record, McCluskey said, "The album that almost completely killed our career seems to have become a work of dysfunctional genius... it's taken Paul [Humphreys] 25 years to forgive me for Dazzle Ships. But some people always hold it up as what we were all about, why they thought we were great."[2]

Track listing

  • Label copy credits: All songs written and/or arranged by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (except "Radio Waves", by OMD/Floyd).
  • Writing credits below from ASCAP database.
Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Radio Prague"Arranged by Humphreys, McCluskey1:18
2."Genetic Engineering"Humphreys, McCluskey3:37
3."ABC Auto-Industry"Humphreys, McCluskey2:06
4."Telegraph"Humphreys, McCluskey2:57
5."This Is Helena"Humphreys, McCluskey1:58
6."International"McCluskey4:25
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
7."Dazzle Ships (Parts II, III & VII)"Humphreys, McCluskey2:21
8."The Romance of the Telescope"Humphreys, McCluskey3:27
9."Silent Running"Humphreys, McCluskey3:34
10."Radio Waves"McCluskey, John Floyd3:45
11."Time Zones"Arranged by Humphreys, McCluskey1:49
12."Of All the Things We've Made"Humphreys, McCluskey3:27
Bonus tracks on 2008 reissue
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
13."Telegraph" (The Manor Version 1981)Humphreys, McCluskey3:25
14."4-Neu"Humphreys, McCluskey3:34
15."Genetic Engineering" (312MM version)Humphreys, McCluskey5:12
16."66 and Fading"Humphreys, McCluskey6:33
17."Telegraph" (extended version)Humphreys, McCluskey5:38
18."Swiss Radio International"None; "Arranged by OMD"1:03

The "Manor Version" of "Telegraph" was recorded at the same time as Architecture & Morality. "Swiss Radio International" was dropped from the album at the last minute. Like "Radio Prague", it contains the call sign for a radio station and was once referred to as "The Ice Cream Song" by drummer Mal Holmes due to its similarity to the melodies played by ice cream vans.

Personnel

Production details

  • Recorded at The Gramophone Suite, Gallery Studio and Mayfair Studio
  • Mixed at The Manor Studio
  • Engineered by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Rhett Davies, Ian Little, Keith Richard Nixon, Brian Tench
  • Produced by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Rhett Davies
  • Mastered at The Master Room by Arun Chakraverty
  • Designed by M. Garrett, K. Kennedy, P. Pennington, Peter Saville, and Brett Wickens for Peter Saville Associates.

Instruments

In terms of instrumentation, Dazzle Ships saw the band begin to explore digital sampling keyboards (the E-mu Emulator) in addition to their continued use of analogue synthesizers and the Mellotron.

List of used instruments:

Charts

Chart performance for Dazzle Ships
Chart (1983) Peak
position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[52] 100
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[53] 25
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[54] 19
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[55] 11
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[56] 10
Spanish Albums (AFYVE)[57] 3
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[58] 38
UK Albums (OCC)[59] 5
US Billboard 200[60] 162

Certifications

Certifications for Dazzle Ships
Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[61] Gold 100,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Notes

  1. ^ See: [11][17][32][33][34][35][36]

References

  1. ^ a b Ware, Gareth (4 March 2013). "OMD: Of All The Thing We've Made: Dazzle Ships At 30". DIY. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d e Stanley, Bob. How to lose 3 million fans in one easy step. The Guardian. 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  3. ^ a b c Turner, Luke (16 April 2014). "No Barrier Fun: Angus Andrew of Liars' Favourite LPs". The Quietus. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  4. ^ a b c d "OMD Official Website Discography entry". Archived from the original on 18 April 2001. Retrieved 9 April 2008.
  5. ^ Wilson, Lois (30 September 2019). "OMD". Record Collector. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  6. ^ "National Gallery of Canada: Dazzle-ships in Drydock at Liverpool, 1919". gallery.ca. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  7. ^ a b Raggett, Ned. "Dazzle Ships – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 October 2009.
  8. ^ Larkin, Colin (1997). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Eighties Music. Virgin Books. p. 350. ISBN 0753501597.
  9. ^ a b c Ewing, Tom (17 April 2008). "Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Dazzle Ships". Pitchfork. Retrieved 3 October 2009.
  10. ^ Bergstrom, John (17 April 2008). "Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Dazzle Ships". PopMatters. Retrieved 3 October 2009.
  11. ^ a b Eddy, Todd (May 2003). "The Synthesists (supplement)". Q. No. 202. The publication featured a review of Dazzle Ships, and also included it in the list, "10 Great Old-School Electronic Albums".
  12. ^ a b Easlea, Daryl (April 2008). "Dazzle Ships – OMD". Record Collector (348). Retrieved 3 October 2009.
  13. ^ a b Reid, Jim (5 March 1983). "Blinded by the light". Record Mirror. p. 21.
  14. ^ Evans, Paul (2004). "Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon & Schuster. p. 607. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  15. ^ a b Black, Johnny (3 March 1983). "Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Dazzle Ships". Smash Hits: 41.
  16. ^ "New wave effort verges on crest of futuristic rock". Times Colonist. 25 June 1983. p. 34 (C-4). Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  17. ^ a b O'Neal, Sean (20 August 2013). "Not Murmur: 36 great but underappreciated records from 1983". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  18. ^ Bohn, Chris (5 March 1984). "Dazzle Ships [album review]". NME. Rock's Backpages. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  19. ^ Lawson, Michael (6 April 1983). "Dazzle Ships review". Leader-Post. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  20. ^ Jakubowski, Maxim. The Rock Album: Volume Two. Zomba Books (1984). ISBN 0-946391-26-2 p. 27.
  21. ^ Colbert, Paul. "On the Dazzle". Melody Maker (5 May 1983). p.16.
  22. ^ The Virgin Rock Yearbook: Volume 4. Edited by Al Clark. Virgin Books (1983). ISBN 0-907080-87-1.
  23. ^ a b Bergstrom, John (15 December 2008). "The Best Re-Issues of 2008". PopMatters. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  24. ^ ""Now I'm bored and old": 27 deliberately confounding follow-ups to popular successes". The A.V. Club. 17 August 2009. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  25. ^ Turner, Luke (28 March 2008). "Dazzle Ships". The Quietus. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  26. ^ Raggett, Ned. "Pretending to See the Future: A Tribute to OMD". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  27. ^ David, Jeffries. "English Electric". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  28. ^ "OMD back from the dead with a History of Modern". Fact. 24 May 2010. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  29. ^ Hughes, Tim (25 August 2015). "Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark make a comeback to Rewind festival". The Oxford Times. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  30. ^ Kellman, Andy. "Souvenir". AllMusic. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  31. ^ Travis, Ben (1 September 2015). "OMD: watch Genetic Engineering live from Dazzle Ships show in Liverpool". Evening Standard. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  32. ^ "Top of the Pops!: 10 essential New Wave albums". Chicago Tribune. 26 February 1998. p. 63 (Tempo, p. 1). Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  33. ^ Uncut: Ultimate Record Collection (1980s). 2020.
  34. ^ "Top 100 Albums of 1983: Slicing Up Eyeballs' Best of the '80s – Part 4". Slicing Up Eyeballs. 3 June 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  35. ^ a b "Buried Treasure: Dazzle Ships". Mojo. No. 165. Bauer Media Group. August 2007.
  36. ^ Badgley, Aaron. "The Peel Sessions: 1979–1983". AllMusic. Retrieved 25 May 2021. ...[OMD's] very much underrated Dazzle Ships.
  37. ^ O'Neal, Sean (26 December 2006). "Permanent Records: Albums From The A.V. Club's Hall Of Fame". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on 13 May 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  38. ^ a b Huggett, Stuart (17 May 2016). "OMD's Cold War Album Comes In From The Cold: Dazzle Ships Live". The Quietus. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  39. ^ Wade, Ian (8 April 2013). "Souvenirs: Andy McCluskey Of OMD's Favourite Albums". The Quietus. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
  40. ^ Hann, Michael (28 November 2016). "the making of Saint Etienne's Foxbase Alpha". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  41. ^ a b Harward, Randy (18 August 2011). "Death Cab for Cutie: The concepts behind Codes & Keys". Salt Lake City Weekly. Retrieved 26 June 2013.
  42. ^ Stamp, Tony (6 April 2017). "The past and present of Future Islands". Radio New Zealand. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  43. ^ Jennings, Harriet (23 March 2011). "A to Z: Telekinesis". DIY. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  44. ^ Berman, Taylor (18 March 2013). "Telekinesis Reveals Which Rock Stars Are Aliens, Performs 'Dormarion' Beauties". Spin. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  45. ^ Locker, Melissa (21 March 2013). "Turntable Interview: Telekinesis". Stereogum. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  46. ^ Turner, Luke (24 March 2010). "Orchestral Manoeuvres & Homoerotica: Owen Pallett Opens His Heartland". The Quietus. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  47. ^ Ryan, Gary (14 October 2019). "Does Rock 'N' Roll Kill Braincells?! – Andy McCluskey". NME. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  48. ^ Murphy, Tom (4 September 2013). "Animal Collective's Panda Bear on playing drums again and the influence of Aphex Twin". Westword. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  49. ^ a b Ryzik, Melena (1 October 2010). "An Admirer of Tight Production, But of Sludge, Too". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 June 2013.
  50. ^ Houghton, Richard (2018). "Foreword". OMD: Pretending to See the Future. This Day in Music Books. ISBN 978-1999592721.
  51. ^ "Douglas Coupland lists 12 must-have CDs". Entertainment Weekly. 12 May 2006. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  52. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 224. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  53. ^ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 6242a". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  54. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) – Dazzle Ships" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  55. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) – Dazzle Ships" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  56. ^ "Charts.nz – OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) – Dazzle Ships". Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  57. ^ Salaverrie, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Madrid: Fundación Autor/SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
  58. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) – Dazzle Ships". Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  59. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  60. ^ "Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Archived from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  61. ^ "British album certifications – OMD – Dazzle Ships". British Phonographic Industry. 7 March 1983. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
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