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Album dossier / 1981

Architecture & Morality

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark · Synth-Pop/New Wave

Recorded at The Manor and The Gramophone Suite with Richard Manwaring producing most tracks (Mike Howlett produced lead single 'Souvenir' after OMD's own Advision re-record was judged thinner), the album grew from choral tape loops that former touring keyboardist Dave Hughes gave Paul Humphreys from a session at Liverpool's Amazon Studios -- Humphreys built chords from single-note loops on the band's 16-track, and the band bought a Mellotron after Andy McCluskey fell for the choir sound, giving them 'choirs at their fingertips' for the rest of the record. Andy McCluskey initially hated 'Souvenir' as too soft before it became the band's joint-highest UK chart hit (#3); the album title was borrowed (with permission) from sleeve designer Peter Saville's girlfriend Martha Ladly, who had been reading David Watkin's book 'Morality and Architecture.' Initially met with lukewarm reviews, it was later hailed by Melody Maker as 'the first true masterpiece of the Eighties' and by The Morning Star as 'the blueprint for synth-pop.'