a little bit of history repeating

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark just announced they will release their eleventh longplayer, "History Of Modern", on September 20. It will be the first OMD elpee to feature the original lineup in nearly a quarter century.

Here's what Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphries have to say about it.



The tracklisting has been revealed and it is split into two sides like a vinyl elpee. In fact, a limited edition vinyl configuration of the album will be available as part of a boxed set.

Side 1

1. New Babies: New Toys
2. If You Want It
3. History Of Modern (Part I)
4. History Of Modern (Part II)
5. Sometimes
6. RFWK
7. New Holy Ground

Side 2

8. The Future, The Past, and Forever After
9. Sister Mary Says
10. Pulse
11. The Night
12. Bondage Of Fate
13. The Right Side?

A demo of "Sister Mary Says", originally titled with Mary spelled en français with an "ie" at the end, has been floating around for nearly a year.



The song's origins are based in 1981 during the aftermath of "Enola Gay". It was shelved at the time for sounding too much like OMD's signature hit. Then it was resurrected in 1996 for the "Universal" album. Once again, it was scrapped. At that time the explanation for its removal was down to it sounding TOO MUCH like an old OMD song. Third time lucky, I guess.

If you wanna splash a little cash, plonk your dinero down for the limited edition box set the band have created for "History Of Modern". This fancy, little number will include the following goodies:

• the full "History Of Modern" CD
• double elpee pressed on heavyweight vinyl with unique sleeve art
• DVD featuring exclusive footage from the studio and interviews filmed during the making of the new album
• CD of demo tracks
• 12 inch, gatefold, picture book print with alternative artwork and photos of the band
• 12 inch artwork print all housed in a lovely, high grade, cardboard box featuring embossed logo on the cover

Anyone who pre-orders the box set will also receive a limited edition t-shirt emblazoned with the OMD logo.

To tie everything back to their beginnings, all artwork for the packaging has been designed by celebrated sleeve artist, Peter Saville, who designed the album covers for OMD's first few elpees. He's also responsible for most of the groundbreaking, album designs for New Order.