REVIEWSOMD, ‘History of Modern’

7

• SPIN Rating:7 of 10

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Release Date: September 28, 2010
Label: Bright Antenna

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's first album in 14 years--and first in 24 to feature the lineup that recorded the bulk of their hits--meticulously returns to the ostensibly perky sound and pensive sensibility of the Merseyside quartet's early-to-mid-'80s heyday. Andy McCluskey's ageless croon still conjures ghosts in the synth-pop machinery, as vintage mellotrons weep quasi-operatic tears. Although the uncharacteristically sexed-up "Pulse" seems tailored for today's electro-soul vixens, much of the rest flashes back to electronic dance music's simultaneously hopeful and ominous dawning: "Sister Marie Says" could be "Enola Gayer."

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