Dazzle Ships (album)
| Dazzle Ships | ||||
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| Studio album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark | ||||
| Released | 4 March 1983 | |||
| Recorded | 1982 The Gramophone Suite Gallery Studio Mayfair Studio |
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| Genre | Electronic, musique concrète, experimental, synthpop | |||
| Length | 34:43 60:13 (2008 reissue) |
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| Label | Telegraph (Virgin) | |||
| Producer |
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Rhett Davies |
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| Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Dazzle Ships | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| The A.V. Club | (favourable) |
| DIY | (favourable) |
| Leader-Post | (mixed) |
| Pitchfork | (8.4/10) |
| PopMatters | (8/10) |
| Q | |
| The Quietus | (favourable) |
| Record Collector | |
| Trouser Press | (mixed) |
Dazzle Ships is the fourth album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), released in 1983. The title and cover art (designed by Peter Saville) alluded 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 band's hugely 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 highly experimental content, particularly musique concrète sound collages, and the use of shortwave radio recordings to explore Cold War and Eastern Bloc themes.
In contrast with its predecessor, Dazzle Ships met with a degree of critical and commercial hostility. Opinion of the record has transmuted in the years since its release, however: it has come to be regarded as a "masterpiece" and a "lost classic", and has achieved cult status among music fans. The album has also been cited as an influence by numerous artists.
Frontman Andy McCluskey recalled: "We wanted to be ABBA and . The machinery, bones and humanity were juxtaposed." However, the album did also contain six conventional pop songs, both up-tempo numbers and ballads. Two of them, "The Romance of the Telescope" and "Of All the Things We've Made" were remixed versions of songs previously issued on B-sides to earlier singles (on the "Joan of Arc" single, "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. Two singles were released from the album, "Genetic Engineering" and "Telegraph", which achieved moderate chart success in the United Kingdom and on American rock and college radio. Both were also released as 7" vinyl picture discs.
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