Best Of OMD, The - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

Advantages: A journey through the development of an electro pop band
Disadvantages: There are a couple of awful tracks that could have been left off.

...and arguably one of the best tracks on this album. The final track is 'La Femme Accident' . First released in October 1985, it finishes a rather muddled album. We wonder if these gap fillers were put in at the end of this album as an after thought. It leaves us on an experimental note. A full circle as it were, in the strange life of OMD. A band that never really made it, not within the chart history, but has somehow left an indentation on our minds ...
...could understand yet everyone wouldn't mind having a quick stab at again. This album allows us to take a peek into the brief transition from punk to mainstream. It was just unfortunate that the likes of OMD were caught up in the middle of it with no where to go and no obvious place to go when it was all over….. First published on Dooyoo Feb2006 ©sam1942 2006 ... Read review

Advantages: All the classics from their early years are featured
Disadvantages: Only covers 1979-1988, the 3 omitted singles could have been included instead of the two dodgy extended 12" mixes which take up almost 15 minutes between them

...enough singles to warrant a Best Of collection. 18 of them feature on this Greatest Hits CD - only 14 on vinyl, though that's almost an irrelevant fact now of course - with the remaining three of their 21 UK releases (up to that point) omitted. It begins with Electricity, which never managed to grace the charts at the time. The song is, however, a perfect example of early OMD. Lyrics about energy sources (Nuclear, HEP, Solar) were set to a bustling ...
...album are included on The Best Of - the calypso-flavoured, anthemic Locomotion (# 5), the hushed nursery-rhyme feel of Talking Loud & Clear (# 11) and the more orthodox OMD of Tesla Girls, which took on the topic of electrical inventions. Its conceit - exemplified by lines such as "Now and then they'll watch TV, now and then they'll speak to me..but heaven knows their recipe. Electric chairs and dynamos, dressed to kill they'e killing me" was a lightweight ... Read review