Organisation (album)

Album information

As with all OMD's early sleeve art, it was created by Peter Saville Associates and features a photograph by Richard Nutt of the cloud-covered peak of Marsco, in the Red Cuillin hills, overlooking Glen Sligachan on the Isle of Skye with Allt Dearg Mòr in the foreground. The album's title refers to the band Organisation, a precursor to Kraftwerk.

The album is notable for its melancholy tone. The band said that at the time they had been heavily influenced by Joy Division; this can be seen by the use of jarring drum sounds and moody songs on Organisation. Also notable is OMD's move away from pure Gary Numan-Kraftwerk-ian pop, embracing a grander sound, making an increasing use of acoustic instruments, and introducing sound collages. The group would continue to expand their sound this way on the next two albums Architecture & Morality and Dazzle Ships.

The single "Enola Gay" had little in common with the style of the rest of the album, despite its dark subject matter. Andy McCluskey has said it was written at the same time as the group's debut album.

"Motion and Heart" was also considered for a single release, but was dropped. A new recording of the song was made; this was released as a B-side of Architecture & Morality’s "Souvenir" and can be found on the remastered edition of that album.

"VCL XI" was the name of Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys' short lived group, which itself was named after a valve on the back of Kraftwerk's Radio-Activity album (although the name of the valve is actually written "VCL 11" on the Kraftwerk album).

"Stanlow" was written about the Stanlow Refinery in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.

Critical reception

Organisation met with positive reviews. Dave McCullough in Sounds wrote: "OMITD are a youth-mirror more valuable than any street chic punk outfit I can imagine. OMITD are warmer than your so-called "warm" bands, your [Bruce] Springsteens, your [Graham] Parkers could ever be. They reflect the young horror of where and how we live but... they face the problems with an irrepressible intuitive sense that makes the best pop of any time." In his review for Melody Maker, Lynden Barber said: "With their second album, OMD have produced not so much a collection of songs as a pervading mood, a feeling of restlessness spiked by an unsettling edge that never allows the music to descend into complacency... the music here represents a very healthy step forward."

The album has received positive retrospective appraisals. In his review for AllMusic, Ned Raggett opined: "If OMD's debut album showed the band could succeed just as well on full-length efforts as singles, Organisation upped the ante even further, situating the band in the enviable position of at once being creative innovators and radio-friendly pop giants. That was shown as much by the astounding lead track and sole single from the album, "Enola Gay"... Organisation is packed with a number of gems, showing the band's reach and ability continuing to increase." Raggett's colleague Dave Thompson praised the group's "inspired" cover of "The More I See You", asserting that OMD "totally reinvented the number, bringing a startling new reading to the song."

A review published in Julian Cope presents Head Heritage was very enthusiastic. It stated: "Organisation is one of those albums that takes quite a few plays to get to love but is well worth the effort... now that the long unsung [1983 record] Dazzle Ships has finally been given its due, maybe it's time for this oft-neglected second album to emerge from the shadows." Pitchfork Media journalist Scott Plagenhoef was less enthused, but still favourable. He said: "OMD's second LP Organisation was hastily released... and it sure sounds like it. Typically, a sophomore rush job means a band is cowardly -- quickly rolling out more of the same -- or taking a wide-eyed bid at chart stardom. For OMD, it meant recoiling from the spotlight, regrouping to make a willfully dark album."

Legacy

Porcupine Tree frontman Steven Wilson championed the record in a 2012 piece for MusicRadar. He said: "Organisation is [OMD's] second album. It's not their biggest record, but I think it's probably their best. It's got that Teutonic, Germanic kind of cold wave thing going on, which I've always been a sucker for."

The New Musical Express named Organisation as one of the 50 best albums of 1980. The record was listed in Slicing Up Eyeballs' "Best of the '80s" in March 2013, being ranked as one of the top 35 albums of 1980 based on 3,360 reader votes.

US release (O.M.D.)

Organisation was not formally released in the US; instead Epic Records released a compilation in 1981. This US release collects material from Organisation and the first OMD album, but retains the sleeve-art of the debut LP.

Notes

"Annex" was the B-side to "Enola Gay". "Introducing Radios", "Distance Fades Between Us", "Progress", and "Once When I Was Six" are tracks that were originally available on a 7" released with the first 10,000 copies of Organisation, and initial copies of the cassette.

Personnel