Crush
	Produced by Stephen Hague
	Released on June 17, 1985
	UK CHART POSITION #13 . . . US CHART POSITION #38
	Find it at GEMM
SP 5077 cover [high resolution scan]

S ometimes I’m off my game, and then there are the days when I just bite it. For example, this review on All Music Guide. Long story short, I called Crush a sell-out. Probably too much Tangerine Dream in the diet, and I got on my high horse and trampled a very likeable album. True they’ve fallen on their pink sword in the pursuit of romantic pop music, but OMD is still interesting and awfully catchy: “La Femme Accident” (one of my personal faves from them), “Crush,” “88 Seconds in Greensboro.” And then there are the hits: “So In Love” and “Secret.” Maybe you’re thinking Simple Minds at this stage, another talented band who made some very famous pop songs that angst-ridden teens anthemized, and go ahead; they made some great albums too. Why throw out the baby with the bathetic pop music? Crush continues to push some envelopes in Dazzle Ships’ direction, drops some delicious melodies along the way, manipulates your mind and tugs at your heart. Honestly, OMD has been inching toward commercial acceptance since their first album, so that the distance between “Enola Gay” and “Stay” has been covered in small, subtle moves. Crush may be an inch closer to the gooey nougat center of pop’s unbearable sweetness, but it’s still ear candy to the rest of us. Hard to say why I fought against it so in the first place, but maybe I was more feisty then. I don’t have much fight left in me anymore, and even with its share of fluffy moments Crush is a keeper.

SP 5077 back cover	SP 5077 lyric sleeve

TRACK LISTING

1. SO IN LOVE    (OMD/Stephen Hague)    3:28
2. SECRET    3:57
3. BLOC BLOC BLOC    3:27
4. WOMEN III    4:27
5. CRUSH    4:16
6. 88 SECONDS IN GREENSBORO    4:15
7. THE NATIVE DAUGHTERS OF THE GOLDEN WEST    3:59
8. LA FEMME ACCIDENT    2:50
9. HOLD YOU    4:00
10. THE LIGHTS ARE GOING OUT    3:46
    
    All songs written by OMD unless noted

CREDITS

MARTIN COOPER -- vocals, saxophone, electronic keyboards
MALCOLM HOLMES -- drums, electronic and acoustic percussion
PAUL HUMPHREYS -- vocals, electronic keyboards, piano
ANDREW McCLUSKEY -- vocals, guitar, bass guitar, electronic keyboards
Stephen Hague -- electronic keyboards, guitar
Maureen Humphreys -- additional vocals
Graham Weir -- trombone, electric guitar
Neil Weir -- trumpet
Pete Coleman -- engineer
Alan Douglas -- engineer
David Jacob -- mixing engineer
Paul Slater -- illustration
XL Design -- sleeve

return to ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK discography

For more discographies visit...

© 2009 Connolly & Company. All rights reserved.