The Pacific Age
	Produced by Stephen Hague
	Released on September 29, 1986
	UK CHART POSITION #15 . . . US CHART POSITION #47
	Find it at GEMM
CS 5144 cover

L et’s see: Underdog underwear? Check. Ring of Protection +2? Wearing it. Okay, so here goes... The Pacific Age is a good album. Hmm, nuthin. All right then, The Pacific Age is a great album. Ouch. Oh well, I didn’t think that would fly. But I really do enjoy this album and for the right reason: it’s electronic pop with booby traps. Maybe you’re saving the booby prize for “Stay,” “Southern” and “Goddess of Love,” and I won’t argue with you. But they’re the victims of bad judgment rather than bad songs. If you don’t believe me, listen to “Stay” and imagine that it’s playing at half-speed. Kinda sounds like “Joan of Arc,” duddenit? Yes, the Black Rose and the Universal Wheel are misplaced pretension, but I don’t have a lyric sheet so I’m blissfully ignorant. And what missteps are made in the Age are counterbalanced beautifully by “(Forever) Live and Die,” “The Pacific Age,” “The Dead Girls,” “Shame,” “We Love You.” I buy OMD albums for moments like these. I’ll fall short of calling this a great album because that +2 Ring of Protection can only do so much, and because calling it a great album would force me to re-examine Crush. I’ll keep listening to The Pacific Age too, delighting in “The Dead Girls” and losing myself a little in “(Forever) Live and Die.” Other critics will tell you this stuff is junk, baubles sold at every beach shack in the synthesizer-friendly summer of ‘80s love. But maybe they didn’t come to the beach as a kid to watch “Joan of Arc” and “Electricity” roll like a mist off the new wave at dawn. I did and I see the old ghosts at play here, hawking baubles but also having a good time. Oh, there's also a review at All Music Guide, in case you really do have nothing to do.

TRACK LISTING

1. STAY (THE BLACK ROSE AND THE UNIVERSAL WHEEL)
2. (FOREVER) LIVE AND DIE
3. THE PACIFIC AGE
4. THE DEAD GIRLS
5. SHAME
6. SOUTHERN
7. FLAME OF HOPE
8. GODDESS OF LOVE
9. WE LOVE YOU
10. WATCH US FALL
    
    All songs written by orchestral manoeuvres in the dark

CREDITS

MARTIN COOPER -- keyboards & saxophones
MALCOLM HOLMES -- drums & percussion
PAUL HUMPHRIES -- keyboards, percussion, vocals
ANDY McCLUSKEY -- vocals, keyboards, bass guitar
GRAHAM WEIR -- trombone, keyboards, guitar
NEIL WEIR -- trumpet & bass
Carole Fredericks -- background vocals
Stephen Hague -- additional keyboards & guitar
Yvonne Jones -- background vocals
Kamil Rustam -- guitar
Aliss Terrell -- background vocals
Tom Lord-Alge -- engineer, mixing
Peter Coleman & Keith Andrews -- additional engineering
Mark Lusardi & Mike Day -- engineers
Tony Richards -- engineer
Mick Haggerty -- package art
Claus Wickwrath -- inner sleeve photography

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