Album · 1981
Architecture & Morality
by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Architecture & Morality is a 1981 electronic album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. It runs 16 tracks across 61 minutes.
Electronic · New Wave · New Romantic
Your rating
- 16
- Tracks
- 61 min
- Runtime
- 117 bpm
- Tempo
- C major
- Key
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Tracklist
16 tracks · 61 min
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About
Architecture & Morality is the third album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, released in 1981. It is the group's most commercially and critically successful album, selling over 3 million copies by 2009. Released just eighteen months after their debut album, it demonstrated both OMD's continuing musical maturity and advancement of their style. The album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, as well as The Guardian's "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die". According to the album's credits, the album title was suggested to the band by Martha Ladly, formerly of Martha and the Muffins, after the 1977 book Morality and Architecture by David Watkin. The album yielded three singles, all of which charted in the UK Top 5: "Souvenir" (#3), "Joan of Arc" (#5), and "Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)" (#4), a retitled "Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)". Musically, the album was notable for making liberal use of the mellotron, a mechanical tape-replay keyboard more commonly associated in Britain with progressive rock bands of the early 1970s than with the synthpop of the 1980s.
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The artwork was produced by Peter Saville and Brett Wickens. Architecture & Morality was released several times with varying artwork, most notably in yellow, blue and grey but even green versions are available. The original cover from 1981 is light yellow/orange in a die-cut sleeve. The tenth through sixteenth tracks of the remastered album are bonus tracks and were B-sides from the album's three singles, except "Gravity Never Failed" which was out-take from the album sessions, originally intended to have been a single A-side, but not released until 1988, as the B-side of "Dreaming". Remixes of "The Romance Of The Telescope" and "Of All The Things We've Made" appeared on OMD's next album, Dazzle Ships, which was released in 1983. All of the album's songs were included in the first part of the setlist on OMD's 2007 comeback tour.
In brief
- When was Architecture & Morality released?
- Architecture & Morality was released in 1981.
- How many tracks are on Architecture & Morality?
- Architecture & Morality has 16 tracks, with a runtime of 61 minutes.
- What genre is Architecture & Morality?
- Architecture & Morality is catalogued under Electronic, New Wave, New Romantic.
- What BPM is Architecture & Morality?
- Architecture & Morality runs at a median tempo of 117 BPM across its tracks, most often in C major, measured from audio analysis.
- What albums are similar to Architecture & Morality?
- Listeners of Architecture & Morality also rate Dare by The Human League, Power, Corruption & Lies by New Order, Romantic? by The Human League.
Architecture & Morality at a glance
- Label
- Dindisc Records
- Produced by
- Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Facts from Wikidata (CC0).