#pretentious music fans will always claim that you HAVE to listen to this album in its entirety to Get It but

[starblaster]

whenever i’m the mood, i load up pink floyd’s the wall on spotify and i always think it’s really cool that the song-popularity-meter on the righthand side (on desktop spotify) is pretty equal across every track. like, that tells me a majority of the people who listened to music from this album listened to the entire thing, probably in a linear fashion from beginning to end, and idk why but i find that really sweet

[toraashi]

Haikyuu Boys’ Favorite Taylor Swift Songs

A/N: This had to be made. It can’t flop cuz it’s 3:30am here and I work at 8am so I suffered for this. I didn’t do Inarizaki because I’m not currently caught up and don’t want to butcher their characters, but if this does well I can add them in the future. Let me know your thoughts and if you have any additions to make hehe. Let me know any other characters you’d like to see 

Word Count: >1k

Warnings: None

Karasuno

Hinata: Hinata only listens to her hits. He lives for them. Especially the ones from the Red era I feel like. 22? Gets him going every. Damn. time. Same with We Are Never Getting Back Together. He really vibes with the more lighthearted airy sounding ones. 

Kageyama: Kageyama would not listen to Taylor Swift. I literally can not see him listening to any music besides maybe like intense anime osts to motivate him lol. Would probably only listen to her hits if they came on the radio. 

Suga: Suga literally lives for the entire Fearless album. His favorites are definitely the more popular nostalgic ones like Love Story or You Belong With Me. It’s just so reminiscent of his younger days and he will blast those songs in the car. I headcanon he vibes with Tell Me Why so hard tho.

Daichi: I’m sorry I can not envision him listening to any Taylor Swift songs that aren’t from her first two albums. He is a big fan of Our Song and I’m Only Me When I’m With You. Probably likes Mine.

Tsuki: Also doesn’t give a fuck about Taylor Swift. Yamaguchi literally listens to her all the time though, so he sometimes does too. Won’t admit it, but he highkey vibes to Reputation. Says This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things is stupid, but honestly jams out everytime anyone plays it. THINKS LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO IS GOOD I-

Yamaguchi: Every single one. He is a hardcore swiftie. You can’t convince me otherwise. I think he prefers her newer stuff though. His favorite album is either Lover or 1989, but he vibes with Reputation too. Would simp for the self-discovery songs the most because he can relate. The Archer, Delicate, Clean.

Asahi: Exclusively listens to Folklore. He’s not really here for the heartbreak as much as he is for the mellow vibes. Cries to Exile. Really vibes to Invisible String.

Nishinoya: All the hype songs. Especially the ones from 1989. Literally will blast Bad Blood and Out Of The Woods in the car and scream all the words. He definitely likes Paper Rings too. 

Tanaka: Basically the same as Noya but I think his bubble would expand past just 1989. He would bump hard to some of the Rep songs. Thinks the “rap songs” are edgy. End Game? Yeah, he knows the entire rap verse. ...Ready For It? This bitch will rap the entire song.

Aoba Johsai

Oikawa: Got pissed when Taylor switched to pop. Pretends to be an avid “old Taylor” fan, but got exposed when Iwaizumi caught him blasting Getaway Car one day. He likes to pretend to be a pretentious shit, but he literally is such a simp for the bubblegum pop romantic songs like London Boy, King of My Heart, How You Get The Girl, etc. Don’t get me wrong though, he is very in love with old Taylor too. Better Than Revenge is in his “angery 😤😡” playlist. Cries to Long Live because it reminds him of his team. Definitely has a crush on Taylor Swift.

Iwaizumi: Mostly listens to old Taylor. Pretends like he doesn’t enjoy it, but Oikawa’s been rubbing off on him a little and some of the songs are catchy, aokay?! I think he would enjoy the more rock sounding songs off of Red like State of Grace or Holy Ground.

Nekoma

Kuroo: Likes the sexier sounding ones. Not because we are sexualizing this king, but I think he enjoys the mature sounds and they’re all kind of vibey. False God, Style and Don’t Blame Me are his jams. Man has good taste

Kenma: Only listens to Minecraft ost

Yaku: Would also vibe to 1989. Shake It Off, Blank Space and I Know Places are some of his favorites from the album. Probably gets embarrassed so he listens to Taylor when he’s by himself or slides it into the queue occasionally in the car. 

Lev: Oh my hell. He definitely listens to her worst songs and thinks they’re bops. He would. Stay Stay Stay? Yeah he would get married to that song. I also lowkey think he would be really touched by some of her songs about family since he’s so close with his sister. Never Grow Up and the Best Day probably get him a little emotional. 

Fukurodani

Bokuto: Hinata introduced him to her pop hits. He was very curious and literally could NOT stop bumping to Me! and so he did more research. Now he literally always listens to her screaming/crying songs. Will blast that shit in the car and cry and it’s definitely very cathartic for him. Ever since this discovery the frequency of dejected mode goes down significantly. Everyone wonders why, but Akaashi’s intuition (he walked in on Bokuto screaming “HEY YOU CALL ME UP AGAIN JUST TO BREAK ME LIKE A PROMISE” one time) tells him it’s because he has a new outlet. Claims to be able to sing the long note in Dear John. Whether he can or not is subjective.

Akaashi: A poetic king with amazing taste. Listens to the songs for the LYRICS. He probably really enjoys Folklore because it’s more mellow and has some amazing lyricism, but he is definitely a fan of some of the more hidden gems as well. The dramatic heartbreaking ones sometimes grab his attention too. The Lakes, Cornelia Street, The Last Time, Breathe and Come Back… Be Here are some of his favorites. 

[astorytotellyourfriends]

Can we talk about your H hate? Do you actually hate him or is it a joke? I used to love H and then his fandom became so obnoxious that I started to project my disdain for them on him. I was JUst wondering if this is relatable to you?

it’s... complicated. this might get a bit lengthy so i’ll do everyone a favor and put my answer under a cut. that way, if anyone starts an argument with me over something i said, i’ll know that you purposefully clicked ‘read more’ despite knowing you might not agree with what i wrote.

i don’t actually hate harry. or at least, not every minute of every day. i have a very complicated relationship with how i tend to feel towards him and it does change from one moment to the next. (i’m going to do my best to explain but pls forgive me if i start to ramble and it doesn’t quite make sense.)

he’s never been my favorite. back when i first got into 1d, i did (regrettably) buy into the ‘womanizer’ media perspective of harry and that soured my opinion of him right quick. but as i got further into the fandom and learned more about harry and the others, i realized that the media had it wrong and i no longer thought of him in that way.

having said that, at that time in my life i was friends with a lot of “harry girls” and that made things a little hard on me personally because i just didn’t really understand why they were all putting him up on a pedestal and acting like the other 1d boys had nothing to do with their success. i’m not just saying this because my fave is louis - i was always pro ot5/ot4. part of the magic of 1d was the fact that they were great together - but i’m getting off topic.

once 1d went on break, it just got worse. the fandom divided and solo stans got absolutely INSUFFERABLE with pitting their faves against one another. i’m absolutely pointing fingers at not just harries but louies and liam/niall stans too. even zayn stans! everyone shares in that accountability. BUT i do have to say that in my personal experience, harries are just the worst.

now, i’m not saying every solo harry stan is terrible. absolutely not. some of my best friends are harry stans and i love seeing how excited they get over things that harry does. i’m happy to see them happy, and that doesn’t change just because i don’t feel the same way about harry as they do.

what i do really dislike (and where a lot of my disdain for harry comes from) is how harry is still up on that fucking pedestal and now the whole world seems to be in on it. every single fucking time he’s rumored to be doing anything, people lose their goddamn minds. don’t even get me started on dunkirk or the little mermaid nonsense because we’ll be here all night.

when harry’s album came out, i was excited about it. i genuinely enjoyed sign of the times when i first heard it, but the novelty for me quickly wore off. the more i listened to it, the less i liked it. i thought it was a little too pretentious and try-hard, but still overall a decent song. when i listened to his album all the way through for the first time, at first i was like FUCK this is exactly the kind of music i like HOW DARE HE PUT OUT AN ALBUM I LOVE. but that was just the first listen.

after a few more listens, and really listening to the words, i found myself not enjoying it all over again - just like i did with sign of the times.

now, i’m not claiming to be a music critic or really knowing anything about the music industry. i’m just a fan of music. but, in my opinion, harry could’ve done a lot better.

i rarely listen to his album now. before i saw him at the troubadour, i’d listened to his album maybe three times. i was possibly one of the only people in the club who didn’t know every word. but the difference for me is that while i don’t like listening to harry’s album at home or in the car, i do really enjoy seeing him perform it live. my feelings towards harry aside, he’s a fantastic performer.

but honestly, what really pisses me off is that everyone in the music industry is up. his. ass!

two rolling stones covers?? really?? i just fucking hate that rs is all about harry now when they never gave 1d a chance. it seems like everyone in the fucking music industry just shits all over 1d and is now treating harry like he escaped some horrible thing - which is just not true. harry himself has said how fondly he looks back on his time in 1d and that he’s thankful for it. (this is honestly part of the reason for my mixed feelings towards him. how can i be mad at him standing up for 1d??)

i’m just tired of the hype. i’m tired of the harries whining about harry not getting nominated for grammys or whatever. news flash - his album wasn’t that revolutionary. it literally sounds like a mix of his influences and that is not revolutionary. sure, it’s different for him because we’re used to hearing what he sounded like with 1d but that’s it. it’s not boy band pop.

i think i’ve been repeating myself a little bit, and i’ve gone on quite long enough with being annoyed over everyone else’s opinions of harry. they definitely contribute to my feelings towards him, but that’s not all.

what also annoys me about harry is that he just seems... fake. look at his instagram. his twitter. it’s very much Harry Styles but not harry. i get wanting to keep a separation between his career and his personal life - i commend him for that - but honestly i’m sick of everything that he posts being a carbon copy of the one before it. there’s no personal touch to anything.

i guess i can’t really fault him for that. if i were in his shoes i wouldn’t want to give this fandom any more leverage over me, either. so i think what you originally said is entirely relatable. his fans have absolutely soured me to him personally and that’s not his fault.

having said that, i don’t think he necessarily deserves all the praise he’s been given. after all, he’s just a guy. he’s only human. i wish this stan culture didn’t exist because god, i’m so fucking tired of it. stop putting these celebrities up on pedestals they don’t deserve. at the end of the day, we’re all just human and we all have to go through life one day at a time. being rich and famous doesn’t make you better than anyone and i think a lot of people tend to forget that.

anyway, sorry for going on and on about this. hopefully i answered your question and didn’t just ramble uselessly for 20 paragraphs.

honestly, i don’t actually hate harry. i just hate what the fandom has done to my perception of him and that it’s tainted my personal view of him. i wish there was a way to go back to the way things were, but there just isn’t. as long as i’m a part of this fandom (however small it may continue to be), i just have to deal with it.

[letsdothistom]

Air Guitar and 85 MPH!

I was going to spend my second “blog” discussing pretentiousness in Santa Fe or New Mexican food and green chile in general.  But since I came up with something a little more fun, I guess I’ll save the talk about ordering water in a bowl and drinking it with a spoon for a different time.  On my drive back to Oklahoma I thought of a topic that always shows its face when I’m on a road trip.   I often forget about it until the next time I’m in the car or just don’t put much thought into it once I’ve opened the car doors and let the dog out to deal with his pent up energy as I unload the car.  Not to mention the obligatory hour I have to spend re-aquainting myself to the cat, who is certain that I have disappeared forever this time.

The topic that came to me is road trip songs.  

I love road trips.  You may think I’m crazy but settling into the driver seat, snacks on the passenger seat,  the basset hound panting in my face, his front feet on the console, anticipating our newest adventure, is the best.  Within a pretty short time, he tends to realize that this is just another day-long roady and roughs up his blanket in the backseat and settles in for the ride. Giving me weird basset hound glances in the mirror.  Not sure if it’s the music or he just wants some pork rinds.

Now these road trips of mine usually arent extravagant or exotic.  Unless you consider driving state highways through Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming or any other of the fly-over states I tend to travel as being exotic. (Personally I’d choose these drives over just about any other you could propose to me).  The great thing about these road trips, aside from seeing so many wonderful historically relevant places (as well as plenty of non-relevant places), and feeling a oneness with wide open spaces, is the time you get to yourself to hone your listening skills.  

Those of you that know me, know that I have many preferences when it comes to music.  As Cheech says in Up In Smoke, “we play everything from El Chicano to Santana”.  I love it all.  Some more than others, but I probably have a song or two from every type of playlist or genre that you can think of.  Add to that the fact that if there is a specific location I’m aiming my car to (often there is not), I will jam songs from or about that location.  For instance, while driving the empty roads of New Mexico it will be Ennio Morricone and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly soundtrack.  Wyoming is of course Chris LeDoux country.  On my way to Kansas City to eat BBQ, it’s Joe Williams singing “Kansas City” or Charlie Parker and K.C. Blues.  Memphis is Sister Rosetta Tharpe (you can keep Elvis, I am not a fan.  Yeah, I said it).  West Texas?  Marty Robbins Gunfighter Ballads, of course!  Down south, it’s Big Maybelle, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Muddy Waters.  You get the idea.  It may seem strange but there is something that touches my soul in listening to those songs that are native to an area.  Whether or not I actually do learn anything, it feels as though I have.

With that weird little eccentricity out of the way, let me add that of course there are some staples of any road trip, for me at least.  These are songs, albums and artists that I listen to, to fill in all the  empty spaces of those relatively uneventful miles, musically or otherwise.  Maybe it’s Def Leppard or ACDC or Beyonce or Ariana Grande for you.  For me these are easy.  I can not even begin to guess how many miles have been eaten up by Merle Haggard, or The Count Basie Orchestra.  I am not scared of extreme opposites.  Hundreds upon thousands upon tens of thousands of miles have been chewed up by these two musical groups, and yes, I’m aware that I am probably the only person living who can claim that.

The millennials reading this will have no idea about this next category.  There use to be these things called albums.  Albums were a group of songs, recorded (usually around the same time), and released as a unit to the masses.  These units were sold as vinyl records, cassette tapes, 8-tracks, or CDs.  Those of us a little older can attest that 90 percent of these albums had 2-4 songs that we liked and a bunch of other average or barely tolerable songs that you listened to whether you liked them or not (if you didn’t have control of the radio in the car).  Sometimes, you even grew to enjoy a few of those songs.  On rare occasions though, you found an entire album, yes the whole thing! that you enjoyed.   For all of us oldies, these albums are near and dear to our hearts.  They vary from person to person, but these are a few I can put on and just let them play, enjoying almost every song:  Van Halen-1984, Blood Sweat and Tears-Greatest hits, Nirvana-Nevermind, George Strait-Strait From The Heart, Muddy “Mississippi” Waters-Live, Art Blakey-Moanin’,  U2-Joshua Tree, Miles Davis-Kind of Blue, Steve Miller Band-Greatest Hits 74-78, IceT-Greatest Hits to name a few of my favorites.

All of these categories are important to a good road trip.  You must have a combination of all of them.  Yeah, I know, all of you XM/Sirius users are claiming that you don’t need any of them.  You got genres on every channel, and all you ever need with all those fancy channels.  To those of you in that camp, I say “HOGWASH!”  Why Hogwash?  Well no matter how specific these channels are, or how much you enjoy the carefree toggling between your favorite genres, no road trip is complete without those irreplaceable, epic, nostalgic songs that nearly blow out your speakers and get your ears ringing whenever you choose to rock them.  And how the hell are you supposed to play these favorites 2, 3, 10 times in a row with your XM radio?!  You can’t. So without further palaver, I’m gonna lay my favorites out and would love to hear some of yours.  

Rich’s top 20 Road Trip Jams (if you have any sense, you will build this playlist!-yeah I know it’s not gonna float everyone’s boat but if nothing else, listen to it, you might find some music that you don’t normally dig.)  And for the record, none of these songs ever get bumped off the list, new ones just get added to it occasionally.  As weird as it may be, here is my list:

Honorable Mentions.  These songs get me thinking about all the great road trip songs and my musical wheels start turning.  It’s on when I hear any of these songs.

Runnin on Empty-Jackson Browne, Hello Walls-Faron Young, Blues in Hoss Flat-Count Basie, Night In Tunisia-Ella Fitzgerald, Gimme All Your Love-Alabama Shakes, Miles and Miles of Texas-Asleep at the Wheel, China Grove-Doobie Brothers, Come Down-Anderson Paak, Crosstown Traffic-Jimi Hendrix, El Paso-Marty Robbins, Ida Red-Bob Wills and Sunshine of Your Love-Cream.  Those get me started but here is when it gets real.

20-16  These are like the kindling for me.  Getting the fire lit, and starting my descent into the next hour of driving, without really remembering the road I’ve just driven or the scenes outside the window.  

20)  Suavecito-Malo   Ok, Ok, it wouldn’t seem like a fire starter, but...

19)  Magic Man-Heart This one should get your blood flowing

18)  Keep on Rockin’ Me-Steve Miller The best roady to choose from SMB

17)  Watermelon Man-Herbie Hancock You might not have soul if you don’t love this

16)  When My Train Pulls In- Gary Clark JR Great Long Jam.  incredible guitar riffs

11-15  These are a small step up, adding logs to my fire

15)  Me and Mrs. Jones-Billy Paul So there’s always a song that you love to sing while you are alone in your car, and you think you sing it just as well as the artist

14)  Stairway to Heaven-Led Zeppelin Ok so of course I have it, but this is a really, really great song no matter how many times it is played.

13)  Ev’ryday I have the Blues-Count Basie and Joe Williams The definition of a foot stomper.

12)  Luckenbach, TX-Waylon and Willie One of the best country songs translates to a great road song.

11)  The Story- Brandi Carlisle Not a song liable to be on many lists, road trip or not.  My sister introduced me to this years and years ago and it barely misses the top 10

6-10  Ok, we are really cookin with gas now.  These are legendary roadies in my book.  The dog gives me a look, here we go again.

10)  Rooster-Alice In Chains Gets my grunge on.  I love everything about this song.  Probably one of the biggest contributors to hearing loss in my right ear.

9)   Six Days on the Road-Dave Duncan All those over-the-road truckers can’t be wrong, this is the best of all truckin’ songs.

8)   Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down-Merle Haggard   My favorite country singer and a whole lot of my favorite country music instrument, the steel guitar.  Damn I love this song

7)   Ticket To Ride-Beatles There are tons of Beatles songs to choose from and this isn’t my favorite, but it is my favorite on the road

6)   867-5309-Tommy Tutone This is my favorite 80s song.  And when I hear that guitar riff at the beginning...Jenny, Jenny who can I turn to?

2-5  These are huge, the fire is roaring and I have no concerns as to what is going on at this point.  I’ll be singing, playing drums, air guitar.  The dog has now tried to cover his ears due to the volume.

5)   Jamie’s Cryin-Van Halen Im not sure why, because there are tons of Van Halen songs to choose from, but for whatever reason, this one is my favorite while on the road

4)   North To Alaska-Johnny Horton   Ok, another one you may not expect at all but damn this is a fun song.  I physically can’t help whaling “big nuggets they’re finding” every time!

3)   Pink Houses-John Cougar Mellencamp    Im not a globalist. ‘Murica!!

2)   Sweet Child of Mine-Guns and Roses    This should be on everyones list. Road songs or any other.  Simply one of the best songs ever.  

Number 1!!!

So all the previous songs are great.  I love them all, and many, many more.  This is an elaborate list for me.  If you know me, you know I love lists, and don’t make them without deep thought.  But Ironically, the battle for the top spot isn’t even close.  I LOVE Sweet Child of Mine, and Pink Houses.  I might play them 2 or 3 times in a row, but the battle for number one isn’t much of a battle.  Not because these others arent great but because number one is so unbelievably spectacular in the car.  I can’t help singing to it, playing air guitar, drum solo in my car, volume literally turned up 3 or 4 times during the song, ears ringing and can’t even hear myself singing, and just when you don’t think it could be any better, it gets better!!!  There are times I may play this song 5, 6 times in a row if things are cookin.  I can barely keep the needle under 85 mph! The number one song for the road is:

1)  More Than A Feeling- Boston  I really built it up, and with good reason. Rock ballad, guitar anthem, unbelievable vocals, harmony soft, loud, louder, high, higher, drums...what else can I say?  This is simply the best road trip song ever!!

Ok, that’s it.  Maybe it was anti-climatic for you, but I got jazzed just listing the songs.  I may go take a drive just to hear the playlist!  I’d love to hear everyone else’s playlist that they take on every trip.  Maybe I’m missing some good road trip songs!  

I hope the dog never figures out how to jump out of the car while it’s moving.

[mywindowslookwriting]

Greta Van Fleet - Anthem of the Peaceful Army

If you are a purveyor of the musical internet, you might have seen that Pitchfork reviewed young rock band Greta Van Fleet’s debut album, and the writer Jeremy D. Larson completely destroyed them. It was very hilarious to read, but it was also definitely very pretentious.

Rock fans across the internet have been extremely up-in-arms about the whole thing, so of course my interest was piqued. I mostly know Greta Van Fleet as ‘that band that sounds exactly like Led Zeppelin’.

The band has talked at length about the comparisons to Led Zeppelin, after all, Robert Plant has talked about them. Greta Van Fleet have said they’re humbled by comparisons, but not really definitely saying they sound eerily similar.

Which is an interesting choice, because if you’ve heard their one of their singles on the radio, you probably at first were like hey what Zeppelin song is this?.

I think these comparisons have probably excited some older rock fans, you know the ones who love to moan about how rock is dead, to hear basically for verbatim the music of their youth played by actual youth.

I’m also not a huge fan of Led Zeppelin, though I do enjoy some of their songs. But before listening to the record, I was apprehensive. I am always much more interested in bands being original and creating something new, than a band just imitating people who have already been determined to be good.

The first song on the record, Age Of Man, is a whopping 6.06 minutes long. A bold choice, starting with the singer rise and soar over some general guitar noise. You do have to admit, all these kids are talented musicians.

It quickly picks up, and the singer has an interesting tone, rising up to some fairly high and growly notes. There are even influences of Freddie Mercury here. The band has kept plugging away at the same groove for a while now, but it’s not the worst thing to listen to. I can definitely feel a lot of emotion, but at what? I can not really hear what he is saying. Which is unfortunate, because I’ve heard mentions of the album being a concept album.

The next song, The Cold Wind, has some funky and truly rock ‘n’ roll chords, with the singer appropriating Robert Plant’s ooh yeah yelp. I have to admit, I was having a good time.

One of the highlights on the album is the drums. Hollow and tight, it feels like there’s a fill every ten seconds. But it feels like the drums are just banging all around your head, disappearing in louder moments but always coming back into full force.

The guitarist is also incredibly skilled. The guitar solo in When The Curtain Falls is controlled, but full of spirit. He can shred.

But really, my first impression of the album is that all these songs are just forgettable Zeppelin odes. I enjoyed them in the moment, but they didn’t intrigue me. Didn’t even really interest me.

I definitely think they have real talent, and they could go places, but until they arrive at a place that is truly their own, I am not a fan.

Greta Van Fleet have talked about how rock is dying, and the power of their band, and truly it all sounds very pretentious. Here’s a quote from a Rolling Stone feature: “The record company will hire writers to make sure … the song will work…. That’s why it’s difficult in our world to cut through when you are doing something truthful”.

Okay, but it doesn’t sound very truthful to me. It sounds like they’re just studying the music they love, and sure, there’s no problem with that. Whatever floats your boat. But there’s just truly nothing original here. I’m not going to attack people who like Greta Van Fleet, because of course it is fun music, and there is somewhat of a lack of intensely popular rock music. I asked my mother what she thought of the band, and she said she liked them because ‘she gets to listen to new Led Zeppelin music’. But I do not plan on revisiting this band.

In the same feature, they said “[Rock] is an endangered species. It’s gonna take young guys like us in our generation to see that”.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had no trouble in my time as a music lover to find truthful, truly rock and roll music. And interestingly, most of that music is being created by women. By their claims of only guys ‘saving rock’ make them as about as unrevolutionary and stuck in their ways as the pop musicians they so quickly discredit.

-written by sagan, october 29th 2018

[suckmycoxon]

Hi :) could you give me a little background on omd? I don't know anything of the band except for a few songs, so maybe you could say your knowledge of the band and the members?

OH MY GOD YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW THRILLED I AM TO DO THIS

Let’s get to the band members first!

Andy McCluskey

Here’s the bossy one. As he puts it, he’s the butcherwho cuts off the raw materials of the song; the director who basically tellsPaul what to do, the one who sees the big picture, while Paul is the surgeonwho splices the details. He sings, plays bass, and writes the lyrics for mostof their songs. And he always dances madly, even in the recent years! For a58-year old guy with bad knees, he’s VERY energetic. So as you can see, he’sthe dominant one. Powerful, loud, cheerful, salty as fuck, thoroughly hatesrock ‘n’ roll, claims he hates cliché love songs but writes them anyway. I lovehim nonetheless

Paul Humphreys

THIS IS MY FAVORITE GUY OFF OMD. MY LOVE. MY HANDSOMEHAMSTER. HE’S CUTE ISN’T HE? Alright, so… he’s the keyboardist, the creativeand technical one. He’s the one who usually comes up with a melody and thenAndy directs how the song should turn out. He’s the one who does most of thesynth sounds! In the old days, he used to build his own “noise machine” bymessing with the circuits and such of old, broken radios. Don’t tell me that’snot badass. He also sings in a couple of OMD’s songs, most notably in“Electricity”, “Souvenir”, “(Forever) Live and Die”, and “Secret”.Personality-wise, he’s the complete opposite of Andy. He’s more quiet, shy,soft, and just lovely overall 

Other members are MalcolmHolmes (the long-haired one in the picture above) who was the drummer from the beginning of the band until 2013. Inthat year, he had a cardiac arrest and temporarily died so he had to retire.From 2013 onwards, Stuart Kershaw tookthe drummer position. Another member is MartinCooper (the one with the blue shirt), the saxophonist/keyboardist/occasional bassist. He’s still with theband until now! Except when OMD broke up because he and Mal went along withPaul instead of Andy, but I’ll get to that later…

They embrace the “punk” attitude in terms of music. Youknow, making music as simple as possible. They always say this joke of “We’rethe punks of electronic. Punk plays with one chord, we play with one finger!”

Now, it’s history time. Let’s go back to the 70s

Andy and Paul had always been the hipsters of that era. Theylistened to electronic bands like Kraftwerk, Neu, La Dusseldorf (Kraftwerk,mostly) while their peers listened to prog rock. Andy was in a band and Paulwas the roadie. Despite always being in the same school, that was when theynoticed how they shared the similar interest towards Kraftwerk, so Andy quitthe band and formed his own with Paul that we now know as the pretentiouslynamed Orchestral Manoeuves in the Dark

They started off as a supporting band fo Joy Division inEric’s Club in Liverpool. They didn’t expect to have a longlasting career… theyreally thought it would be their first and last gig. They just wanted to provethemselves and their mates that they dared to go on stage doing somethingdifferent; doing weird electronic music, hence the odd band name. With such apretentious name, they wanted to show the audience how they were doingsomething different

And then they were offered a second gig in Manchester.That’s where they met Tony Wilson, and he signed them up to Factory Records.Then “Electricity” was recorded, and Tony sent it to various major labels, oneof which was Virgin Records, so they moved to Virgin. It was in 1979/1980 Ithink? And with their 1980 album, Organisation (their second one. Their firstone, the self-titled one, was released in the same year) – which they claim asbeing influenced by Joy Division, so this album is basically the child of JoyDivision and Kraftwerk – which included “Enola Gay”, they became well known.They got even bigger with the Architecture and Morality album, which has“Souvenir”, “Joan of Arc”, “Maid of Orleans”…

They commercially dropped dead with Dazzle Ships (1983). Itwas an experimental album, which I personally think sounds great, but probablynot acceptable enough at that time. Despite having quite successful hits like“Telegraph” and “Genetic Engineering”, that album almost single-handedly killedtheir career. So they took a safer path in their next album, Junk Culture(1984), embracing a more pop-ish sound. It can be heard on their catchy hitsfrom Junk Culture, like “Locomotion” and “Talking Loud and Clear”

Their 1985 album, Crush, was produced by Stephen Hague, whowas also the producer for New Order and Pet Shop Boys. They finally got intoUS’ charts with that album, I guess?? Regarding that album and that year, theyoften say something like “We were trying to break America, but America broke usinstead”, so I can’t be quite sure of what happened… commercially, it waspretty successful, I think… with singles like “Secret” and “La Femme Accident”

It was also in circa 1985 where their most notable song, “IfYou Leave”, was also made. Fun fact: they only wrote it in a day, because JohnHughes changed the ending suddenly and called them and said, “Hey, the song youwrote won’t fit to the new ending, could you write a new one?” right beforethey went on tour. The track that was initially going to be used in Pretty inPink, “Goddess of Love”, was later put on The Pacific Age (1986). Speaking ofwhich, that album has “(Forever) Live and Die”, which is a BANGER and is sungby my handsome hamster, Paul

Then they broke up sometime in late 80s. 1989, I think. Theyowed the company a lot of money, so they made a Best Of album. But even thatwasn’t enough. Their choice was either to make another new album (which canmake money, quite possibly, but due to their past experiences, they barely gotany money left because the touring expenses, royalties to their manager, etcwere so expensive) or to stop and just wait for the money to come from theirprevious albums’ royalties (I’m not really sure about this one, they’ve toldthe story a couple of times during interviews but I could never 100% understandthe story). This is where Andy and Paul went their separate ways. Andy chose tocarry on while Paul chose to stop. So Andy carried the name OMD alone (underhis stubbornness). A couple of years later, Paul, Martin, and Malcolm formedThe Listening Pool. Both were obscured by the new trend in 90s that was Britpopand such (Andy often implies that he blames Britpop for the obscurity ofelectronic bands and I loathe him for that smh I’m a Britpop hoe, fuck youAndy). Andy (as OMD) released 3 albums on that decade, tho. Later on, he formedAtomic Kitten

And then they were reunited in 2006/2007, because they wereasked to perform in a German TV. Then they thought, “Oh, people still like us.Maybe we could make music again.” And so they did… they released History ofModern in 2010, English Electric in 2013, and their latest record, ThePunishment of Luxury, was released a month ago! Unlike the 80s, they are nolonger pressured by their record company, so they’re really doing this purelyfor fun. By the way, their latest single off their latest record, “What Have WeDone”, is sung by Paul and it’s fucking glorious. You should listen to it ifyou haven’t

On a more personal note, I find it weird how they’re bothvery influential and infamous. I mean… they don’t only influence other synthpopbands, but also an alternative like Radiohead. I heard that “Fitter Happier” byRadiohead was influenced by “Genetic Engineering”, and now that I think aboutit, “Fitter Happier” does sound like something out of Dazzle Ships. I’ve been aRadiohead fan since 2011/2012 and yet I literally never heard of OMD until thisyear; not until I got to New Order and was getting more cultured regarding 80ssynthpop acts

Lastly, here are some trivia you might not want to know butsounds like fun to share:

Before realizing that they could be actual musicians, Andy wanted to be an archaeologist, while Paul wanted to be an electric engineer

Atomic Kitten was basically Karl Bartos’ (Kraftwerk) idea. Andy wanted to keep writing songs, but he wasn’t confident enough to perform the songs as OMD, so he thought of just handing them to someone else. Then Karl suggested that he should create a pop group where they would sing his songs. Andy thought, “What’s the most popular group nowadays? Oh, I know, 3-piece girls!”

In the recent years, OMD often have underwears thrown at them lmao. Especially during “(Forever) Live and Die”. Poor Paul having to deal with nasty fans (but honestly… I’d do the same). But sometimes they have hazardous shits thrown at them too. One time, Paul had his head hit by a glass bottle (I’LL FUCKING MURDER ANYONE WHO DID THAT. HOW DARE THEY HURT MY BABY). And Andy almost got decapitated when someone threw a metal tray aimed to his neck. Terrifying

Somehow, when they were touring, the bus they rode on resemble a group of terrorists’ bus, so they were surrounded by guns… and luckily, “Enola Gay” was already a big hit, so Andy just waved a magazine with their faces on it and said “’Enola Gay’! Pop stars! Not terrorists!” jesus Christ

There’s actually a version of “Souvenir” where it was sung by Andy. In 2015, Paul was hospitalized in New York, but he insisted that they should do this gig in Perth, so they did, only 3 of them… “Souvenir” was on the set, and Andy sang it. It was… okay, I guess. I’m so used to Paul’s soft voice singing that, so it’s kinda weird to hear Andy’s powerful voice singing it

 …I’m sorry if you expected a shortsummary and get this re-writing of OMD’s Wikipedia page instead. I never realizedhow deep I am in their ass until I answered this message with a 1600-word essayabout OMD that was based on my memory alone. Good god

I’m awfully thrilled every time someonementions OMD-related to me, so don’t hesitate if you want to talk about them tome!!