In 1985, OMD finally managed to gain a foothold in the American Top 40 with their single “So In Love,” which matched the Top 30 performance of the song in the UK charts almost to a number. Number 27 in the UK and 26 [!] in the US. I enthusiastically bought the album on CD in 1985. But as with many favorite acts, I felt that it was a weak showing on the new CD format from a formerly top ranked band I loved, and I grew disenchanted with it and my opinion of it ebbed over the decades.

But when I listened…hard, to the OMD canon for the Rock G.P.A. thread it swapped positions with “The Pacific Age” which I had liked better for many years. Hearing it freshly after a long period, I was surprised to find that I felt that the ratio of wheat to chaff had changed over time and my esteem for “Crush” rose a few points.

When the band finally relented and planned an expanded issue that many fans [particularly the US ones, for which this had been their point of entry with OMD] had been clamoring for, I found myself much more interested in the effort than I would have been, let’s say, twenty years earlier. What I think of the album hasn’t changed since I covered it here. So let’s turn the spotlight on to the reason why we purchased a second copy of the album; the bonus material on disc two.

OMD: Crush DLX RM – UK – 2xCD [2025]

CD 1 – 1985 album

1. So In Love
2. Secret
3. Bloc Bloc Bloc
4. Women III
5. Crush
6. 88 Seconds In Greensboro
7. The Native Daughters Of The Golden West
8. La Femme Accident
9. Hold You
10. The Lights Are Going Out

CD 2 – singles + rarities

1. Wheels of Steel
2. Lana Turner v.1
3. Hold You (Rough)
4. Choral
5. Lana Turner v.2
6. Drift (Demo)
7. All or Nothing (Demo)
8. Concrete Hands
9. Firegun [extended version]
10. Maria Gallante
11. Drift
12. Secret (Version Remix)
13. So In Love (Special American Dance Remix)
14. So In Love (Extended)
15. La Femme Accident (12″ Mix)
16. Concrete Hands (Extended)

The main Monk-bait here were the previously unreleased tracks one through seven on the second disc. The unreleased tracks on the “Souvenir” boxed set were surprisingly good. The remaining nine tracks technically resided int he Record Cell on one various single or another for 40 years, but that was only in theory, as we shall see. The unreleased tracks were taken from the multitracks for the album and recently mixed by Paul Humphreys.

“Wheels Of Steel” was already legendary for being the start point to a song that eventually got released a quarter century later as “The Future, The Past, And Forever After.” I had expected more connective tissue than what we got here, as only the train rhythms of the drum track and the title phrase were common between the tracks. This was a compelling track though. I liked it’s elegance and poise better than much of “Crush” but the band and producer thought otherwise.

There were two versions here of the song “Lana Turner!” Andy claimed to have heard a band opening up for a show in the Liverpool Stadium called Burlesque, perform a song called “Lana Turner” and became smitten with the idea of revisiting that to the point of taking the existing song [not very good, from the band’s 1977 live album “Acupuncture”] and running with it. Or most likely, hobbling with it.

The melody is similar as was the titular focus of the song, and a few of the lyrics remained in place. But hearing the first, better, version here, the best that could be said for it was that it played like a lost cut from the “Junk Culture” album. They were using the same Synclavier steel drum and bass samples as on that earlier album, but I would deem the effort for naught.

Shockingly, McCluskey revealed in the liner notes that he gave it to Murray Head to record and “Lana Turner” ended up as a cassette bonus track on the Canadian edition of Head’s 1987 “Sooner Or Later” album! The less said about version two the better. Suffice to say replacing the steel drum sample with one fingered piano and tremolo guitar only ended up taking the track down the path to Chas + Dave territory! Oh dear.

Much better was “Hold You [Rough]” wherein my least favorite track from “Crush” got the synths removed completely for something close to jazz where the live drums and piano made the vibe much more humane than the cold-blooded professionalism of the same song on “Crush.” The lyrics here were the only straightforward love song from the McCluskey pen, and he regretted listening to producer Stephen Hague and re-writing it into the [very typical for him] embittered love song I know and dread. I never would have imagined any version of this song working for me, but I had to admit, that the lack of slick sax and synths made a huge difference in vibe here that I responded positively to.

The intro to “Choral” featured a familiar sample fans of “Goddess Of Love” would recognize. It was the result of the band building a collage up of Fairlight samples and trying to hammer it into a song structure. I liked the slightly portentous vibe and the darkness would have been a good addition to the “Crush” program, but they never finished it off. Until now. It’s at least strong B-side material.

The demo of the instrumental “Drift” [“Secret” B-side] sounded very much like the final version, though its length here was about half of that of the final version. It’s still a great glimpse of Paul Humphreys and Martin Cooper coming up with a strong instrumental. Finally, “All Or Nothing” was another brief instrumental that had originally been recorded on the “Junk Culture” sessions and revisited at the time of “Crush.” It had previously been issued on the 2015 DLX RM of “Junk Culture” and the version here was sans vocals and with a more sprightly tempo, which I think helped the song.

Next: …Not The Same As It Ever Was