The new album by OMD is not so much the next stage of the band (although it is, I hope) as it is a musical celebration of what OMD has accomplished over the decades during their high points. The mis-sequenced "History of Modern" (parts I & II) is as close as you'll get to the band's wondrous early start as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark on a newer album than those classics. It serves us as fans in several ways. The first is that it allows us to enjoy classic iterations of a great band who can still push out gems that haven't departed too far from the music that endeared us to them in the first place. The second is that this is the kind of music that younger audiences are now listening to for obvious reasons. With the original band still delivering a classic sound, it can be highly influential to a new era of musicians.

But History of Modern doesn't start out in a bad way, despite what thoughts you may have derived from my previous statement on sequencing. It begins with "New Babies: New Toys", a title that hints at a band reborn. THIS is the song that I would have followed "History of Modern" with because of its evolutionary sound, where OMD is getting to. It is a hybrid of '80s OMD splattered with a new sensibility that updates OMD to the new age of music by mixing in rave-like dance music.

The opening track is followed by "If You Want It" (which precedes "History of Modern") in absolutely new, but delightful, OMD. We've covered a lot of musical ground here and yet we've only covered the first 4 songs off this new effort. OMD continues to play with styles and sounds throughout this magnificent album that should have you in giddy fits. This is what fans have wanted from OMD for decades after their departure and we now have it in History of Modern.

Further on, "RFWK," "New Holy Ground," "Sister Marie Says," "Green," a brilliant "The Right Side?", and a handful of newer sounding OMD (some with spectacular sampling, especially Aretha Franklin's vocals on "Save Me" from her song of the same name) round out a grand scale album. If you enjoyed OMD in any of their evolutionary processes, you'll love History of Modern.