"Pandora's Box" is about the actress Louise Brooks "Joan of Arc" and "Maid of Orleans" are obvious titular shout-outs to Joan of Arc (and both singles have sleeve art to match, the former even using her actual signature), though they don't seem to be about her, as such.
Although many listeners took it to be a Science Is Bad song, Word of God says it was actually celebrating the ability of science to improve our lives. Science Is Bad: Inverted in "Genetic Engineering".Rock-Star Song: "Walking On The Milky Way".In the latter song, the music drops out to further emphasise the profanity. Precision F-Strike: "Garden City", "Crush", "Pulse", and "Kiss Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Bang"."Pachelbel's Canon" Progression: "Walking On The Milky Way", virtually chord for chord.Not Christian Rock: Despite a lot of references to God, Joan of Arc, nuns, etc.The latter was subtitled " (It's A Long, Long Way)" in the USA. Non-Appearing Title: Their two joint highest-charting UK hits (reaching number 3) both have non-appearing titles: "Souvenir" and "Pandora's Box".New Sound Album / Lighter and Softer: After the panning given to the dark and angsty Dazzle Ships, the band responded by making Junk Culture, an album of jolly pop songs (retaining a relatively experimental appeal OMD was known for at that point)."Red Frame/White Light" is an awesome hard-hitting number about."Stanlow", an absolutely majestic song about."Dreaming" is a poppy song about a person who is really disillusioned with his/her feelings for someone who refuses to commit to them."Love and violence", and "White Trash", are both songs depicting domestic abuse, with the latter being a rather chilling take on the matter.Guess what "Dresden" is an upbeat pop song about? Close - it's a broken relationship song, but with a lot of fire-related lyrics, and a clear nod to "Enola" musically. "Enola Gay", an upbeat song about the bombing of Hiroshima.Lyrical Dissonance: Quite a few, as much of the band's material borders political and sensitive issues altogether.Lead Bassist: Andy McCluskey is the bassist and lead vocalist.Last Note Nightmare: "Georgia", which ends with a loud "bang"."I Want" Song: "Atomic Ranch" is the creepiest one you will ever hear.I Am the Band: Andy McCluskey for Sugar Tax.Green Aesop: "Electricity" advocates the use of solar power.Genre Roulette: Not usually, but Crush is all over the place in stylistic terms, with everything from straight synthpop ("Secret"), to rock ("88 Seconds in Greensboro") to avant-garde ("Crush"), to Baroque Pop ("La Femme Accident") to the weird pop + rockabilly + horn section mash-up seen in Junk Culture ("Bloc Bloc Bloc").Fix It in Post: On the Electricity live DVD, Andy jokes that they'll do this after he forgets the lyrics during "Talking Loud and Clear".Cover Version: Velvet Underground's "Waiting For The Man".After a bit of a hiatus, during which McCluskey masterminded the early hits of Atomic Kitten, among other things, the classic lineup reformed and has toured and recorded new material to some acclaim. They split in the late '80s, with Face of the Band McCluskey retaining the name and releasing three more albums, which were actually reasonably successful, while the rest of the former members formed issued one, not so successful, album as The Listening Pool. The record company had a little word with them, and subsequent albums were entirely written to the hit formula. Their fourth just had the weird stuff with no hits. Their first three albums were filled with very intellectual stuff but had one or two hit singles each, keeping the record company happy ( very happy with Architecture and Morality, which was an international hit album and spawned three hit singles, two about Joan of Arc). Their real fondness was for bands like Kraftwerk and Neu!. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (often abbreviated to OMD) are a Synthpop group formed in the Wirral, UK, in the mid-'70s by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys.