One record at a time: 344. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - The Punishment of Luxury

Here we have the box set of "The Punishment of Luxury" that featured an exclusive transparent red LP alongside a couple of CDs and a DVD. 

By the time this album came around in 2017 it felt like OMD had settled into a natural cadence of releasing and touring new material every 3-4 years. Since reforming in 2006 the band had also begun to move to an increasingly electronic sound and this record moves us a step further down that road.

If I had to guess I would say that Paul and Andy's favourite Kraftwerk album is "The Man Machine" as this record borrows from every motif, riff and beat on that seminal masterpiece. In fact, you could argue that OMD were carrying the flag for the Düsseldorf electro pioneers at this point as they were the only artists left producing pure electro-pop with commercial appeal.

The title track that opens proceedings is an attack on the vacuous pop culture and social media nonsense some people seem to fill their lives with. The second song "Isotype" is quite different lyrically as it is an ode to the International System of Typographic Picture Education, but both tracks are firmly rooted in the same electronic soil. The magnificent "What Have We Done" is less charged and makes for a nice change of pace, but you can still hear the electronic sensibilities straining to burst out. Honourable mentions must also go to "The View From Here" and the marvellous "One More Time" which are great songs with clear and precise production.

Aside from these highlights there is a series of shorter and largely instrumental tracks that tackle subjects such as art history, machine guns and industrialisation. There's an unexpected expletive amongst the synths of  "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" and only "Robot Man" stands out for all the wrong reasons.

This is a record of almost unadulterated synth heaven where only the occasional blast of bass guitar is allowed to peek through the digital sheen. Whilst this sleek version of Kraftwerk does sound very good, it is a step away from the traditional sound of OMD. As much as I love the electronic nature of this music, it might have benefited from being dialled back a tiny bit to reveal some of the grit below the surface.  4/5