OMD have announced their first studio album in six years – and hinted that it may well be their final musical statement.
Released on 27 October, Bauhaus Staircase will be the long-awaited follow-up to 2017’s hit LP The Punishment Of Luxury.
Promotion for the new album kicked off via an animated video of its title track, a nod to frontman Andy McCluskey’s love of the Bauhaus era and protest art. “I’m a huge lover of visual arts, especially mid-20th century movements,” explains Andy. “The song is a metaphor for strength and artist passion in the face of criticism and adversity. When times are hard, there is a tendency for Governments to look at cutting funding for creativity, just at the moment when the arts are most needed to nourish our souls. It seems appropriate that the song and its eponymous album were created during Covid lockdown.”
The band’s most explicitly political album to date, McCluskey admits that Bauhaus Staircase was kickstarted, at least in part, due to inactivity during lockdown: “I rediscovered the creative power of total boredom,” he offers.
Predominantly written, recorded, and mixed by both McCluskey and Paul Humphreys – who has recently become a second-time father – Bauhaus Staircase’s other main external influence was David Watts. Mainly known as a producer who helmed Sheffield band The Reytons’ recent UK No.1 album What’s Rock And Roll?, he’s mixed two tracks on the new OMD record.
Ranging from the film noir ballad Veruschka to Anthropocene – a term for the current epoch in Earth’s evolution – to the sinister Evolution Of Species and hectic straight-up protest song Kleptocracy, the new album tackles the topics of the future head on.
The record closes with the reflective Healing, a rare OMD co-write, with lyrics provided by McCluskey’s friend, Liverpool singer-songwriter Caroline England.
“I’m very happy with what we’ve done on this record,” McCluskey adds. “I’m comfortable if this is OMD’s last statement.”
● Turn to pages 42-46 for our Album By Album guide to OMD’s back catalogue
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