is Architecture and Morality a pretentious album title?

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I mean we know it's not a great album, musically, but...

― Aaron A., Sunday, 24 July 2005 22:20 (twenty years ago)

yes

― Clay (cws), Sunday, 24 July 2005 23:16 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah.

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Sunday, 24 July 2005 23:22 (twenty years ago)

It is, but... nothing I couldn't see Malkmus using.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Sunday, 24 July 2005 23:51 (twenty years ago)

yes it is. sounds like a paul virilio essay. though his might be 'architecture and post-morality.'

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 24 July 2005 23:52 (twenty years ago)

worst album title, bush, "the science of things"

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 24 July 2005 23:52 (twenty years ago)

Oh no no, Standing On the SHOULDER Of Giants

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Sunday, 24 July 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

Has Gwen ditched that doof yet? xpost

― Tumililingan (ex machina), Sunday, 24 July 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

I'll take a pretentious title over something bland, daft, and meaningless like Razorblade Suitcase anyday.

― Kitten, the body needs it, the body cries out for Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Ma, Monday, 25 July 2005 00:58 (twenty years ago)

Quite right Kitten. Architecture & Morality has a nice ring to it anyway - good rhythm, nice combination of consonants and vowels.

― Stew (stew s), Monday, 25 July 2005 01:19 (twenty years ago)

Pretentious in the Reynoldsian connotation, I guess.

Possibly favourite album of 1981. Top 5, certainly.

― I.M. (I.M.), Monday, 25 July 2005 01:24 (twenty years ago)

Indeed. I think it sounds like the title of a potential Situationist pamphlet, anyway -- something they might have written about New Babylon, on a society that would be focused on indulging in creative play.

― Kitten, the body needs it, the body cries out for Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Ma, Monday, 25 July 2005 01:25 (twenty years ago)

Though, it could've been the title of some Corbusier nonsense. . .

― I.M. (I.M.), Monday, 25 July 2005 01:26 (twenty years ago)

are you dismissing a/the Reynoldsian connotation? And if so, what connotation do you embrace (which presumably Art and Architecture as an album title does not satisfy?)? 2xp

― Aaron A., Monday, 25 July 2005 01:28 (twenty years ago)

oh stop it. brilliant fucking album, title included.

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 25 July 2005 01:29 (twenty years ago)

I agree cutty, the title was cribbed from some book and was suggested by Martha of Martha & The Muffins who were OMD's labelmates at the time.

And the artwork was great too, backdafuckup.

― mzui (mzui), Monday, 25 July 2005 03:44 (twenty years ago)

Seriously.

Great album.

― Pete Baumann, Monday, 25 July 2005 14:46 (twenty years ago)

I mean we know it's not a great album, musically...

Oh, "We know", do we....?

It's a fucking great album!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Monday, 25 July 2005 14:52 (twenty years ago)

But neither architecture nor morality are even properly discussed on the record, making the title not so much pretentious as just plain wrong.

― Robin Wilks, Monday, 25 July 2005 18:15 (twenty years ago)

actually they were talking about the record sleeve, which has architecture on the front, and a picture of their moral selves on the back.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 25 July 2005 18:19 (twenty years ago)

of course it's pretentious. like "orchestral manoeuvres in the dark" isn't? and, er, what's wrong with being pretentious anyway? :)

plus: it's an astonishing album (although not a patch on dazzle ships).

andy mccluskey on the song "architecture and morality":

"We wrote the whole thing in the Manor Studio in three days. We decided to call it Architecture And Morality and then proceeded to throw onto tape everything 'architectural' and 'moral' that we could think of. Over the three days we gradually added and subtracted all manner of sounds until we had made something from all the noises"

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 25 July 2005 21:30 (twenty years ago)

As architectural conceits go, it is probably a more balanced position to be in than wobbling on the one shoulder of several giants.

― moley, Monday, 25 July 2005 21:37 (twenty years ago)

I mean we know it's not a great album, musically, but...

Whoa, missed the "not" in this phrase. If you don't like this album, then you just don't like intelligent electronics-tinged pop.

Though, weirdly, some of the b-sides of the era (the two best of which later found their way to 'Dazzle Ships') have started to top the album, for me. "Of All the Things We've Made," "Romance of the Telescope," "Sacred Heart," all brilliant.

Your loss.

― I.M. (I.M.), Monday, 25 July 2005 22:05 (twenty years ago)

romance of the telescope is so sample-able!

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 25 July 2005 22:06 (twenty years ago)

yes, apparently suggested to OMD via Martha Ladly of Martha & The Muffins (they were labelmates)

― SoHoLa (SoHoLa), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 03:11 (twenty years ago)

hearing "the romance of the telescope" for the first time changed my life. i'm not joking. it was like ... i don't know, like something switched on, or maybe even off, in my brain. even now i find it difficult to listen to. it has some kind of weird synaesthesic effect on me: it becomes a strange, enveloping red-green mist.

hmm. i'm going to stop now.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 17:44 (twenty years ago)

That mellowtron on the first track... Wooshhhhhhh

― Jay Watts III (jaywatts), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:07 (twenty years ago)

All albums should be named for their first single. There, problem solved.

― Rob Upt1ght, Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:27 (twenty years ago)

The Beatles Hey Jude

― Jay Watts III (jaywatts), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

Aaron A. = Tim Ellison ?

― Stormy Davis, Thursday, 2 August 2007 03:05 (eighteen years ago)

haha

― Curt1s Stephens, Thursday, 2 August 2007 03:25 (eighteen years ago)

weird...

― scott seward, Thursday, 2 August 2007 03:25 (eighteen years ago)

Dazzle Ships is a better title. They should have used that instead.

― Bill in Chicago, Thursday, 2 August 2007 22:14 (eighteen years ago)

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