NOTES

This reissue differs from the original release in several ways: the new catalogue number is featured on the spine of the shell, the inner flap (which also now features a barcode) and also the cassette itself. The cassette is also black (the original release is white).

'The New Stone Age' was a radical departure from what people would expect from OMD with its use of guitars. The band were hoping people would take the record back to shops convinced it wasn't OMD!

'She's Leaving' had a troubled history: the song had been written in January 1981 - and tried out on tour in Canada and France. But the band's attempts to record it resulted in them getting bored very quickly. It was only when they discovered an old version recorded at The Gramophone Suite that they tried again. Recording at The Manor, they slowed it down and made it a bit simpler. This song was suggested as the fourth release by DinDisc but the band disagreed, concerned that they were exploiting the album.

'Souvenir' was the first single released from the album and is the first OMD single that features Paul Humphreys on lead vocals.

'Sealand' takes its title from a RAF base on the Wirral. Although the song isn't about the location itself, Andy was struck by the visual strength of the name, which seemed to conjure up a striking image of a place between the land and the sea.

'Joan Of Arc' was the second single from the album.

'Joan Of Arc (Maid Of Orleans)' was the third single from the album.

'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" OMD Newsletter 1981.

The band had written a song called 'Georgia' for the album but decided they weren't happy with the result and decided to shelf the song. They were happy with the title however and wrote a new song that they decided to name 'Georgia'. The original 'Georgia' was dusted down in 1988 and renamed 'Gravity Never Failed' which featured as a B-side to the single 'Dreaming'.

'The Beginning And The End' was an old song dating from Andy and Paul's VCLXI days. Back then, the band had problems in getting it to sound right and they remarked in an issue of the OMD Newsletter that the version used on the album was "quite successful" but that perhaps they would do it again differently in the future.

TRIVIA

The album title was suggested by Martha Ladly (of fellow DinDisc act Martha & The Muffins) after a book by David Watkins called Morality And Architecture. Ladly had originally thought of using the title for her solo album.