As an eighties kid, synth pop has been pumping in my blood ever since that first day I turned on my MTV. There’s some debate as to who’s considered a synth pop band and who isn’t. For this September Music Twitter challenge – #SynthPopSeptember – I’m focusing more on what’s considered synth pop, not who. The songs I’m featuring on Mental Jukebox this month aren’t solely composed of synthesizers. There may be drums, bass, and dare I say, electric guitars. But each of these songs were picked because the synthesizer is core to its being.
OMD will forever be known as a John Hughes-era music staple. They penned one of the most famous 80s movie soundtrack songs, “If You Leave”, and topped it off with plenty more standout tracks like “Dreaming”, “Forever (Live and Die)” and “Secret”. But I think all that Brat Pack-fueled success almost did a disservice to the band. It overshadowed what they accomplished artistically in their first three albums, including Architecture & Morality, a vastly underrated album which contains a fantastic single called “Souvenir”.
Some of the best songs are the ones that envelope us into the ether. They transport us. Anywhere, but where our physical bodies may be. While few people would classify OMD as a post punk band, what they were doing on “Souvenir” was very post-punk in their mentality. The instrumentation was much more nuanced and layered in various synth sounds. And the song conjured up multiple emotional states, including euphoria, indifference and sadness, all in under four minutes. Structurally, it was anything but obvious, substituting a vocal chorus with the signature synth hook.
“My obsession. It's my creation. You'll understand. It's not important now.”