Electricity (Andy McCluskey/Paul Humphries) (3:32)ī1. Almost (Andy McCluskey/Paul Humphries) (3:39)ī1. Annex (Andy McCluskey/Paul Humphreys) (4:32)ī1.
FYI, the title alludes to annex the verb, not the noun. Generally speaking, the material on Organisation is much better than this B side would have you believe. The main melody, for example, seems to consist of two notes for much of the way, with percussive sounds layered on top. The B side in most regions was the non-album Annex, a dream-like track that’s heavy on atmosphere but doesn’t feel fully baked. Regardless of whether or not the message hit its target, “Enola Gay” is an early synthesizer classic that has aged remarkably well (the video, not so much), particularly its pioneering use of electronic drums. Although OMD’s song is clearly about the bombing of Hiroshima, the song’s romantic delivery likely meant that the its dark message flew over more than a few heads. In 1977, Ultravox released a song entitled “Hiroshima Mon Amour.” Perhaps taking their inspiration from the song, OMD released Enola Gay several years later.
It’s an odd juxtaposition, love and nuclear annihilation, until you recall that the bomber in the Hiroshima attack was named after the pilot’s mother (Enola Gay) and the bomb it dropped was called “Little Boy.” In the subsequent Nagasaki attack, the bomb was named “Fat Man.” Leave it to the land of the free and the home of the slaves to put an Oedipal twist on genocide. Hiroshima Mon Amour was the name of a 1959 film by French director Alain Resnais.
More or less “Hiroshima Mon Amour,” part deux.