Great Songs from My Favorite Year in Music: 1985, Part 22

OMD - "So in Love"



(Single Release: May 1985)

Not to sound like Billy Joel, but call it post-punk, new wave, 80s pop, synthpop, dance, or what have you, but 1985 opened up my ears to an entire wave of new bands. If I could sum up succinctly why 1985 is so important to me, its because I was introduced to more great music in that year than in almost any other. The dam had burst and the musical flood had overtaken me. OMD was one of those bands. Crush, the duo's sixth album, was their big breakthrough, and "So In Love" their big hit single, only to later be eclipsed by the big ballad from Pretty in Pink, "If You Leave." And, as all great bands and songs with a catalog are capable of, they sent me back into the past to unearth even more musical treasure. "So In Love" opened the door to other amazing tracks such as "Electricity," "Enola Gay," "Tesla Girls," "Talking Loud and Clear," "Joan of Arc," and probably my favorite, "Souvenir." I've been trying to pinpoint what it is I like about OMD. I wondered if it had something to do with the Depeche Mode-like dynamic of the deep voice and the falsetto, though with OMD they both emanate from the same person. I wondered if it had something to do (no DM pun intended) with the nostalgia of bus rides to junior high basketball games, singing their songs with a good friend. I wondered if it had something to do with middle school crushes and wanting to emulate the romanticism within their songs. In the end, I think they just created great music that still holds up today.