Dazzle Ships is the fourth studio album by English electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), released on 4 March 1983 by Virgin Records (under the guise of the fictitious Telegraph label).

The follow-up album to OMD's commercially successful Architecture & Morality (1981), Dazzle Ships marked a departure in sound for the group, who contended with writer's block and record company pressure to duplicate their previous release.

The album is noted for its experimental content, particularly musique concrète sound collages, and the use of shortwave radio recordings to explore Cold War and Eastern Bloc themes.

The music press gradually reversed its opinion of Dazzle Ships, praising the record as an underrated and misunderstood work, and an album ahead of its time.

In the year following the release of commercially successful predecessor Architecture & Morality (1981), co-founder and keyboardist Paul Humphreys had married, and he and singer Andy McCluskey were growing apart.

[1] Paradoxically, in light of the eventual critical reaction to Dazzle Ships, the more experimental direction taken on the record was partly a response to muted reviews of Architecture & Morality, which "forced [OMD] into new areas".

[1] They elected to exhume "Of All the Things We've Made" for inclusion, feeling it had been squandered as a B-side, and resurrected "Radio Waves", a holdover from OMD precursor group the Id (this track was considered as a single).

[10] As such, they used shortwave radio recordings to explore Cold War and Eastern Bloc themes, while oscillating between moody pop music and experimental, musique concrète soundscapes.

[4] The record also explores the pros and cons of the rise of technology in society;[13][14] "ABC Auto-Industry" attempts to recreate "the monotony of production line car manufacture".

The cover art was created by longtime OMD collaborator Peter Saville;[4] Dazzle-ships in Drydock at Liverpool, the painting which inspired the album's title and artwork, is in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

[31] Record Mirror's Jim Reid observed a "nightmarish" album "replete with the worst kind of futuristic nonsense",[25] while John Gill of Time Out labelled it "redundant avant-garde trickery".

[1] Sun Times critic Michael Lawson dismissed the record's experimental content as filler, adding that "too much attention [is] given to soundtrack-like effects that only clutter what decent electropop baubles there are here.

"[32] There were sporadic appeals for listener perseverance: Paul Colbert of Melody Maker portrayed the album as "a challenge and a reward",[33] while Smash Hits reviewer Johnny Black argued that "the songs are waiting to be found and are as melodic, passionate and vital as ever.

"[34] During the 2000s it was endorsed by Mojo as a "buried treasure" and an "ignored masterwork",[35] while Ned Raggett of AllMusic wrote that the "dazzling" record "beats Kraftwerk at their own game, science and the future turned into surprisingly warm, evocative songs.

[37][38] Tom Ewing of Pitchfork wrote, "Luckily, you don't need a contrarian streak to love it... history has done its own remix job on Dazzle Ships, and the result is a richer, more unified album than anyone in 1983 could have imagined.

"[7] In a five-star review, Record Collector's Daryl Easlea observed "consistently eccentric" and "dark and detailed" content, calling the album "a weirdly satisfying listen".

[24] Luke Turner of The Quietus said that it "stands the test of time as a heroic statement", and represents "a fine realisation of that desire to be both pop and important that OMD first hinted at with 'Enola Gay' and 'Electricity'.

"[39] In a later review, Uncut's Stephen Dalton referred to a "bold fusion of politically slanted electro ballads, sampled radio dialogue, musique concrète and otherwordly sound effects", hailing the album as a "brave experimental swerve" that has been "rightly recognised as a lost masterpiece of forward-thinking avant-pop.

[b] Dazzle Ships inspired much of Death Cab for Cutie's Codes and Keys (2011), and was described by the band's former guitarist, Chris Walla, as the record that "everyone points to as [OMD's] magnum opus".

[66] Elsewhere, Dazzle Ships has been influential on record producers:[64] Moby observed a "beautiful, experimental, inspiring" album, while Mark Ronson asserted, "I was just completely floored...

The indie groups Another Sunny Day and Eggs released cover versions of "Genetic Engineering" (as 1989 and 1994 singles, respectively), with the latter's artwork being inspired by Dazzle Ships' inner sleeve; journalist Stuart Huggett saw both recordings as helpful to the album's "survival".

"[71] A number of rap musicians have drawn from the album:[64] Kid Cudi sampled "ABC Auto-Industry" on his track "Simple As..." (2009),[20] while Lushlife recorded a 2012 cover of "The Romance of the Telescope".

"[75][76] The record has received further endorsements from Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg,[77] Amanda "MNDR" Warner,[68] Terre Thaemlitz,[78] physicist/musician Brian Cox,[79] and novelist/visual artist Douglas Coupland, who called it "amazing" and one of his 12 "must-have" albums.

In terms of instrumentation, Dazzle Ships saw the band begin to explore digital sampling keyboards (the E-mu Emulator) in addition to their continued use of analogue synthesizers and the Mellotron.