The Pacific Age is the seventh studio album by English electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), released on 29 September 1986 by Virgin Records.

Working under increasing record label pressure and weathering a creative drought, the band committed each new song to the album with limited deliberation.

[4] Afforded only two months to write a record, the band continued their focus on breaking the US market with more accessible pop material, while restricting the experimental tendencies of their earlier work.

"Goddess of Love" was the group's original contribution to Pretty in Pink, but a rewrite of the film's climax rendered the track unsuitable (hence the creation of "If You Leave").

[8] One older track, "Southern" (which sampled Martin Luther King Jr.'s final speech in 1968), was included after failing to make the cut for Crush.

Humphreys recalled trying to compose satisfactory material amid a creative drought, saying, "It felt incredibly rushed... we'd run out of ideas; there were no songs left in the well.

However, Saville's later successes in designing covers for major acts like Peter Gabriel, the Rolling Stones and Wham!, had pushed his asking price beyond OMD's budget.

"[19] Smash Hits journalist Nick Kelly observed only "a couple of subversive melodies" among a "morass of passionless synth-rock ditties" and "characterless elevator 'musak'.

[18] Los Angeles Times critic Steve Pond deemed the album to be "bloated" with "unnecessary pomp", and suggested that OMD find "a middle ground between what it used to be and what it's become".

[23] Michael T. Lyttle of the Austin American-Statesman called the record "confusing and disappointing", adding that "[Stephen] Hague's labor on The Pacific Age can't bail out sub-par material.

"[24] On the other hand, Winnipeg Free Press journalist Glen Gore-Smith found OMD to be "in fine form... adding low-tech elements to its sound, while maintaining the exquisite precision of its ethereal synthpop style.

"[1] Tom Lanham of the San Francisco Examiner identified the album as OMD's most cohesive since Architecture & Morality (1981), observing an "almost magical" rapport between McCluskey and Humphreys.

"[25] In a retrospective review, Trouser Press described The Pacific Age as "tiresomely ponderous and self-important", concluding, "Except for the smoothly contrived hit '(Forever) Live and Die' and the catchy 'We Love You', this dilettantish mess is less a set of songs than a meaningless collection of sounds.

"[26] Classic Pop's Mark Lindores said, "The Pacific Age all but wipes out OMD's original identity, stripping it of everything that made them unique – an unfortunate turn of events for an act that previously had been ahead of the curve... As an album closer, 'Watch Us Fall' could not have been more apt.

These issues preceded a line-up split in the late 1980s; co-founder Humphreys would not appear on another OMD studio album until the group's post-reunion release, History of Modern (2010).

[36] McCluskey discussed the album in the 2014 book, Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s: "The Pacific Age is our musical nadir.