Comments
Architecture & Morality met with a lukewarm critical response.[28] Lynden Barber of Melody Maker wrote, "I don't believe the Orchs even care about this record... the style is the same, the content profoundly different, the onslaught of emptiness, frivolity disguised by furrowed brows, a new brand of meaninglessness."[29] Boston Phoenix journalist M. Howell said the record "gives off the dry stench of self-importance" and would have been more aptly titled "Mortician & Morality".[30] Brad Scharff of The Cavalier Daily observed a "flawed album" that occasionally lapses into "tedium", but had praise for much of the arranging and vocal work, concluding that "the positive aspects certainly outweigh its faults".[31] Record Mirror's Daniela Soave cautioned that the album "requires more effort on the listener's part", adding, "Although I had misgivings initially, Architecture & Morality is no disappointment."[24]
Other critics were unapologetically favourable. Dave McCullough of Sounds gave a five-star review in which he referred to Architecture & Morality as OMD's "best album yet" and a "classic in the making",[27] while the Belfast Telegraph's Jim Cusack called it an "excellent album" by a band with "higher interests and concepts in music than most others of their genre."[32] The Evening Express stated, "'Souvenir' and the beautiful 'Joan of Arc' are obvious standouts but really any seven of the nine tracks are potential hits."[33] Architecture & Morality was included in Billboard's "Recommended LPs".[34]
"We didn't think it got the respect it deserved", said McCluskey in 1983. "We put a lot into it and we really loved it... anything which undermines our own unstable balance creates a problem for us."[35] Sean O'Neal of The A.V. Club told how OMD responded to lacklustre reviews of the album by "pursu[ing] a darker, more defiantly experimental direction on its 1983 follow-up, Dazzle Ships—only to have the critics belatedly declare [Architecture & Morality] a masterpiece."[28] In particular, a 1984 article in Melody Maker offset the magazine's unflattering contemporary review, with Helen Fitzgerald labelling the record "the first true masterpiece of the Eighties."[36]
