CD Odyssey Disc 1392: Eurythmics

This next band was one of the few “pop” bands that it was OK to like if you were a metalhead in the eighties. We slagged Michael Jackson, and we slagged Madonna. Hell, we even slagged U2. But we didn’t slag the Eurythmics. They were just too cool.

Disc 1392 is…. Sweet Dreams Are Made of This…

Artist: Eurythmics

Year of Release: 1983

What’s up with the Cover? This is a very uninspiring album cover. That tiny picture of a masked Annie Lennox holding the heart in a gloved hand – that should be the album cover, not whatever is up with all the various sized bars of colour.

How I Came To Know It: This album was pretty huge when I was a teenager, so that was my original exposure. Sheila owned it for years on tape and probably bought it on CD in those early days before my CD buying habits swamped hers like a tsunami. Or maybe I bought it for her, sweet guy that I am.

How It Stacks Up: I have five Eurythmics albums. I had six, but I got rid of “Be Yourself Tonight” after I reviewed it back at Disc 719. That was March, 2015…feels so long ago…

But I digress. “Sweet Dreams” is the best of the lot. Number one! As this is my final Eurythmics review, here is a recap:

1. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This): 5 stars (reviewed right here)
2. Savage: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 222)
3. We Too Are One: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 543)
4. Revenge:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 118)
5. Touch: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 570)
6. Be Yourself Tonight: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 719)

Ratings: 5 stars

When I first heard this record back in the eighties, I remember thinking how it was unlike anything else I’d ever heard before. “Sweet Dreams” has elements of New Wave, soul, rock, jazz, and techno but it is something altogether its own. Listening to it almost forty years later it still sounds as fresh and innovative as the day the Eurythmics released it. They would go on to make many wonderful records (see albums 1-5 above) but for my money, their signature achievement is “Sweet Dreams”.

From the opening fuzzed out synths and drum beat of “Love is a Stranger”, this record warns you it is going to ride an edge of nervous excitement. Against this backdrop of throbbing artificiality, Annie Lennox’s voice floats in sweet and strong; a balm against the angular cut of the rest of the production and arrangement. The Eurythmics would have gotten famous on the strength of Lennox’s voice alone, but by combining it with so much modern effect they created something greater. Love is a stranger, but it is a stranger you hope will meet you on a train, wearing just an overcoat and hat.

Much of the album is an exploration of mood. “Jennifer” with her green eyes, and dress of deepest purple, is a romantic mystery that remains absent and unsolved. The album’s masterpiece title track, “Sweet Dreams” oozes sex; the kind that finds its wellspring in the mind, and then slips out into the world. Hearing the synth-driven urgency, you can practically see the milling throng on a busy city street, each with their own secret desires, finally given voice by Lennox. Both “Sweet Dreams” and “Jennifer” that not only express longing, but also show the many faces longing can have.

Even when they play it straight, like the funky “Wrap It Up”, the syncopation and arrangement adds an element of unearthliness that pushes the song to a new level. “Wrap It Up” also features Dave Stewart laying down some sweet guitar licks, as if to show he could do that on every song, if he weren’t too busy making things appealing in more interesting ways.

While the record has an upbeat vibe, the Eurythmics take to their chosen topics seriously. Lennox falls into the pocket of every song and emerges personifying the emotion or character being highlighted. On “Somebody Told Me” the song is menacing and accusatory, as a woman confronts her unfaithful lover. Lennox sounds equal parts hurt and angry, and the fuzzy riff and insistent bass drum underscore her cocktail of disappointment.

It's not easy to use all that production and layered sound and not come off sounding artificial. The Eurythmics do it by transcending that artificiality, finding the perfect tension between our hearts and our heads, then building beautiful music there.

Best tracks: They are all good, but I particularly like: Love is a Stranger, Wrap It Up, I Could Give You (A Mirror), Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Jennifer, Somebody Told Me

CD Odyssey Disc 719: Eurythmics

Another long delay in getting my latest post up, but only because I’ve been in Vancouver shopping for shoes! This past weekend was my and Sheila’s 18^th wedding anniversary! How time flies when you are having fun.

Disc 719 is…. Be Yourself Tonight

Artist: Eurythmics

Year of Release: 1985

What’s up with the Cover? It is an out of focus and overexposed picture of Annie Lennox, not unlike the music on this record.

How I Came To Know It: In the last ten years I have been fleshing out my Eurythmics collection (and junking my compilation album in the process). The last two I was missing were this one and “In the Garden.” A Youtube listen told me that “In the Garden” wasn’t worth the trouble, but I still decided to give this one a go.

How It Stacks Up:  I have six Eurythmics albums. Of those six, “Be Yourself Tonight” is most definitely in last place.

Rating: 2 stars

When I was in Vancouver I had the chance to hang out with my friend Anthony. In addition to being a great guy, Anthony is a saxophone player, so over dinner I asked him what he thought of saxophone in popular music.

Like me, Tony is not a fan of the proliferation of the bad saxophone wrecking so many songs, particularly in the eighties. Clarence Clemons got a well-deserved pass. Martin Dobson, the saxophonist on “Be Yourself Tonight” did not.

It isn’t Martin’s fault, mind you. This album features lots of greats (Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, Elvis Costello and of course, the inimitable Ms. Annie Lennox herself). None of this – not even Annie herself – can save it from itself.

“Be Yourself Tonight” occupies an awkward place between the delightful weirdness of “Touch” and “Sweet Dreams” and the later more polished sound of “ “Savage” and “We Too Are One” but rather than serving as a delightful pivot point – as “1986’s Revenge” does – it feels adrift and apart from their body of work.

The album is heavily influenced by American soul music, and I felt like the Eurythmics must have grown up listening to David Bowie’s “Young Americans” as well. “Young Americans” has some great tracks, but is otherwise a pretty uneven record. “Be Yourself Tonight” is similar, but without the great tracks.

The eighties production that usually serves Lennox’s partner-in-crime David Stewart so well abandons him here. When he throws in computer generated synth it feels out of place, and when he doesn’t the songs lose their energy in a morass of pseudo-R&B riffs that never develop into anything.

Annie Lennox has one of the great voices in the history of music, and this material should suit her (everything else does). Instead, it doesn’t let her fully emote. Where other Eurythmics albums are full of songs that are rippling undertows of mood, “Be Yourself Tonight” feels more like a jam session where everyone is too sober to groove.

The better songs all had me thinking of songs from other albums I liked better. “Would I Lie To You” is a raucous good time, but it mostly had me wishing I could listen to “Missionary Man” or “I Need a Man” instead.

“It’s Alright (Baby’s Coming Back)” is one of the album’s better songs, but for relationship trouble songs I would prefer to listen to “Don’t Ask Me Why” or “You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart.” What kind of person doesn’t care where her baby’s been? I think that guy should have got the “chill in the heart” treatment followed by the “I don’t love you anymore” curb kick. I like my Annie Lennox tough and sexy, and a little bit mad in both senses of the word. You know, like on “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves” except…er…not that song. Great message but terrible song and yes, it is also on “Be Yourself Tonight.”

“I Love You Like a Ball and Chain” is promising at first, but it descends into questionable stereo effects (look – I’m in your left ear! Now I’m in your right!) Such parlour tricks should be reserved for schmaltzy Prism songs. I prefer those as well.

Despite all my negative riffing here, the songs aren’t all bad. “Conditioned Soul” has a nice relaxed groove, and apart from some weird steel drums the production lets Lennox’s voice soar pure and easy, like it is supposed to. And despite what I said about “Would I Lie to You” and “It’s Alright” are both passable when not compared to tracks on other albums I like better.

For all that I can’t hide my disappointment that an album I waited so long to get just didn’t live up to the expectations set by the other five in my collection. I still love the Eurythmics – five albums and my other reviews should make that clear – but it’ll take an intervention from Sheila to keep this one off the giveaway pile.

Best tracks: Conditioned Soul

CD Odyssey Disc 570: The Eurythmics

I’m just back from a good workout, feeling good and looking forward to a short work week (I am taking a couple days off this week).

But there is one thing that never takes a day off, and that’s my ongoing efforts to listen to every damned album I own and then talk about each one of them.  That’s what this blog is mostly about, in case you’re new.

Disc 570 is…. Touch

Artist: The Eurythmics

Year of Release: 1983

What’s up with the Cover?  The incredibly sexy lead singer of the Eurythmics, Annie Lennox, strikes a pose.  From the athletic curve of her shoulders, up the muscles of her neck to the bright flame-red hair and back down to the leather mask and the defiant glance she casts from behind it, this cover is both simple and sexy.  Well played, Eurythmics, well played.

How I Came To Know It:  This was not a big album for me back in 1983.  Even though I did like the Eurythmics, this wasn’t a record that got a lot of attention, outside of the video for “Here Comes the Rain Again.”  This was just me years later digging through the band’s back catalogue of albums once I realized they didn’t make any bad ones. 

How It Stacks Up:  We have five Eurythmics albums.  We’re still missing “In the Garden” and “Be Yourself Tonight” but I’ll remedy those oversights soon enough.  Of the five we do have, “Touch” is good, but I must reluctantly rank it fifth out of five.  I still like it, though.

Rating:  3 stars

Earlier Eurythmics reviews explored the band’s later albums (don’t blame me – the order is random), so this was my first chance to review something from their earlier work, and I enjoyed it.

Albums like “Touch” have a much more experimental feel to them.  The R&B influences are still there (as they are in most British pop music) but proto-techno sounds are much more prevalent. 

My earliest memory of this album is watching the moody video for “Here Comes the Rain Again.”  I was seriously into heavy metal at the time, but couldn’t resist Annie Lennox standing on some windswept cliff wrapped up in a medieval cloak.  I may have been a metal fan, but at thirteen I also liked fantasy novels and pretty girls.

What surprised me more was how much I liked the driving synth beat of the song.  Lennox’s voice was filled with new frontiers of mystery. Amid the ongoing pop vs. rock debates at high school that week, I decided to go out on a limb and defend this band among my long-haired peers only to find…they agreed.

There is an innovative edge to the Eurythmic’s early music that is hard to resist, and although at the time I only knew the singles, “Touch” as an album has plenty of examples of this.  The sound is techno, and full of synth and samples which are ultimately used to create the same effect that R&B had done ten years earlier; lay down a groove.

My favourite example of this is on “Aqua,” which mixes a groovy bass riff, some African rhythms and a smooth jazz vocal from Lennox to create a funky beat that feels slightly uncomfortable in exactly the proportion the song’s lyrics of betrayal require.  This is a hidden gem of a song, and another shining example of what you’ll miss out on if you insist on sticking with that damned copy of the Eurythmics Greatest Hits on your dusty CD shelf.

When you’re this ambitious, however, you are going to sometimes miss, and the things that make “Aqua” so well have the effect of wrecking another promising song on the album, “Paint a Rumour.”  This song starts off with a similar approach.  Lennox sings simply lines over and over again, while odd synth sounds layer in a groove.  The ‘computer processing’ sounds work at the beginning, but halfway through they become overdone and the song begins to dissemble into what sounds unpleasantly like modern techno music.  Also like modern techno, the song goes on for far too long (It is 7:30 and should be about half that).

For similar reasons I don’t like one of the album’s hits, “Right By Your Side” with its calypso drums, awkward hand claps and police whistles.  The melody of this song could stand alone, but it is buried in all this artifice like a room with too many pictures hanging on the walls.  Worst of all, it ends with a sax solo fade out.  Dave Stewart – you are better than that.

“Paint a Rumour” and “Right By Your Side” are the exceptions however and other layered techno-dance tracks including “Regrets,” “The First Cut” and “Cool Blue” all work well in basically the same way.  So for that, let’s give a big chunk of credit to the other half of the Eurythmics, guitar player and producer Dave Stewart, who seamlessly melds Lennox’s smooth vocals over some genuinely interesting studio decisions.

I don’t look for “Touch” to keep things simple; it isn’t what this record’s vibe is about.  However, the exception to this is “Who’s That Girl?” a soulful vocal gem from Lennox, about infidelity and betrayal.  It is both dark and pretty, just like Lennox, and it leave you feeling both uncomfortable and slightly aroused at the same time.  In terms of tone it falls somewhere between the vague suspicions of Bill Wither’s “Who Is He (And What is He To You)?” and the full-on rage of Marianne Faithful’s “Why’d Ya Do it?” but it has earned its place among the great “I think you’re cheating” songs of our time.

Of course, you’d be crazy to cheat on Annie Lennox.  Even wearing that Barbara Streisand wig in the “Who’s That Girl?” video she still pulls off playful siren and slighted Valkyrie at the same time.  If you haven’t seen the video, you’re still just fine with the song, since she does all that with just her voice as well.

“Touch” isn’t the greatest Eurythmics album, but it has plenty of great moments, and is worth getting to know better.

Best tracks:   Here Comes the Rain Again, Regrets, Who’s That Girl?, Aqua

CD Odyssey Disc 543: The Eurythmics

I’m up and still groggy from a 45 minute nap I didn’t have time for, but couldn’t put off any further.  I have a lot of chores to accomplish in the next couple of days and not a lot of time to accomplish them but without that map I think I would be down for the count.

Instead – another music review!

Disc 543 is…. We Too Are One

Artist: Eurythmics

Year of Release: 1989

What’s up with the Cover?  If your subject matter for your photo shoot is Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, then putting the stunningly stark beauty of Annie Lennox front and centre and, putting the very average appearance of Dave Stewart in the blurred background is the right call.  Obviously someone made the right call.  Also, I'm loving the old school "list the tracks on the front" thing.  Very retro.

How I Came To Know It:  I remember my friend Curt being really into this album when it came out, but it was years before I would finally shed myself of the anchor of the Eurythmics greatest hits and collect their individual albums in earnest.  When I did so, “We Too Are One” was one of the first albums I bought.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Eurythmics albums, and I like all of them. I’ll say this one is about third best of those five, but close to second.

Rating:  3 stars, but almost 4

“We Too Are One” came out in 1989.  The eighties were ending and so was the collaboration of Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox, who would go their own way for the next ten years.  The fact that they remained friends is cold comfort to Eurythmics fans who also wanted them to make more beautiful music together.

Whatever irreconcilable differences there were between the two do not come through on this record, which is a brilliant and seamless connection of Lennox’s deep, soulful vocals and Stewart’s flair for combining a techno-inspired rhythm section with the power chords of rock guitar.  All this stuff together should be a hot mess, but instead it creates a groove that gets your head shaking and your foot tapping.

The opening two tracks are good, although “The King and Queen of America” has lyrics that are a bit forced.  For me the album really starts to show its true self on track three with “(My My) Baby’s Gonna Cry.”  The song starts with a techno sound that travels speaker-to-speaker (thank you inventor of stereo) and then morphs into a classic Stewart guitar riff.  Half the lyrics are sung by Stewart as well.  Stewart can’t hold a candle to Lennox’s powerhouse vocals and to his credit he doesn’t try to compete. Instead he stays low (and even a little fuzzy) in the production.  This gives maximum contrast to the songs, and every time Lennox sings it is that much more awe inspiring.

This is the musical feel throughout the record.  The Eurythmics, who began as a new wave/techno-inspired band now come around to their soul revival roots.  There is even a song called “Revival” which alternately makes you feel like you are dancing in the aisles of some southern church or in some East Berlin club scene depending on how you let your ears approach the song.  I like it equally both ways.

These up tempo tracks are as good as anything I’ve ever heard for getting you up out of your chair and hitting the dance floor hard.  Anyone who thinks the eighties didn’t have any good music for dancing didn’t listen to the Eurythmics.

For all that celebratory atmosphere, the album is even better when it explores the sad and introspective.  Maybe this is a function of a band about to break up – I really don’t care what cause it, I just know it creates beautiful music.

“Don’t Ask Me Why” is one of the decade’s great break up songs.  When Lennox sings:

“I don’t love you anymore

I don’t think I ever did

And if you ever had any kind of love for me

You kept it all so well hid.”

She sings it in a powerful and certain way that wipes you out as a listener, even as it makes it clear she is going to be OK. 

This theme is less powerfully delivered on “You Hurt Me (and I Hate You)” which lets you peak behind the curtain of the grand experiment of music style combinations that the better songs hide so well.  Even these lesser tracks, however, have Lennox’s voice to carry them through from shaky to solid ground.

The third theme on the record is that of disconnection.  The hit “Angel” is a genuine dirge; a eulogy for someone who lost the battle with the forces of isolation the modern world so readily deploys.  Driven as ever by Lennox’s power and a stripped down production, we have a suicide laid bare in all its tragic waste and finality.  Yes, this song is depressing, but it is also strangely uplifting in Lennox’s tender tones.

The album ends on an uplifting note with “When the Day Goes Down.”  This is a song for all those people who’ve ever felt out of place.  It is one for all the freaks and losers, and ultimately for the freak and loser deep inside each of us.  “When the Day Goes Down” is the musical equivalent of that final scene in “Revenge of the Nerds” when everyone comes down to stand together, united with their inner weirdo.  Lennox sings high and sweet here, and Stewart matches her with some tastefully subdued guitar work.  The album ends with these words:

“And this is for the broken dreamers

This is for the vacant souls

This is for the helpless losers

This is for the helpless fools

And the burnt out

And the useless

And the lonely and the weak

And the lost and the degraded

And the too dumb to speak.”

Like any great preacher, Lennox makes it clear that this motley collection of castaways is ultimately every one of us.  More than any other album, “We Too Are One” has a spiritual connection to its music.  Rather than dissipating the band’s early new wave sound, it shows just how far you can go with it if you’re willing to free yourself of the limits of genre and expectation.  On the one hand it makes me wish they’d stayed together and kept pumping out records.  On the other hand, it seems a fitting way for them to end it, going out on top.

Best tracks:  (My My) Baby’s Gonna Cry, Don’t Ask Me Why, Angel, Revival, Sylvia, When the Day Goes Down

CD Odyssey Disc 222: Eurythmics

With the holidays upon us I've had very little need to drive for any length of time, and I haven't done much painting either. Since these are the only two activities permitted for CD Odyssey listening (and those, only when alone), it took a while to get through this album.

That said - here it is. The final review of 2010.

Disc 222 is...Savage
Artist: The Eurythmics

Year of Release: 1987

What’s Up With The Cover?: Yet more proof that Annie Lennox is the sexiest woman ever to wear a wig.

How I Came To Know It: I knew the Eurythmics from radio play and high school dances, but as I mentioned in my review for "Revenge" back at Disc 118, I heard the full album over at my buddy Curt's place back when it came out. Sheila also has this record on vinyl, where we recently listened to it in that format as well, which only made it better.

How It Stacks Up: I have all five of the Eurythmics albums, and I like all of them. "Savage" is one of my favourites. I'd say it is probably 2nd, just edging out "We Too Are One" for the silver.

Rating: 4 stars.

The Eurythmics are a band that I love from a genre - electronic pop - that I usually detest. But good music is good music, regardless of genre. In fact, even though this album has all that synthetic eighties sounding production, I wouldn't change a thing. In fact, the production is one of the strengths of "Savage", drum machines and all.

This is noticeable from the first track, "Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)" which starts out with just a basic drum machine beat. Then, Annie Lennox's voice is introduced just chanting "listen to, listen to" over and over again in that sort of robotic-siren voice we know from "Sweet Dreams". Then another line fragment, "I love to", is overlayed just in front, this time utilizing her full rich tones we know from something like "You Have Placed a Chill on My Heart". Then a quick almost saucy singing of the word "Beethoven" completes the line, tripping in a half-beat early. By the time all the elements come together into the one line chorus, "I love to listen to Beethoven", the song is alreadly half over. It may take its time getting there, but it knows where it is going from the very beginning.

The hits on this record "You Have Placed a Chill On My Heart" and "I Need A Man" are two of my favourite Eurythmics songs, and demonstrate the band's range at this stage of their career. The former is a sorrowful bluesy breakup song, the latter is a rock-driven raunchy sex track. Both are delivered with the same care of song construction first heard in "Beethoven".

This is a record that makes me want to dance, but that I also enjoy it when I'm mellowing out and just lounging (thank you, Guru). Between them, the twelve tracks have a good range of sound, and even within individual songs there are changeups that keep your senses interested. It is an album that is easy on the ears, without just being radio pablum.

"Savage" is a winner. If all you have is "Sweet Dreams" this would be a good next step. If all you have is "Greatest Hits" then I am very sorry for you - you're missing out on great tracks like "Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)", "Shame" and "I Need You" - and those are just off this album. Just think what you're missing from the other four?

Best tracks: Beethoven (I Love To Listen To), You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart, Shame, Savage, I Need a Man, I Need You

CD Odyssey Disc 118: The Eurythmics

From 1968 and Thelonious Monk, to 1986 and one of the few pop acts that I actually liked during my Heavy Metal days in high school.

Disc 118 is...Revenge
Artist: The Eurythmics

Year of Release: 1986

How I Came To Know It: Like most other kids who graduated in 1988, the Eurythmics were a pretty big deal in the day, with many a radio hit. However, my deeper appreciation for their individual albums (including this one) come from my buddy Curt, who was pretty into the Eurythmics - and particularly liked this album and "Savage".

How It Stacks Up: I have five studio albums by the Eurythmics, which I think is all of them. They are hard to rate; I like different ones for different reasons on different days. That said, "Revenge" is not my favourite, so I'll say it floats between 3rd and 5th.

Rating: 3 stars.

As I noted above, the Eurythmics was one of the few eighties pop bands that I not only tolerated in high school, but openly enjoyed. Twenty five years later, nothing has changed.

Chronologically, "Revenge" is right in the middle of the five albums, and is a real hinge to their sound.

On the one hand, it has tracks that are reminiscent of the earlier pop-electronic sounds on "Sweet Dreams" and "Touch". It also has the smooth pop sound, accented by strings and saxophone which I associate more with the later albums "Savage" and "We Too Are One".

The album starts out very strong, with the two monster hits "Missionary Man" and "Thorn in My Side". I think even the third track, "When Tomorrow Comes" was a minor hit - this album likely did very well.

"Thorn In My Side" in particular is one of my all-time favourite Eurythmics songs. Annie Lennox is at her best - which is simply one of the greatest pop vocalists of all time. I always enjoy how strong and full her voice is, even at the very high register. The rich and natural tones she puts out are such a great counter to the electronic deliberately-artificial production of Dave Stewart.

Some of the weaker tracks ("Let's Go", "Take Your Pain Away") are pretty forgettable. I only mention this, because on most Eurythmics albums the songs that most people don't know are actually very good. The Eurythmics often use lesser tracks to do stuff that is expirimental or away from their more commercially known sound. While I've noted a couple that failed to connect, they usually do quite well when they branch out.

As an example, I really noticed "A Little of You" this time around. This song is 80% eighties electronic dance song, but right when you think nothing interesting is going to happen, Annie and Dave slip in a bridge of almost pure disco. Crafty...and effective.

The Eurythmics are also one of the few bands I forgive for using that eighties drum machine sound. Usually, it just sounds to me like some foley artist slapping a side of beef in a Bruce Lee Movie. Parts of "Savage" successfully translate this abomination into something almost resembling an instrument.

Although pretty familiar with this record from high school, and having had the hits for years on the Eurythmics "best of" album, I think I only bought this on CD in the last year or so. What was I waiting for?

I have it now, and with it (and other recent purchase "Savage") I can part with the "best of" before I even roll it!

Bye bye, "best of Eurythmics" - the studio album has had its just Revenge.

Best tracks: Missionary Man, Thorn In My Side, A Little of You, I Remember You