What is well-known about (the) Eurythmics? We know that they sprang out of two-hit wonders The Tourists and that Dave Stewart qualifies as the David Beckham of his day by marrying a member of the most prominent girl group of the time. One thing you probably won't know unless you are a pretty hardcore fan, is any of the songs on this album. It was probably quite a tough proposition in 1981, when the pop-kids were lapping up Abba, Queen and Shaky and electronica was only just about breaking through with the likes of the Human League. However now, it sounds completely sharp and contemporary. You can easily imagine some poorly-dressed young Canadian woman delivering any of these on the next edition of Later With Jools Holland. It's tempting to pigeonhole Eurythmics with all the other pop-synth duos of the era, but their sound is much more diverse. Admittedly 'Take Me To Your Heart' owes quite a lot to the plinky-plonky side of Kraftwerk's output, but the preceding 'Belinda' throws in plenty of more classical rock noises. I'd say they'd spent a bit of time listening to Scary Monsters from the year before - and that 'Eur' part of the name is no accident, they clearly were embracing wider influences than you might have heard Mike Read playing on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. Probably the most Bowie influenced thing is 'Caveman Head', which reminded me of the brilliantly bonkers, Japanese-gabbling 'It's No Game' that bracketed the Scary Monsters album. First single was the brilliant 'Never Gonna Cry Again' which sees Lennox in slightly distracted form. It got to number 63 in the UK Chart in a month when 'Ossie's Dream (Spurs Are On Their Way To Wembley)' made the top 5. Who says 'popular' means 'any good'? The artwork is kind of literal - they are in a garden after all - but is also faintly disturbing with the double-exposed photographs giving a ghostly feel. If you have never listened to it then give it a go, if you have then listen to it again. Although they were established in the business from the Tourists days, this is an incredible debut album and possibly a lost classic.
English Summer
Belinda
Take Me To Your Heart
She's Invisible Now
Your Time Will Come
Caveman Head
Never Gonna Cry Again
All The Young (People Of Today)
Sing-Sing
Revenge
For a breakthrough album it's several degrees inferior to its predecessor. It has two of their best known songs in 'Sweet Dreams' and 'Love Is A Stranger' and yet I fear even these don't stand up to very close scrutiny. 'Love Is a Stranger' was the first single but only succeeded on re-release after the album had hit it big off the back of the title track. And think about Sweet Dreams, the song, for a moment. A repeated mantra of a lyric that amounts to little more than a serious of slogans. Wikipedia throws out the description 'gender-bending imagery' in reference to the video. Is 'gender-bender' an acceptable phrase in 2017? (Silly question really, anything goes today now that we have been freed of the tyranny of political correctness gone mad). However it was an attention-grabbing promo in a time when the artform was new and pretty important. Stripped of the g-b-i (which means, by the way, that Lennox appeared in a shirt and tie with short hair) the song is rather disappointing. The second track 'I've Got An Angel' sounds like they were given access to a primary school's stock of percussion instruments. Maracas, castanets, tambourines and those things that look like a sculptor's mallet with lots of beads wrapped around them (a calabash?). It's disjointed and therefore represents quite a lot of the rest of the album. There's too much going on and it's only occasionally that that is a good thing. 'The Walk' has some interesting soul brass sounds mixed with throbby synths. 'Jennifer' has the virtue of simplicity and a rich vocal delivery from Lennox and the Spanish phrasebook lyrics of 'This Is The House' stays just the right side of charming. The final track, 'This City Never Sleeps' feels like Grace Jones' 'Private Life' with a spare, bass-synth backing to Lennox's measured vocal. But overall the impression is of a load of stuff that is not quite finished, thought-through or polished enough. The cover is art-deco meets 50 Shades Of Grey.
Love Is A Stranger
I've Got An Angel
Wrap It Up
I Could GIve You (A Mirror)
The Walk
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
Jennifer
This Is The House
Somebody Told Me
This City Never Sleeps
This has been one of those albums that I've found it hard to key into. There are some great singles on here ('Here Comes The Rain Again', 'Who's That Girl' and 'Right By Your Side') and it's better than 'Sweet Dreams'. I can feel a 'but' coming except I'm not sure what it is. The production is a bit tinny and glassy I guess, not much going on below the stave. There is a lot more going on in those singles than I recall though. 'Here Comes The Rain' again has that great pizzicato 'Papa Don't Preach' intro, although singing about the rain as a metaphor for bad times has to be the most hackneyed in the book. 'Right By Your Side' goes all-out for the calypso party feel with a bubbling steel drum sound. Watch the video of the excellent 'Who's That Girl', and decide if you prefer Lennox's blonde wig or Stewart's ermm mushroom-top? Many of the rest of the songs still feel like exercises or essays, rather than the real deal. 'Cool Blue' bounces about without really achieving anything and both of 'Regrets' and 'Aqua' are kind of cold and clinical; but then that is probably the point. 'No Fear, No Hate, No Pain (No Broken Hearts)' is rather gratingly discordant. On the upside 'The First Cut' has some nice twangy funk stylings. Lennox persists with her mask fixation on the cover; more American Psycho this time though.
Here Comes The Rain Again
Regrets
Right By Your Side
Cool Blue
Who's That Girl
The First Cut
Aqua
No Fear, No Hate, No Pain (No Broken Hearts)
Paint A Rumour
You may have heard of George Orwell. He came up with lots of ideas for TV programme titles, and also provided a generation of Guardian journalists a clear point of reference to compare with anything they weren't that keen on. In 1984 it seemed the obvious thing to do to make a new movie of the book. So they cast around for an emaciated, oppressed-looking actor with sticky-out ears to play Winston Smith and found they didn't need to look much further than the late great John Hurt. Next they bunged in Richard Burton as his Room 101 oppressor and you ended up with a movie that was so grey and miserable (I know, that's the point) that you were probably tempted back to the source for a bit of light relief. Anyhow Stewart and Lennox were commissioned by the production company to do the soundtrack but director Michael Radford was apparently not a fan and binned it in favour of something more orchestral. The movie was therefore released in two versions with different soundtracks. I think the one I saw (on VHS home video if you don't mind) was the Eurythmics one. I think it's pretty good as a soundtrack and remember the main single 'Sexcrime' well. It really is a superb, punchy track and I was quite surprised during a recent edition of Pointless when they had Eurythmics singles as a category and it was not mentioned at all. I was certain it would have been a pointless answer and it did reach number 4 after all, so a bona fide hit too. The other memorable track here is the ethereal, crystalline 'Julia'. Doubleplusgood' is over-sequenced to the point it makes your teeth itch and that's a problem with some of the rest too. Soundtracks do not equal Songs and Eurythmics strength was in the 3 minute pop song, so this amounts to a curiosity with a couple of great moments.
I Did It Just The Same
Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
For The Love Of Big Brother
Winston's Diary
Greetings From A Dead Man
Julia
Doubleplusgood
Ministry of Love
Room 101
Eurythmics go pop! This is almost aggressively commercial compared to its forebears. And by now they have joined the pop aristocracy and can call on Stevie, Aretha and Elvis (not the dead one) to add weight to their efforts. It opens with the statement of intent that is 'Would I Lie To You' in which Stewart plays out his Keef fantasies with a grinding blues-rock riff. Dare I risk suggesting that the Stevie Wonder harmonica solo on 'There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)' outstays its welcome? The second half of the song is almost entirely built on it. I mean Stevie's a great loan-signing and all, but sometimes less is more. Aretha's contribution is, of course, 'Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves'. Feminism has come a long way since 1985 and the sentiment does feel a bit obvious and dated now. I can't see a modern artist like Beyoncé (my autocorrect added the accent to the final 'e' - now THAT'S famous) or St. Adele Of The Broken Heart coming out with anything quite so lecturesome. But, it's a fine song in it's own right, and no-one is going to deny that there are a couple of mighty female voices getting a run-out. And the artist formerly known as Declan McManus? He contributes some instantly recognizable backing vocals on 'Adrian' and adds immensely to an average song. The other big single 'It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back)' had a nice video in which Lennox showed off an urchin cut and some pretty impressive bone structure and they used cutting edge animation which was slightly reminiscent of Tron. On the downside, they give a shout out to Daily Mail gossip columnist Nigel Dempster. Of the rest, it's fine but not outstanding. 'Here Comes That Sinking Feeling' retreads the guitar sound of 'Would I lie..' and Lennox throws in some more of that kind of electro-scat last heard on 1984's 'Sexcrime'. 'I Love You Like a Ball And Chain' comes closest to their more experimental earlier work and 'Better To Have Lost In Love (Than Never To Have Loved At All) - they do love a bracketed subtitle - is an efficient pop tune.
Would I Lie To You
There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)
I Love You Like A Ball And Chain
Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves
Conditioned Soul
Adrian
It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back)
Here Comes That Sinking Feeling
Better To Have Lost In Love (Than Never To Have Loved At All)
Fairly indisputably their commercial peak, and justifiably too. The strident opening 'Missionary Man' fuses rock, soul, electro, gospel and blues into one satisfying whole. And then they follow it immediately with 'Thorn In My Side' and 'When Tomorrow Comes'. Lennox's voice is bell-like and forceful throughout this, no doubt enhanced a little by the production, and the overall feel is of a big league act with a new set of songs designed for stadium rock, although I don't think they ever really tried to take that route in the end. The downside is that sometimes verges on the sterile. They certainly kicked back against that kind of thing when they followed up with Savage. There are exceptions to the overall Big Sound, 'The Miracle Of Love' is a warm and sensitive masterpiece and it has a lovely little spangly coda at the end too. There's something of Alison Moyet's delivery style in 'The Last Time' and 'Let's Go' has some very Yazoo-ish buzzy synths going on too. But Eurythmics apples are falling a long way from the experimental electronica tree here and it's a rock/pop album above all else. My biggest problem? I can't shake Hugh Laurie talking about getting his "Rewengay" in Blackadder.
Missionary Man
Thorn In My Side
When Tomorrow Comes
The Last Time
The Miracle Of Love
Let's Go!
Take Your Pain Away
A Little Of You
In This Town
I Remember You
I clearly remember when I first heard 'Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)'. It was on Radio 1's weekly new release review slot, Round Table (although it may have gone under a different name at the time) and one of the guest reviewers was the one and only Stephen Morrissey. I imagine it takes a lot to nonplus the Moz, but his reaction to this was to question whether they had played the B-side by mistake. He then proclaimed it very interesting. And indeed it is. Eurythmics pull off quite the trick by releasing something completely off-the-wall but also weirdly commercial and catchy. It was the lead single too by the way, they waited until the fourth before they got round to the nearest thing to a mainstream single with 'You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart'. Lennox gives vent to her full theatrical inclinations, sometimes coming across as a latter-day Julie Andrews. You'd be hard pressed to find anything more interesting that was released in 1987. It sets the tone for the rest as well. Stewart and Lennox seem to be having a whale of a time mucking around with different styles, from teeny-pop sounds like 'Do You Want To Break Up' (albeit with a fairly dark edge) to the dripping venom of the title track. 'Savage' is my favourite track on my favourite Eurythmics album. Lennox's vocal performance is more than just singing and channels emotion in a way that puts the histrionics of the herberts on The Voice or X Factor into perspective. They follow it with what is a much more effective feminist polemic than 'Sisters...' in 'I Need A Man'. Lennox sounds like she's four sheets to the wind on the karaoke at the start, but it's a much more gutsy assertion than she managed with Aretha. They borrow a little in places, 'Put The Blame On Me' has a light funk rhythm and the stop-start opening to 'I Need You' owes much to Ziggy Stardust, but for me this is easily their most accomplished and interesting album. And those bracketed subtitles just keep on coming.
Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)
I've Got A Lover (Back In Japan)
Do You Want To Break Up
You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart
Shame
Savage
I Need A Man
Put The Blame On Me
Heaven
Wide Eyed Girl
I Need You
Brand New Day
WE TOO ARE ONE (1989)
Let's start at the end. I've probably never listened to this album all the way through before now, but it holds a powerful memory for me nonetheless and it's due to the closing track 'When The Day Goes Down'. In 1990, we took our final holiday as a family and flew over to America to do the Florida parks and visit the family in Atlanta. In those days you didn't get a complete library of the latest film releases or albums, especially on a package charter flight, and the music available was basically on a loop. Since it was a long flight, I kept seeming to come into it on Eurythmics 'When The Day Goes Down', so I have fond memories of a happy time in my life associated with the song. Which makes it a shame that when I listen to it today, it reminds me of nothing more than one of Gary Barlow's pension nest-eggs ('Never Forget' if you're interested). The saving grace is that this obviously came first and so has the virtue of being more original and possible evidence that Barlow might be a plagiarist, and the song does improve from a dodgy opening (despite revisiting the rain metaphor again), but I'd prefer to have the memory unsullied. Better is 'The King And Queen Of America' and after that we get Stewart giving a decent vocal performance on '(My My) Baby's Gonna Cry' - note the brackets appear at the start of the title, they're diversifying even at his end of their career. Alas, that statement is largely untrue when it comes to the album as a whole. It's competent and listenable. Classy even. But it's not very exciting, especially after its extraordinary predecessor. 'Angel' is good. "And I believed in you. I believed in you. Like Elvis Presley singing live from Las Vegas" is a good line delivered well. 'Revival' is a compelling piece of gospel pop too. But those bowed strings at the start of 'Sylvia' are depressingly reminiscent of something or other by INXS. It's a nice cover, seeming to prefigure the latter day YA literature (I use the word loosely) obsession with vampiric women and lupine men.
We Too Are One
The King And Queen Of America
(My My) Baby's Gonna Cry
Don't Ask Me Why
Angel
Revival
You Hurt Me (And I Hate You)
Sylvia
How Long?
When The Day Goes Down
PEACE (1999)
At the time of writing, it's almost exactly 50 years to the day since Sergeant Pepper was released, so it's good to be reminded how influential it was by encountering yet another Pepperclone song. In this case it is 'Forever', and it leaves one pondering 'the point', since Tears For Fears and most of ELO's output had thoroughly ploughed this furrow already. The generous might call it a tribute or pastiche, the ungenerous, an unimaginative rip-off. But it would be unfair to condemn the whole album on the strength of it, especially as some of it is really rather enjoyable. Maybe the obvious references to other artists is intentional after all, since the last track, 'Lifted' (not a cover of the Lighthouse Family song) contains a sequence very reminiscent of Burt Bacharach - it's sort of raindrops keep falling-y. There's also the Eva Cassidy/Songbird-like 'My True Love', which is a mistake because Lennox, who has an outstanding voice, actually finds herself a little exposed by it. The opening tracks '17 Again' and 'I Saved The World Today' were also the only singles. The latter in particular plays a neat trick by being plaintive and positive in equal measure whilst the former pays a nostalgic visit back to Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This). A lot of the rest is very much by-the-numbers. 'Power To The Meek' wastes a good title on a plodding rock song, 'Beautiful Child' is a bit of a dirge and 'Anything But Strong' just meanders along. If we're disappointed that 'Lifted' is not a cover, then at least we can console ourselves that 'I Want It All' isn't either and so does not bring visions of Lennox strutting about with the mic stand a la Freddie Mercury. It's not all that far off though, sort of a low-octane, unleaded Ramones thing. Cover picture makes me think of 11 from Stranger Things. This came after a 10 year hiatus and presumably the spark was not great enough for them to want to keep things running. Lennox at least has produced much more interesting stuff since.
17 Again
I Saved The World Today
Power To The Meek
Beautiful Child
Anything But Strong
Peace Is Just A Word
I've Tried Everything
I Want It All
My True Love
Forever
Lifted
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