usically, the year 1983 belonged to MICHAEL JACKSON and it was all thanks to his THRILLER album, which was released in the Fall of  1982. Despite only having nine songs, seven of them became top ten singles and their releases ended up sustaining his notoriety throughout 1983. These were the days when he was simply MICHAEL JACKSON, and no such moniker as the KING OF POP had been bestowed upon him just yet. JACKSON was a one man juggernaut who earned his place in the pop stratosphere despite formidable opposition from a sea of tried and true white rockers and new Bristish invaders such as DURAN DURAN, ADAM ANT and the playful dress up of BOY GEORGE of CULTURE CLUB. When I was a boy on break from elementary school, the album THRILLER was getting played to death, but showed no signs of wearing on anyone's nerves. Despite having been in the business for much of his then-25 years, JACKSON was armed with a  full package that seemed tailor-made for the MTV era. He could sing and bust moves that still have people talking almost ten years after his death (Remember, 1983 was the year he showcased the moonwalk on the MOTOWN 25 SPECIAL for the first time). He also had an electrifying presence that could make a small screen seem huge, and it was a presence that he would bring to cinematic heights with the release of his JOHN LANDIS-directed music video extravaganza THRILLER.  Just as the music video medium was getting off the ground, JACKSON understood it's power and how it could change the way people experienced music. His artistry in the realm of music video is known the world over, but there was one other musical act out there that understood the power of video as well.

In the Indian Summer of 1983, the song SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS was a hit on radio and was soon to become a number one hit in the States. Why the hell wouldn't the song have become a hit? Built almost entirely on a sturdy, minor synth progression, the song transcended other synth pop of the time with the presence of that soulful, bluesy female voice that kicked the proceedings up to a whole other level. The pop delight could've easily rolled off the assembly line of MOTOWN.  I remember it so vividly because the song was being played heavily as school was getting back into session after a summer filled with MICHAEL JACKSON music and RETURN OF THE JEDI. At the song's conclusion, the on air deejay would announce that it was a new one from a band called EURYTHMICS, and already my curiosity was peaked. What the hell kind of a name was that? What did these guys look like? When I caught the video on TV for the first time, I got more than what I bargained for.



Set in a stark boardroom with gold albums on the wall, the camera zooms in on the lead singer ANNIE LENNOX - a stunning figure sporting a men's business suit and a striking orange buzz cut - a look  uncommon in the age of  BONNIE TYLER and PAT BENATAR. As shocking as her look is, it is those eyes draw us in to this curious milieu. Behind her is a screen projection displaying the progress of the human race, from crowds walking the streets to footage of a rocket being launched into space, as this chairwoman of the board menacingly taps and strokes her baton into the palm of her gloved hand, as if she were dominatrix with a whip. We can't be too sure with those eyes. Keep in mind, I was nine years old and I didn't know what a dominatrix was, but I knew allure when I saw it. Seated at the table is a bearded fellow with bird's nest hair typing something into what looks a like a laptop that isn't an OSBORNE.  Throughout the video there are nods to zen spirituality and futurism. The scene changes from a boardroom to an open field littered with cows possibly symbolizing uncharted territory. In one frame, ANNIE and her bearded compadre DAVID STEWART are cello players with ANNIE dressed in a long red dress, black eye mask and a long black wig. STEWART is also masked, but we don't take much notice of him. The duo re-emerge again in their business suits but this time out on the open field. LENNOX stands at a table pounding her gloved fist and gloriously wailing alongside the songs outro. It all ends with LENNOX in bed opening her eyes, and placing her hand on a book rested on her bed side table titled SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS.

What the hell was this? This wasn't pop of the boy meets girl variety. The video didn't have anybody turning into a werewolf or calling a truce between rival gangs and getting them to dance it out. This was something otherworldly. Who was EURYTHMICS? Where the hell did these two come from? It seemed like they emerged from nowhere.

ll of my questions about this band would be answered in the September 1983 edition of ROLLING STONE where EURYTHMICS vocalist ANNIE LENNOX was on the cover, with her signature, orange boy's crop and tribal-looking eye makeup, but show me a nine year old who could come away with any kind of understanding after reading a ROLLING STONE article. As a kid, I simply enjoyed this quirky pop rock odd couple. Like a BORIS and NATASHA for the MTV era, EURYTHMICS were as exotic as they sounded. One could easily see them as a villain couple in a JAMES BOND flick. My attraction to them came without any real understanding of who they were as people. As I grew older I learned that ANNIE LENNOX wasn't a lovely creature constructed by TYRELL CORPORATION. She grew up the daughter of a dockworker father and a cafeteria cook mother in Aberdeen, Scotland where she exhibited tremendous musical talent early on. This led to her studying flute at the Royal Academy of Music but she dropped out during her last semester when the pursuit of pop music began to tug at her. Early gigs included playing in a socialist jazz rock orchestra and singing as one half of a cabaret act called THE STOCKING TOPS. Eventually a friend told her about a guitar player from Sunderland named DAVE STEWART who had cut his teeth in the industry with the folk rock band LONGDANCER. In 1976, the two fell in love and a long with fellow singer songwriter PEET COOMBES, formed  a pop band called THE CATCH who released the ELO sounding single BORDERLINE. As the membership of the band expanded, the group was renamed THE TOURISTS and the music took on a power pop approach similar to early BLONDIE with LENNOX and COOMBES sharing vocals. While THE TOURISTS was entirely COOMBES' project, it was LENNOX who gained most of the attention thanks to the band's cover of the DUSTRY SPRINGFIELD hit I ONLY WANT TO BE WITH YOU, which became a top five hit in the U.K. The band lasted for three albums before disbanding in 1980. The romantic relationship between LENNOX and STEWART dissolved at this time as well. Despite the breakup, the two decided to make music together in a new venture called EURYTHMICS. The name was taken from DALCROZE EURHYTHMICS - an approach to teaching children music through movement. The band's first album IN THE GARDEN was recorded at producer CONNIE PLANK's studio and featured contributions from such performers as HOLGAR CZUKAY of CAN and CLEM BURKE of BLONDIE on drums. The album was released in 1981 and was your standard issue new wave/post punk release with a touch of menace. The moody single I'M NEVER GONNA CRY AGAIN and the surf pop of BELINDA  never caught on with a record buying public and the effort faded into obscurity, but EURYTHMICS weren't giving up. They stripped down their efforts to recording simply with CASIO keyboards and an eight-track reel-to-reel and started issuing singles such as the TALKING HEADS-ish THIS IS THE HOUSE and the delectable MOTOWN pop of THE WALK. Despite indifference from the public, the duo was getting warmer and their toils in their cozy 8-track setup were about to pay off in a big way with their aptly named second album SWEET DREAMS (ARE MADE OF THIS).

With one electropop hit behind them, EURYTHMICS set a tone both musically and visually. The next offering from the band was LOVE IS A STRANGER - an older song and video that had already made a dent in the U.K. LOVE IS A STRANGER is another synth powered gem with a driving electrobeat, but in this instance, LENNOX's vocal performance is more aloof and ethereal. I don't remember the music video getting the heavy rotation that the SWEET DREAMS video got and later I would learn that it was due to the video being banned by MTV for promoting "transvestitism.", but in an age where a performer like BOY GEORGE of CULTURE CLUB enjoyed tremendous success on the music network, I wonder if this was simply an urban legend. Thirty five years later, the video wouldn't get anyone talking, but the imagery is still unnerving and powerful.



The video opens with a limousine pulling up to a house in what is probably a posh neigborhood in London and flashes to a fur-coated figure exiting the front door of the house and into the backseat of the car. The camera gets a closeup of the mysterious passenger. It is ANNIE LENNOX, in a curly blonde wig and a fur coat, casting that trademark seductive glare of her's. She is a high-priced prostitute on her way to a client. DAVE STEWART is the mysterious driver taking occasional glimpses at his precious cargo. At the song's haunting chorus "And I want you / and I want you...", LENNOX rips off her her blonde wig, showing a slicked back crop of orange hair. The passenger arrives to her destination. As she enters the lobby and gets on intercom, the scene cuts to another figure - LENNOX as a dominatrix with long black hair and a PVC minidress.  Her surroundings are clinical and ominous. Two videos in, LENNOX proves herself to be a natural actress in this burgeoning music video medium and exhibits true chameleon power in the tradition of DAVID BOWIE. The scene concludes with the dominatrix also removing her wig and falling to the floor which is littered with phoot clippings of celebrities such as MARILYN MONROE and ELVIS - symbolizing objectification. The final figure to emerge is a pimp of unspecified gender. LENNOX dashes into the limousine wearing a business suit with her short orange hair slicked back with no make up. Even without her eyes done up, the woman's gaze is still powerful. When the pimp reaches it's destination, it steps out of the car  sporting aviator sunglasses and moves in a puppet-like fashion. The video ends with a close up of this mysterious figure's face and the reflection of the film crew is visible on the lenses of it's sunglasses.


As an nine year old child, my only experience with long play albums had been MICHAEL JACKSON's THRILLER, PAT BENATAR's CRIMES OF PASSION, THE BEST OF BLONDIE and the soundtracks to FAME and THE WIZ. Soon, the album SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS would grace my then-meager record collection. On a family trip to the mall, I wandered off to SAM GOODY and came across the new EURYTHMICS album. It was such a different looking album sleeve for it's time. There is a lot of clean space, using deep, institutional gray with a bold white stripe going down the middle. In gold coronet script are the letters D and A and beneath is a photo of ANNIE LENNOX nude with her back turned wearing a black eye mask and holding a red, heart-shaped chocolate box in her gloved hand. It's an intriguing image that could  either raise an eyebrow or ruffle feathers. I still remember my mother being taken aback by the cover and wondering why I would want this album. This wasn't MICHAEL JACKSON in a dazzling white suit. After the kind of pleading that only a nine year old can get away with, she half-heartedly bought the album for me. When we got home, I peeled off the cellophane, placed the vinyl disk on my STAR WARS-themed record player (take that hipsters!) and let the music play as I checked out the sleeve notes inside, filled with some rather sparse lyrics and stills from the LOVE IS A STRANGER music video. That first listen was truly alienating and isolating - and this was before I knew what any of those words truly meant. An album like THRILLER was something the whole family could get behind. With SWEET DREAMS, I was on my own. The subject matter may have been over my head, but it was the synth driven sound and the rhythm that had me captivated. This was also the time where breakdancing and doing the robot was popular and this collection songs offered me the chance to bust those kind of moves. I'm not ashamed. As I grew older, the album's themes of heartbreak, longing, isolation and determination had some resonance for me. There was nothing disposable about this brand of pop. Who can say that these days? 

I'VE GOT AN ANGEL
The album kicks off with the electropop glory of LOVE IS A STRANGER but I'VE GOT AN ANGEL is the first song that we hear from the duo outside of  the confines of a pop radio hit. This second track boasts an intoxicating synthetic jungle rhythm complete with flute riffs, eerie pan organ chords and the ever present synth bass. A paean to the power of creativity and inspiration - the track sets us up for the musical journey to come. Especially at the post-disco number's ending tribal chant "Time is time is time to kill!"

WRAP IT UP
Following the release of this album, EURYTHMICS would gain a reputation as being a self-contained unit when it came to songwriting and production. Years later, LENNOX would become celebrated for her interpretations of songs by other artists, but with WRAP IT UP, EURYTHMICS take the SAM AND DAVE soul stomper and fire it up electronically. GREEN GARTSIDE of the U.K. pop band SCRITTI POLITTI does the guest vocals here. We've seen gender being bent in the duo's videos thus far and now we hear it in the music. GARTSIDE sings in a sweet, almost effeminate, high tenor in contrast to LENNOX's brassy, soulful alto. Vocally, the results are electrifying but it is the train-like rhythm created by the synthetic drums and bass that get this show on the road.

I COULD GIVE YOU A MiRROR
If WRAP IT UP chugged like a freight train, I COULD GIVE YOU A MIRROR starts out like that very same train making a pit stop at a station. Slowly it gets moving again, until it re-establishes it's rhythm and before you know it the party gets started again, but this time there is nothing to celebrate. In this stomping number, LENNOX calls out a lover who has proven himself to be inaffectionate with the verse "How can you be so cold / with my arms to hold you?" This one-sided relationship gets put under the microscope with the chorus "I could give you a mirror/ To show you disappointment / I could give you / A history / Could you ever listen in to me?"  The pop psychology of sexual politics never sounded so catchy!

THE WALK
So far on this album, we have heard this duo use their CASIO keybards to create a sound that is futuristic and cutting edge for the time. For THE WALK, we get something different - an homage to the MOTOWN sound. The bluesy minor progression is powered by a synth bass, the plinking of a piano and the most strident drum beat this side of MARVIN GAYE's HOW SWEET IT IS. LENNOX purs the lyrics which illustrate the life of a prostitute in chilling fragments. For the chorus, LENNOX asserts herself as she growls "Step away / Walk away / All I want it the real thing!"  Joining her at the chorus' end are a group of male voices chiming in with "I just forget myself" That very refrain becomes the outro for the song as well, accompanied by LENNOX's soulful ad libbing and DICK CUTHELL's ace trumpet playing.



JENNIFER
Up until now, the album has moved like a powerful locomotive and here we get the closest thing SWEET DREAMS has to a ballad. JENNIFER is a tone piece with echo-y synth chords, a pulsing synth drum and LENNOX breathing the lyrics that tell of a suicide by drowning. Thanks to it's sparse lyrics, the subject matter doesn't become melodramatic - just chilling. When DAVE STEWART comes in with his slide gutiar, the glorious number blasts off into orbit.

THIS IS THE HOUSE
EURYTHMICS are back to their playful selves again. THIS IS THE HOUSE gets started with a bubbly synth noise and a bass being strummed for once followed by a young woman's voice reciting the lyrics of the song in Spanish. With the clap of a synth drum pad, the song kicks into fifth gear with some joyful sounding horns and some slamming bass and guitr riffs. It may sound like fun and games, but LENNOX curiously recites the lyrics which sound like a police procedural collecting evidence of a murder. It doesn't sound like a good time but one could imagine a well crafted EURYTHMICS video to this thumping track.

SOMEBODY TOLD ME
As synth heavy as this album is, one can't expect a team like DAVE and ANNIE to shed their rock roots entirely. SOMEBODY TOLD ME is a rock n roll anthem on betrayal that starts with an insistent, marching drumbeat and a whooping synth riff that illustrates the paranoia in the lyrics to come. Our heroine has heard from a third party of some unspoken dirty deed by her lover. Even though it's hearsay, LENNOX lashes out the supposed unfaithful buck and no longer wants to see his "pretty face again". After a break down consisting of "Oh well" being repeated, DAVE STEWARTS electric guitar comes in and rocks the house down. 

THIS CITY NEVER SLEEPS
The album has succeeded at keeping the listener on their feet. Who could blame them for bringing this glorious album to a close with a bluesy slow burn? With a pulsing synth bass behind her, LENNOX sings of the isolation of big city life where the underground transit is way to noisy, you know none of your neighbors names and the walls of your shitty flat feel like they are caving in on you. Sure, it all comes with the territory of trying to get by in the city, but LENNOX has the right to howl the blues. Hell, she's even got DAVE giving her some back up on his trusty slide guitar.


hen I blasted this album through the serviceable speakers of my record player back in 1983, I was blown away by an album that sounded state-of-the art and contemporary. As far as I was concerned, this album deserved a space next to MICHAEL JACKSON's THRILLER. Therefore it was surprising for me to learn years later that the entire album was recorded in a make shift 8-track recording studio above a framing shop. 35 years later, we are living in an era when most artists can record and mix their stuff using either a PC or a MAC. Given their meager set up and their intimidating musicality, EURYTHMICS were pioneers in creating do-it-yourself pop music like the kind that helped LORDES win a GRAMMY for Best Song for ROYALS of whatever the hell year that was.

Critics at the time were pleased with what they heard as well. ROBERT CHRISTGAU of THE VILLAGE VOICE stated: "In theory, synth duos have always been okey-doke with me, especially when the resulting pop is as starkly hooky as what Dave Stewart comes up with here. And you might say Annie Lennox has a bono vox. But like so many with comparable gifts, both these people are fools, and pretentious fools at that. Remember, folks--when they tell you everybody's out to use or get used, make certain you go along for the ride you paid for."

ROLLING STONE's DAVID FRICKE was a little less cryptic in his praise. "Even when they resort to the obvious — which they do with the snappy, disco-style syncopation and shrill, girl-group-style chorus of “Love Is a Stranger” — Eurythmics always apply their electronics with nervy pop flair. At a time when most synth boogie is just New Wave party Muzak, Sweet Dreams is quite an adventure."

The song SWEET DREAMS has gone on to attain it's rightful place in the pantheon of pop culture but sadly, the album that it came from often gets overlooked. This past year, the entire EURYTHMICS catalog has been re-released on vinyl and it was welcome news for a fan like me. Is it enough to prove to people that the partnership was more than a hit making machine for a finite period of time or that they were equally as proficient in crafting first rate pop albums? Who knows? In my ears, SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS is as essential listening as any classic pop album gets.



he SWEET DREAMS album definitely had my attention. So much so, that EURYTHMICS' new single WHO'S THAT GIRL? snuck up on me. I may have heard the song on the radio before seeing the music video and had no idea that it was them at first. How could I not think it was EURYTHMICS? The song opens with LENNOX cooing the title track and segueing into an eerie keyboard progression that recalls something out of a BELA LUGOSI vampire flick. The slow burn of the verse allows LENNOX to sink her teeth into the tale of a woman resigned to the end of a relationship and the bitterness that has resulted from it, but at the bridge, she asserts herself and demands to know the identity of the chippy at her ex-lover's side. We're left to wonder if there was any autobiography slipping into this early eighties pop gem.

The music video  gives LENNOX - the pop chameleon - a chance to do her thing.  This time, she is a night club singer with long blonde hair, a slinky cocktail dress and long black gloves.  As she performs for the patrons, her ex lover DAVE enters the club with a parade of lovelies, which sends the chanteuse into a rage, and why wouldn't it? Some of these beauties include the girls from BANANARAMA, KIKI DEE and a girl or two from BUCKS FIZZ.  Sitting in the corner of the club is a fellow in a black suit, a five o'clock shadow and an ELVIS-like pompadour. Upon closer inspection, we can see that it's LENNOX done up as a dude. At the video's conclusion, DAVE's lovely ladies bail on him, leaving him all alone at a table with Polaroid snap shots to stew over. LENNOX - both night club singer and chap at the club - get together for a smooch. Take that Moral Majority!

A new EURYTHMICS album was just around the corner and the release of the single WHO'S THAT GIRL gave people a general idea of what to expect from the duo who had acheived tremendous notoriety with a  distinctive electronic sound. With the next single preceding the new album's release, DAVE and ANNIE were ready to surprise people. Instead of a synth-charged pop moment, RIGHT BY YOUR SIDE would feature a full band and LENNOX's penchant for the maudlin lyric would be noticeably absent.  This so-happy-it-can't-be-real calypso song is in step with some of DAVE and ANNIE's work with THE TOURISTS and with BLONDIE's THE TIDE IS HIGH, but at least the latter had the decency to be tongue-in-cheek. RIGHT BY YOUR SIDE's joviality comes of as false from a duo who have become known for their less-than-sunny outlook on love thus far. I applaud the horn section and DAVE's clean, jazzy riffs on guitar, but on a whole, the jolly tune doesn't take flight. And don't get me started on that performance video with LENNOX in that god awful safari outfit!


he album TOUCH came out around Thanksgiving of 1983. I  had done a book report for school on a book called ONE MORNING IN MAINE and because I got an A+ on it, I was rewarded with the new EURYTHMICS album on cassette. It was probably the first album I ever owned on cassette. The only drawback to that was I didn't get to examine that glorious album cover more closely. The sleeve was bold and in-your-face. LENNOX still had her eye mask, orange hand and bare shoulders, but she was up close and defiant with her bare hands raised and clasped with a single blue eye leering at you sideways through her eye mask. Was this the sign of a combative album? I was just going to have to wait and hear. The limitations in budget that made SWEET DREAMS... a success were non existent with TOUCH. With proceeds from that album, DAVE and ANNIE purchased their own state-of-the-art recording studio THE CHURCH where their musicality could reach beyond a mere eight tracks. A full band, a brass section and orchestral flourishes - made possible by arranger MICHAEL KAMEN - broadened the duo's sound to epic proportions, but the synths, sequencers and LENNOX's sinister delivery kept things experimental and catchy.

REGRETS
The album kicks of with the epic, stringed grandeur of HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN and we will get to that fantabulous pop moment later in the article. In contrast to the album's Wagnerian opener, REGRETS is a punchy, playful burst of electropop cha-cha. Filled with thumping bass lines, percolating percussion and sci-fi sound effects straight out of FORBIDDEN PLANET, LENNOX seductively growls the lyrics which build her up as a robotic beauty with a "razor blade smile" bent on free will and destruction. The woman in these lyrics is a far cry from the humanitarian we've come to know today.  As was the case with THE WALK from the previous album, DICK CUTHELL's mesmerizing trumpet playing is a delight.

COOL BLUE
If we've learned anything about ANNIE LENNOX up to this point, it is that breaking up for her is very hard to do. Especially if the bloke is as cold as ice. COOL BLUE says it all for just about every cold, distant lover out there and it is done with a teasing synth shaker, a looping bass and some horns. At the song's chorus, LENNOX wails "How can I forget you baby? / I'm never gonna give you up!" Sounds like a woman who is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't.

THE FIRST CUT
With a slapping rhythm section and DAVE STEWART's STONES-y guitar riffs, THE FIRST CUT  finds it's irresistable groove immediately, punctuated by LENNOX's "hahs" and a playful keyboard progression. Here, heartbreak becomes a full-on contact sport as the jumping track finds itself at odds with the tale of a woman on the verge of self destruction.  Even the articulation of the word "cut" sounds menacing.



AQUA
A bubbling bass riff accompanied by some chirping synth effects and the strumming of an acoustic guitar mark the beginning of AQUA - a return to the water motif that we first heard on JENNIFER from the previous album. Instead of suicide, the subject is sensory deprivation and the need to be cut off from the world. Making the track more unnerving is the primitive tribal chanting of the background vocals. At the time, there were inevitable comparisons between ANNIE LENNOX and GRACE JONES. This track would not be out of place on JONES' WARM LEATHERETTE.

NO FEAR NO HATE NO PAIN NO BROKEN HEARTS
At this point in her career, we could always expect ANNIE LENNOX to instill disconcertment verging on fear in the listener. Dissecting a relationship that isn't working out or the condition of one's humanity is serious business and nowhere is it taken more seriously than on the penultimate track NO FEAR... where the band makes use of MICHAEL KAMEN's orchestral touch for the second time on this album. The song opens with the tingling bass and the thunderclap of a synth drum. Slowly but surely, KAMEN's strings become more audible alongside LENNOX's vocal ad libbing before she authoritatively blasts the lyrics. NO FEAR...expands on the theme of isolation established in AQUA and takes it up a terrifying notch.

PAINT A RUMOUR
The balance between the kinetic energy of a live band and all the studio magic that can be achieved through synthesizers has been achieved on TOUCH, so why not close out with a robotic sounding dance number with DEAN GARCIA's bass and DICK CUTHELL's trumpet adding the human touch? LENNOX's vocals are there but they seem to be part of the framework as opposed to being the spectacle. In the age of break dancing, why didn't this seven minute track ever become something that kids could do "the robot" to? I wonder if MISSY ELLIOT could give this track a ressurgence?


OUCH was another step in the evolution of EURYTHMICS. It is hard to believe that just two years earlier, EURYTHMICS boasted a sound that was firmly rooted in new wave and guitar driven proto-punk. With SWEET DREAMS, they eschewed the full rock band experience for the clean precision of synthesizers and on TOUCH, they achieved the best of both worlds all while remaining cutting edge and provocative. Having a little more money in the bank helped in taking the duo's musical and visual ambitions a step further. TOUCH went on to platinum status in the United States reaching number 7 on the US BILLBOARD 200 and was listed as one of ROLLING STONE's 500 GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME.

Critics took notice of DAVE and ANNIE upping the ante. CHRIS CONNELLY of ROLLING STONE noted: "Touch emerges as an uncannily thoughtful album that’s direct without being simple-minded, avant-garde without being inaccessible. In its finest moments — “Who’s That Girl?,” for example — Touch seems to offer a synthesis of Beatlesque popcraft and the unsparing intelligence of the young Joni Mitchell. In a musical field awash with deep-pocketed clotheshorses and hoary soul revivalists, Eurythmics are creating something unmistakably new."

Showing off some his trademark gruffness, ROBERT CHRISTGAU of THE VILLAGE VOICE was a little more cautious. "Physical gifts and technical accomplishments tempt a singer to overdramatize--Annie Lennox makes altogether too big a deal of punching the sofa. But even if she isn't, well, "cooler than ice cream" (really), I'm glad she's normal enough to want to be. If it's high-grade schlock you seek, this'll do as well as early Quarterflash. And Lennox has better hair."

With CHRISTGAU, I must concur. LENNOX did have better hair than the chick from QUARTERFLASH.


I've gone beyond the year 1983. HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN was released as a single in January of 1984 and in terms of singles, EURYTHMICS saved the best for last. Falling back on the minor progression that has served them well in single releases, the song opens with the sonic marriage of a desparate sound synthesizer beat with pizzicato strings and orchestral backing. LENNOX's icy croom tells the tale of a woman  who is well aware of all the bad that love can do to someone yet still welcomes the company of someone to walk and talk with. She sees a new love on the horizon and welcomes both the good and the bad that will come along with it. The orchestral movements add grandeur to the proceedings but the "shoo-wops" throughout the chorus remind you that this is indeed a pop song. An epic pop song to last the ages! Why it never made it all the way to number one in the charts is beyond me. Equally as iconic as the song was the music video shot on the Orkney Islands where the lovelorn LENNOX is a followed by DAVID STEWART wielding a video camera. 


t had indeed been a crazy, winding road to stardom for EURYTHMICS for the their first three albums, but the road to continued success would prove to be smoother and safer. In the year to come, they turned their attention to film scoring by producing a soundtrack for the film NINETEEN-EIGHTY FOUR, but their bold effort boiled the blood of director MICHAEL RADFORD and generated some unwanted controversy. Having put scoring behind them, DAVE and ANNIE forged ahead with their musical partnership and  wen in a more traditiional pop rock direction with their next two albums BE YOURSELF TONIGHT (1985) and REVENGE (1986) only to return to their experimental, electronic roots with the concept album SAVAGE (1987).  In 1989, the duo signed with ARISTA for their album WE TOO ARE ONE, but later agreed that some tim apart would be best. LENNOX's voice would be put to fine use in a solo career that would transform her into a more conventional chanteuse and DAVE STEWART would work as a songwriter and producer for just about - everybody. The duo would come back together for the reunion album PEACE in 1999 and for a couple of new songs on a new greatest hits package in 2005. There was also a perforamce by the duo for a BEATLES tribute a few years back  but it wasn't enough for a fan like. As I am writing this article, I saw a little something about a sequel to MAMA MIA. Fuck ABBA! If we can't get aEURYTHMICS reunion proper, why can't we get a musical inspired by the music of this visionary pop duo? People need to be reminded of the fact that pop music can be artful.

p.s.
We would be remiss if we didn't mention the duo's performance at the 1984 GRAMMY's when LENNOX dressed up as the chap from the WHO'S THAT GIRL video and everyone thought she was paying tribute to ELVIS in the weirdest way possible. I hear she slugged the sound man afterwards for the canned applause.