[…continued from last post]
The band’s 1989 album showed them clearly aiming for the emergent VH-1 aesthetic. Not the worst thing in the world they could be doing! This was better than faux Stax soul music, but only just following the vibrant “Savage.” One single stood out as being particularly good. “Don’t Ask Me Why” was slick, smooth, and elegant – but it wove a reasonably captivating spell. Other songs ran a course pointing perhaps to the “Revenge” sound with a lusher production. “[My My] Baby’s Gonna Cry” had a familiar chug to it. There was a great promo CD with a good Duncan Bridgeman remix, but that didn’t reach many ears! It was a passable Eurythmics album but nothing to inspire the old fervor.
Given the artistic cul-de-sac that Eurythmics had evolved into, the tabling of that band and the emergence of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart as solo artists was not surprising. What was surprising was that Dave Stewart beat Lennox to the market by two years! I picked up his first single and that was that. Nothing I can remember looking at the cover now [the disc is long gone from the Record Cell].
It fell to Ms. Lennox to make a more substantial offering. I remember jumping on the “Why” single immediately in all configurations, but at first blush, it was very underwhelming to me. I sat on it for a few weeks then found myself touring through Eastern Canada and everywhere I went “Why” was in the air. And the constant exposure gave me a better perspective on her performance than I was willing to give it at first. The soft ballad revealed a cold as ice heart with a knife stuck deep into it as Lennox’s performance made it rise above the almost lullabye caliber music bed. Her whispered coda was utterly devastating. The rest of the album was diverse and engaging with a mixture of ballads and dance material, and her co-writing songs with The Blue Nile certainly showed where she was aiming – and hitting the target. I was spellbound by “Diva.” If Eurythmics had been laid to rest for this, I was more than fine with the results. I bought all of the singles and the inevitable laserdisc, and was ready to continue my Annie Lennox fandom.
But that didn’t happen. Three years later she issued “Medusa;” yet another of the 90s predilection for cover albums. At the time, I was still buying cassette tapes, and ironically, Maxell tape had what was called “max points” that one could save up and get free CDs. I opted for “Medusa” and it was a good thing that I had not jumped on the bandwagon with my cash, because I was beyond appalled at what had been done to a handful of favorite songs and otherwise. “No More I Love You’s” had been turned into an oversung nursery rhyme. The vibe here was akin to a children’s music box of cloyingly sweet, one dimensional performances. Songs I had loved like “The Downtown Lights” and “Train In Vain” had been decimated with the liberal application of synthesized fondant icing. She managed to choke the very life from songs I had previously loved… to say nothing of those I didn’t care for. No matter how awful 90s cover albums got [and they were very bad indeed…], they never managed to snatch the trophy for “very worst” from Lennox’s grasp for this turkey.
I was surprised that Eurythmics reconvened in 1999 for the album “Peace” with a tour benefitting Greenpeace and Amnesty International, but at least the charity angle justified the expenditure. The album was another MOR excursion without the benefit of at least the few good songs they managed to write the last time out. Not as fraudulent as “Be Yourself Tonight,” it was still a missable Eurythmics album.
It was another four years later when Ms. Lennox continued with her solo career. I was gun shy by 2003. I did not buy a copy of “Bare,” but I didn’t need to. My good friend Mr. Ware had been given a copy and it did nothing for him, so he passed it onto me. Not a sterling endorsement by any stretch of the imagination. I gave it one play and it was more musical helium. Soft airbrush synths of little weight given to ballads that made no impact what so ever. Actually the cover was the most interesting thing about the album! No, scratch that. Her liner notes on the back cover were much more interesting than the music on the disc.
It seemed like much more thought went into the cover to these ears. After maybe two plays, I got rid of the CD. That says everything. The last two Annie Lennox solo albums I had gotten for free and they still weren’t worth owning! Thinking back to 1979 this would have seemed unthinkable to my teenaged ears when fervor for Ms. Lennox knew no bounds.
So that’s my story. I have not heard a note Lennox has recorded since 2003. I see no reason to tempt fate. I note that Lennox had worked with keyboardist Pete Vetesse [who had done few favors for Simple Minds either, now that I think about it…] on the period of her solo career that I’d heard and his predilection for soft, airy synths and tension-free sound design and arrangements worked against me in everything but the “Diva” album. That one, for some, miraculous, reason, had the artistic goods for me. Not that Lennox has been burning the studio up in the intervening years. She has released only three album in the period between 2003 and 2019, and two of them are cover albums! One of them looks like this…!
Irony free? – you be the judge
I once went to annielennox.com in the last ten years out of morbid curiosity and the design of the website looked like a Thomas Kinkade nightmare. With three cover albums among a series of six solo albums in a stately 27 year solo career arc, it seems like Ms. Lennox has little to offer us. Having read Lucy O’Brien’s bio of Annie in 1991, I get the impression that Ms. Lennox is a troubled soul. Her marriages point to something unresolved within her. I think when she attempted to write from a facile, non-personal point of view, the results are missable in the extreme. As “Be Yourself Tonight” showed. By the same token, is it asking too much of an artist to hold them to unleashing songs the emotional caliber of “Why?” I’m guessing that’s why she leans so heavily on covers in her solo career.
With Dave Stewart by her side, at least she had a consistent writing partner capable of traveling all over the musical map [whether it was a good idea or not]. Still, the notion of working professionally with your ex-boyfriend…for 20 years after you split up as a couple, could not have been easy on her. This is not helped by the fact that she’s one of those people who could “sing the phonebook.” The big danger of that is that she might as well be doing just that at the end of the day. With her voice, people would still listen and she’d be spared trading in any more of her pain. And I think we’d all be the poorer for it.
– 30 –
![Chris Cross: 1952-2024 [part 2]](https://i0.wp.com/postpunkmonk.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ultravox-cross.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1)
Post-Punk Monk 
“No matter how awful 90s cover albums got [and they were very bad indeed…], they never managed to snatch the trophy for “very worst” from Lennox’s grasp for this turkey.”
Wait, I have not heard this Lennox album, but you’re saying it is worse than “Thank You” by Duran Duran?
Wow. That’s rough.
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JT – Yep. Imagine “Thank You” with every song rendered as a lullabye.
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I’d rather not, if you please.
Thanks for the warning!
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Strange… I’m a big Lae
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Strange… I’m big Lennox fan, and I always thought Bare was it’s best LP… A Thousand Beautiful Things, Pavement Cracks, Honestly, Wonderful, Bitter Pill, Loneliness and The Saddest Song I’ve Got are ones of my fave A. Lennox songs, and they’re all on Bare. “… when she attempted to write from a facile, non-personal point of view, the results are missable in the extreme.”, but it’s not the case at all on Bare, as it’s easily her most personal LP ever.
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Actually I got ‘Diva’ for free when it came out but it did not very much for me, I passed it on and that was it for me with Eurythmics. Well not completely, I had to get the mediocre ‘Vegas’ album because of Terry Hall but I do count it as one of his weakest offerings. As for Annie Lennox, it’s one of this “What could have been’s” for me. But every artist chooses for himself and probably this makes the difference between a great singer and a great artist.
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How do you like the new Specials album? There’s some interesting music afoot in my opinion for us geezers, the new Joe Jackson is pretty fine, too, in my opinion.
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Agree.
Both excellent albums in my view!
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As far as I heard it yet I like ; )
Of course it’s not the classic Specials Troupe but it’s a brave attempt. It would have been interesting if they could have get it together with the 6 Piece reunion line up but still I won’t complain about this.
Only the deluxe edition with old Specials tracks live leaves me a bit puzzled – do I need this as package or do I want the new stuff just as it’s own? Well, have to figure this out yet.
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slur – I may have said it before, but give me a great artist over a great singer any day! Of course, that points immediately to Billy MacKenzie who was smart enough to have been both [most of the time].
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She needs to either replace Enya as vocalist on Enya albums, or get rockin’ again. If she wants to do another cover album, let’s do her Tourists material and reintroduce that to the fans she picked up from “Why” and “No More I Love Yous” (her only bonafide solo hits).
I’m with Chris (somewhat) on Bare — it’s not IMO as bad as you make out, O Monk, but the good songs are not given their best light by her determination to be so MOR in styling. Currently I think she’s decided to position herself as a singer only (which, given the overall weakness of her self-penned material, is probably wise) and I predict she’ll be doing “Songbook” type albums to finish out her career. A great shame and a largely-wasted talent, when you look at the full body of work. The mention of the new JJ album has me thinking that maybe he could do something with his former classmate that would give her voice more to do than lull listeners to sleep!
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I’m jumpin on a Joe Jackson jive right now. As soon as I finish my oral history of Russia circa 1950 – 1980 I’m off to read his autobio.
I just read an interview with Joe Jackson on the Boston Globe I think it was and he says of his prolific days that he would minimize some of that catalog if he could, that the QC isn’t always there but generally he’s proud of the musical resume. We could all say the same about AL/Eurythmics. Kicking them over the rawk albums isn’t a tough call but they (like JJ) graced us with more good and inspiring music then mediocre.
And if the resident Monk ever does a JJ musical GPA I will go to the mat defending Night Music and Heaven & Hell.
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The only JJ album I have would give a less-than-B grade to is actually “Beat Crazy,” despite it having a number of great songs (like the title track). It hasn’t aged as well as most of his other work. I love H&H and NM and the fact that he’s lead me through swing (long before Brian Setzer got hep to that!), classical, soundtrack stuff, jazz, and just plain ol’ “eclectic” as well as rock and pop and managed to hold my interest throughout.
It was in his autobio that I learned that he an Annie had been classmates at the Royal Academy (though IIRC they didn’t actually know each other at the time, just a coincidence of fate that they were there together). Joe and Annie grew up as popular acts at the same time, had big hits around the same time — even just a conversation between those two would be fascinating to hear.
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chasinvictoria – I disagree on “Beat Crazy.” I got that just to hear “Mad At You” and was taken aback by how enjoyable that one was for me. And I’m kind of indifferent to Joe Jackson, as you may be aware.
So Joe Jackson and Annie Lennox were peers at the same [prestigious] school? Fascinating. Given their circumstances, yes, a long dinner table discussion between them might be a good film.
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Tim – Seeing as I only ever bought four Joe Jackson albums [maybe one too many by my reckoning…] the JJ Rock G.P.A.® won’t ever happen. Just saying. And now that Jackson is a well-known contrarian smoker’s rights advocate, he can basically go pound sand in my universe. He’s a waste of space. If I cared enough about him, he would be a great New Wave Hall Of Shame candidate… but I don’t.
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chasinvictoria – I had no idea what happened commercially to Lennox after “Diva.” I didn’t know that “No More I Love Yous” had been a big hit, bit by the same token, I didn’t realize that everything else afterward hadn’t. The last time I checked, Lennox was an established star. Probably of the Peter Gabriel caliber thinking about it now. One big hit and stature, if not the sales to underscore it.
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Had totally ignored Diva, despite the Blue Nile link, picked it up for £1.50 from a charity shop on the way home after reading this. Will see what I think.
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SimonH – I need to give it a spin for the first time in 20 years myself and see if the magic is still there. It’s in my queue next up.
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Why is certainly an emotionally wracked song, I don’t think I’d ever listened properly to the lyrics before. It’s impressive to think it was a major hit single.
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If I am not mistaken the album was written concurrent to her trying to have a family and having difficultly carrying a child to term.
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