Photo by Lewis Ziolek
Between April and October this year, sees the vinyl reissues of eight EURYTHMICS albums ‘In The Garden’, ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)’, ‘Touch’, ‘Be Yourself Tonight’, ‘Revenge’, ‘We Too Are One’, ‘Savage’ and ‘Peace’ and gives a welcome chance to look back retrospectively over the duo’s musical output.
Although it didn’t trouble the charts, the debut 1981 album ‘In The Garden’
Co-produced by the legendary Conny Plank in his Cologne studio and featuring BLONDIE drummer Clem Burke, Robert Görl from DAF, and CAN’s Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit, the album swings between the guitar-driven post-punk sound of ‘English Summer’ and the more rocky ‘Belinda’ which would foreshadow some the band’s more rockist leanings latterly in their career.
Due to Plank’s top notch production and Lennox’s effortlessly beautiful vocals throughout, the album hasn’t dated too badly and if never listened to before certainly doesn’t hint at the stellar jump with their subsequent offering ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)’
Recorded in their newly fitted out 8 track home studio in Chalk Farm London purchased using a £5,000 bank loan, ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)’ would have come as a complete curveball if as a fan you’d latched onto the more pastoral guitar-based sound of ‘In The Garden’; almost purely electronic in conception and with the backbeat of Stewart’s Movement Drum Computer (which puts in a cameo appearance in the iconic ‘Sweet Dreams’ promo video).
Also significant for the album was the use of Dave Stewart’s EDP Wasp synth which (according to Synth Guru Paul Wiffen) was often recorded using a microphone placed over the in-built speaker in order to capture the sound of the resonating body of the synth’s case alongside its source sound.
With YAZOO’s debut ‘Upstairs at Eric’s’ opening the public’s perception to cold electronics with an accompaniment of soulful vocals, the timing of ‘Sweet Dreams’ couldn’t have been better. There are obvious echoes of Clarke and Moyet in tracks such as ‘Wrap it Up’, but the addition of Stewart’s guitar and the bigger multi-layered vocal production meant that they don’t come across as mere pastiches.
Musically one of the things that becomes apparent on ‘Sweet Dreams’ is Stewart’s knack at creating some truly wonderful synth basslines, often using a Roland SH09. From ‘I Could Give You (A Mirror)’ to the ‘The Walk’, these perfectly counterpointed Lennox’s glacial vocals and set a template for what was to follow with album number three ‘Touch’.
‘Touch’ is often overlooked when it comes to people’s go-to classic electronic albums; this could possibly be down to the huge success of the Calypso-themed ‘Right By Your Side’ which at the end of the day really wasn’t representative of the album as a whole. This is a shame, because ‘Touch’
‘The First Cut’ echoes YAZOO’s ‘Sweet Thing’ but brings in some live guitar and fretless/slapped bass to the party; whilst the epic 7 and a half minute closing ‘Paint A Rumour’ takes the listener on a spellbinding musical journey incorporating blippy Kraftwerkian electro pop, dub brass and BLANCMANGE-like Middle Eastern synth elements along the way. Unfortunately the band were never truly this electronic again, with the remix/mini-LP ‘Touch Dance’ eventually giving way to 1985’s ‘Be Yourself Tonight’…….
The next two albums ‘Be Yourself Tonight’
Songs such as ‘Thorn in My Side’ started to showcase EURYTHMICS steady mutation (and some would say decline) into a US radio-friendly guitar act with most of their electronic elements gradually being exorcised from the bands’ production. In some ways EURYTHMICS followed a similar career trajectory to SIMPLE MINDS with stadium rock leanings starting to filter into their recorded output and before you knew it, songs appeared to be written specifically for large arenas.
With the next couple of albums there were still a few glimmers of experimentation, THE ART OF NOISE-aping, Fairlight-driven ‘Beethoven (I Love To Listen)’ from ‘Savage’
The highlight of 1989’s ‘We Too Are One’
After a ten year hiatus, ‘Peace’
By overviewing the band’s output, the listener could cynically surmise that EURYTHMICS jumped on the Synth Britannia bandwagon; riding on YAZOO’s coat tails by adopting an electronic aesthetic and then slowly revealing themselves as the rock band that they actually were all along (underneath all of the production surface). That would however do a huge disservice to their early work, which includes some of the VERY best electronic pop tracks from that era.
Interestingly, Dave Stewart confirmed the spiritual link with YAZOO by eventually going on to work with Alison Moyet, co-writing / co-producing ‘Is This Love?’ under the pseudonym Jean Guiot (used to avoid problems with his music publishers).
The mid-period and latter albums (although in many places giving the band deserved huge commercial success) do however chart EURYTHMICS slow transformation into an entirely different musical beast altogether. For those that bemoan the way DEPECHE MODE now deliver their songs live, should take some solace in that Lennox and Stewart committed far worse musical crimes to some of their iconic synth pop hits than Gahan and co are doing now…
Jean-Baptiste Mondino
So in terms of influence, what is there left to say about EURYTHMICS legacy? Their nearest contemporaries now would be GOLDFRAPP and PURITY RING; acts that use that male synth / female vocal dynamic.
Completists could possibly complain that the soundtrack to the motion picture ‘1984 (For The Love Of Big Brother)’ and ‘Touch Dance’ albums should have made the set up to a round 10, but for most, ‘Sweet Dreams’ and ‘Touch’ still remain the essential albums to own, with ‘In The Garden’ being seen as more of an interesting curio in the band’s back catalogue.
‘In The Garden’, ‘Sweet Dreams’, ‘Touch’, ‘Be Yourself Tonight’, ‘Revenge’, ‘Savage’, ‘We Too Are One’ and ‘Peace’ are reissued by Sony Music in three stages through 2018
https://www.facebook.com/eurythmics/
Text by Paul Boddy
16th April 2018
but when it was released in Spring 1983, it disappointed some who had followed the band from the beginning. Not only were all four singles to date included but so were two of the B-sides.
. ‘Mothers Talk’ was a reasonable comeback featuring Orzabal’s lead vocal but the duo were still not happy. Their perceived failing made them more determined; With East / West tensions at a high following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan plus the tit-for-tat boycotts of The Olympics Games, The Cold War and the Reagan / Thatcher love-in was to inspire two of TEARS FOR FEARS biggest hits.
, Smith found himself isolated during the recording sessions as Orzabal strived for perfection. Orzabal had co-written a number of songs with live keyboardist Nicky Holland, but the use of a Fairlight and endless session musicians being brought in like Pino Palladino, Manu Katché and even Phil Collins became a distraction in the search for a more organic touch; Ian Stanley left the recording and returned a year later only to find Orzabal still working on the same song!
is released by Universal Records
in Autumn 1982.
released in Autumn 1983 was to be more cohesive and produced under the auspices of 
, the band’s biggest seller which even cracked the US Top200.
and 2015’s ‘Autumn In The Neighbourhood’ may be new additions to the tradition, but it is the melodic inventiveness of the first three albums that mark CHINA CRISIS as an important band of the Synth Britannia era. CHINA CRISIS have been surprisingly influential in modern synthpop where elements of their sound have re-emerged in acts such as 
by the former and 
by the latter for some conclusive documentary evidence.
released in January 1974 followed a thrashy, energetic style inspired by THE VELVET UNDERGROUND. Its hybrid of glam, progressive and art rock continued in a vein similar to early ROXY MUSIC.
released in November 1974 signified the importance of his sophomore offering and this was without its more cerebral approaches and observations on Chinese Communism.
released in September 1975. Unlike his previous solo records, he had no material pre-prepared before entering the studio.
released in December 1977. It was his first vocal record credited as ‘Brian’ and to be his last one for many years as he divided time working with ULTRAVOX, CLUSTER and TALKING HEADS. Indeed, the David Byrne led combo were the inspiration for the metallic romp of ‘Kings Lead Hat’; the title was an anagram of the art school combo’s name while the track itself was later covered by ULTRAVOX.
was a concept album of sorts about an alien invasion that featured ‘I Ran’, ‘Space Age Love Song’ and ‘Telecommunication’, plus other great tracks such as ‘Modern Love Is Automatic, ‘Messages’ and the Grammy Award winning ‘DNA’.
released in 1983 made an even bigger impact, thanks to the song many consider to be A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS’ crowning glory, ‘Wishing (I Had A Photograph Of You)’.
in 1984 was the beginning of the artistic and sales decline, although the lead single’ ‘The More You Live, The More You Love’ was classic A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS in the vein of ‘Space Age Love Song’.
, Reynolds had left the band as the remaining threesome settled into their new base of Philadelphia, but A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS had lost that distinctly British edge that made them so appealing to the US in the first place.
. Featuring most of the band’s singles in radio edit and extended format, it also acts as a document to some of the more hidden experiments of the band, and how popular music was changing under the spectre of MTV and club culture.
Follow Us!