In 1975, Dave Stewart met Annie Lennox in the restaurant she was working at, together with other artists, they became Catch, later evolving into The Tourists. They would achieve mild success throughout the ’70s with tracks such as ‘So Good’ and ‘Blind Among’, but this was relatively short-lived. By 1980, Stewart and Lennox would break away and become Eurhythmics. My dad was 13 when Revenge was released in 1984 which peaked at number 3 in the UK charts. Around this time, he watched a studio gig of theirs on the TV and it was this performance that motivated him to buy a copy on cassette, his very first cassette. Back then I wasn’t even a twinkle in his eye but when I was around 6 years old, I was given a Walkman and inherited that same tape. I played it incessantly; it was probably the first album I ever listened to cover to cover and has a huge place in my heart. Featuring Lennox on vocals, Stewart on guitar alongside legends such as Clem Burke (best known as the drummer in Blondie) on drums and Jimmy ‘Z’ Zavala playing his lungs out on harmonica and saxophone in a Rock, Synth-Pop masterpiece.
Although it’s an album centred mainly around love and hindsight, it’s littered with religious imagery from the first track ‘Missionary Man’, Zavala charms you in the bluesy intro, only to be slapped with Lennox’s striking vocals and a powerful drum beat, commanding you not to trust a religious teacher, to question their authority. This is carried on in ‘Let’s Go!’ The lovers are so eager that they ‘forget about the preacher man’ and ‘do it on the ground’.
‘Thorn in My Side’ was the stand out track of the album, peaking at number 5 in the UK charts as a single. It’s bright jangle along with lyrics that ooze emotion ‘Now every time I think of you, I shiver to the bone!’ followed by ‘oo-woah-uwoah-woah’ that’s both desperate and fierce in layered harmonies. The addition of the saxophone brings a richness to the track that comes as a pleasant surprise. It’s also featured in ‘When Tomorrow Comes’ at times performing a call and response to the vocals, before roaring into a melody.
Above – Annie Lennox (left) and Dave Stewart (right).
Eurythmics have a few ‘boss bitch’ songs in their discography, ‘The Last Time’ feels like a prequel to ‘Would I Lie to You’ featured in their album Be Yourself Tonight, released in 1985. It’s the synth panning playfully between your ears, accompanied by whooshes that make this song so dynamic, coupled with detailed descriptions of scenarios that paint a vivid picture ‘the first time that I saw you, you were standing in the rain // waiting at the station for the last, connecting train.’ This storytelling is heard again in ‘Let’s Go!’ when we get a full outfit check of the love interest. The bridge takes us to a dark, spiteful place, Lennox spitting ‘People like you can be so mean // just don’t come clean’ it’s raw with emotion. You almost get whiplash when it fades into the rock love ballad ‘The Miracle of Love’, the guitar and keys so grand it’s enthralling. The vocals, harmonised with Stewart in the chorus, are gentle and stunning. The phrase ‘they say the greatest coward, can hurt the most ferociously’ has stuck with me since childhood and will sail its way through my mind in real life scenarios. Mystical, twinkling keys are used to mimic a harpsichord, giving the song even more layered interest being we’re launched into the monumental guitar solo that cements the track as an epic love song drenched in hope. The false ending gives you that little extra morsel, taking you to church with a metallic organ close. The ‘church sounds’ are revisited in ‘A Little of You’ with lively bells throughout, Lennox’s vocal harmonies evoking the uplifting feeling of a gospel choir.
The last two tracks are again of differing atmospheres, ‘In This Town’ opens with audience applause and has the grittier quality of a live performance. It’s powerful, thumping drums and demanding lyrics ‘somethings got to change // filling in time like I’m digging my own grave.’
The last track, ‘I Remember You’, is a 180 switch, opening with more samples of city sounds, much like ‘Let’s Go!’ it’s a yearning call to a time past and how time can affect relationships – ‘I remember you, you were the backyard boy // I can’t stand to see the shifting time, taking me further, leaving you behind.’ Accompanied by a marching drum beat, the violins transport us through the ‘coloured picture’ in Lennox’s mind, it’s a feeling almost too intimate for comfort, I find myself feeling the pull of my own nostalgia, sitting on a coach on the way back from a school trip, Walkman in my lap, terrible quality earphones, flipping my cassette to the B side. A masterfully clever way to end the album, symbolic.
Stewart and Lennox parted ways creatively in 1990 but came together briefly nine years later to release the album ‘We Too Are One’. Outside of this, they have both gone on to have illustrious careers. Stewart has produced for legends such as Tom Petty and Sinead O’Connor and has his own label, Bay Street Records. Annie Lennox is one of my personal heroes, I even sported a bleached buzz cut for many years. She found huge success as a solo artist with endless hits – ‘Walking on Broken Glass’, ‘Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves’, ‘There Must Be an Angel’, I could go on and on. She’s also involved in humanitarian work and performs in her own fundraiser events as recently as 2024 with SISTERS: Annie Lennox and Friends where she was joined by none other than Hozier. I was devastated not to get a ticket.
Above – Annie Lennox.
I could not sing this album’s praises enough, with my own personal experiences aside, it has such musical decadence, managing to be an ‘80s Synth-Pop album and not be cringe worthy is a feat in itself but it goes above and beyond with soaring highs and sorrowful lows, if you listen to just one Eurythmics album in your life, let it be Revenge.