Eurythmics
Annie Lennox and David Stewart—the Europeans whose rhythmic approach is the focus of this album—are among the slickest, most musical new purveyors of technorock. Lennox was born in Aberdeen, Scotland; Stewart in Sunderland, England. They started working together in a trio called the Tourists in 1977 and spun themselves off into the barbarically spelled Eurythmics in 1980. They wrote nine of 10 tunes on the LP (the exception is the suggestive Isaac Hayes-David Porter funker Wrap It Up). Their melodies have an introspective appeal, and many of their lyrics seem an acrid kind of blank verse, as in Love Is a Stranger: "It's guilt edged/ Glamorous and sleek by design/ You know it's jealous by nature/ False and unkind." Stewart handles the synthesizers slickly, and Lennox, who affects an androgynous look, on occasion sounds as purposely dulled as Deborah Harry. The coolness of approach and artificiality of instrumentation make this something less than the most passionate record of all time. But it is intelligent, and, yes, you can dance to it.
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