Record Rewind: Eurythmics – Peace
3 min read
Almost everyone knows of the Eurythmics! You had to be living in a very isolated crevice of the world to not notice the band in the eighties. Over the course of an initial ten year run at the top, churning out hits like Sweet Dreams, When Tomorrow Comes, Thorn In My Side and Miracle of Love, members Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart conquered the world and have since become one of the biggest selling acts of all time. The pair went their separate ways in 1990 to focus on other projects, principally solo careers. Dave launched a solo career with a couple of hit singles in the early years but found strength as a songwriter and producer, penning songs like the Tom Petty hit, Don’t Come Around Here No More. Annie enjoyed a hugely successful life as a solo artist and became an icon in her own right, enjoying countless success with albums that included Medusa and Diva.
It wasn’t until 1999 that Lennox and Stewart decided to rekindle the Eurythmics flame and record a brand new album. The result was Peace.
Peace was the bands 9th record and a collection considered as the duo’s comeback after a decade spending time on solo projects and focusing on family life. It is, in my opinion, one of the bands most cohesive records, sewn together with a similar mid-tempo vibe, each song complimenting the last and adding flavor to the next.
Of the 11 tracks, Peace produced a mere 2 singles in the shape of lead single I Saved The World Today and 17 Again. The singles served as incredible introductions to a new Eurythmics era and both did relatively well in the charts but the real magic lay with the unreleased gems making up the rest of the track-listing.
Tracks like Beautiful Child, My True Love with its soaring vocal arrangements and the cinematic and the poignant Peace Is Just A Word are song-writing gold here on Peace. These 3 tracks are key pennings within this record, showcasing Annie Lennox’s powerful and engaging vocals at their absolute best.
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Breaking up the ballads on Peace is a couple of edgy rock numbers; Power to The Meek and I Want It All. With the majority of the record residing within slightly sombre-ish territory, these two tracks, placed carefully at just the right moments within the record, provide Peace with just the right amount of up-tempo grit and “oomph” to keep interest at a peak.
Peace is a vocal album from start to end and while the album has some gorgeous melodies and intricate instrumentation, the glue that holds this record so tightly together is Lennox’s huge vocal delivery on each and every song.
Peace is also a very orchestral offering, much more so than anything the duo had produced prior to its conception. The band utilize the familiar orchestral backdrop that we first heard on the records lead single throughout the entire record, giving the album its epic, string-built cohesiveness. The eccentric outfits were traded in for tan suits and matching glasses with the band member’s names emblazoned on the sides. It was a new era for the band and though they have only released music on rare occasions since, it was Eurythmics at a new level of revitalized brilliance that we hope to witness again some day.
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