Tuesday, 14 October 2014

That's Entertainment : Annie Lennox


As a child of the 1980's, one of the biggest pop acts of the decade were The Eurhythmics.  However, by 1990, the duo had dissolved acrimoniously and they went their separate ways.  Around 1992 as U2 was wowing the world, hair metal was dying and grunge was taking over and 'techno pop' was invading the charts, Annie Lennox branched out on her own as a solo act.

Her first release was Why - an aching torch song that tears every cockle of your heart and sweeps along magnificently.  It's Annie's My Way moment - fearing she couldn't continue, couldn't make it work, that she would not be accepted…the very fact why it worked is due to the artist's honesty.  The pain and agony is palpable and the vocal delivery would have to be close to one of the very best of the 1990's.  Annie's full length album Diva hit the shops and became a multi-platninum smash, wiping away the fears Annie couldn't go it alone and establishes her as a strong, independent woman who can write and record with the best of them and dominate the airwaves.

Whilst many of the tracks on Diva are centred around the grieving process for a lost child, the dissolution of The Eurthymics and the failure of her relationship with Dave Stewart (her partner in the band), it is embed with personal triumph and a tenderness much missed in popular music.

The follow up single, Walking On Broken Glass is a stunning pop motif.  Contrary to the bop-pop positivity, the song is about a breakup.  And whilst Diva spawned a number of hits, Why and Walking On Broken Glass are the two I love most.  Ironically, another song from this period, initially used as a B-side, was a song she latter lent to Bram Stoker's Dracula Soundtrack.  Annie had read Coppola was doing a 'Dracula' movie and so she started reading Anne Rice and became fascinated.  Love Song For A Vampire was written and recorded prior to the movie release, so one can only assume the movie producers thought 'vampire song, vampire movie…voila!'.  However, Love Song For A Vampire has a haunting brilliance that decides that the 'vampire' condition is one of dependence and compulsive addictive behaviour; that the 'vampire' of the night, is shrouded in not only the real darkness, but the psychological darkness of its very existence.  

In 1995, after taking some time off to raise her children, she returned with a covers album titled Medusa.  Gleaned from this album is one of pop's truly best ever singles, No More I Love You's.  A minor hit for The Lover Speaks in 1986 (a support band for The Eurthymics whilst touring), this cover is scintillating.  

Personally, No More I Love You's is a theme to one of my own characters in my Alistair Raven books.  Archie Raven, Alistair's grandfather, who has been hiding himself in the shadows for forty years, having been a hero who had to sacrifice it all and in the process lose nearly all those he loved and cherished, there is a line in the song that resonates.  The regrets chew him up, so he has his personal demons.  

I used to have demons in my room at night
Desire, despair, desire…soooo many monsters.
Oh but now…

Befitting a man who fought a war, and lost it, the song has come to represent the sadness and loss in his life.  At the ultimate moment when his beloved wife dies, her final words  - no more I love you's - leaving him alone in a grim world with a toddler grandson.  But there's a certain degree of looking forward.  Where Archie realises he must come to care and nurture and raise his grandson, he can't dwell in the gloom and must move on…hence the 'no more I love you's'.  It's the kind of song that leaves a lump in my throat as well as Lee when I established this backstory, and if I can get an audience crying, I know I'm hitting the mark.  Annie Lennox certainly hit the mark here methinks.

Finally, on the Japanese release of Medusa, Annie's cover of The Psychedelic Furs Heaven is a bonus track.  I include it here because it's rad!

Despite all her success as a pop star - no…a DIVA - Annie has spent the best part of nearly 20 years doing humanitarian work whilst releasing the occasional, highly anticipated new album.  In fact, come the end of the month, Annie releases her newest album, which I bet will smash the charts once more.

For mine, Annie Lennox is someone to be cherished.  Her voice is one amazing treasure, and sometime soon, I'll write up a Eurthymics column.  I hope you enjoy it too.










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