As
I grew older and my musical tastes matured, I continued to keep a
watching brief on Eurythmics. I seem to think I bought "Savage" on CD as my first foray into their back
catalogue and by the time "We Too Are One" came out I was a confirmed
fan. So essentially, I always liked Eurythmics, but only started buying
their records as the group began to disintegrate.
In some ways "Sweet Dreams (are made of this)" is both a beginning for Eurythmics and their zenith. With this album Dave and Annie finally found commercial success, but in terms of electronic music, nothing else in their back catalogue came close to matching this. Yes, "Touch" is impressive and "Savage" partially revived the electronic sound; but no other album is as consistent in its genius as "Sweet Dreams". Here I will be playing a standard, common or garden original pressing of the album that I acquired from eBay in 2014.
The album begins with "Love is a Stranger" which is a great song but a curious choice for a single (don't let the peak chart position of this song fool you, it was initially released before the album and did nothing; it only became a hit after the album was released). Having said that, the first two singles from the album "The Walk" and "This Is The House" are even more bizarre selections. Whilst all three of these songs are masterful in their production, they aren't the immediate, radio friendly ear worms that would have garnered commercial success. At the time Dave and Annie were making music at home using an eight track and a small selection of synthesizers. There was no master plan or co-ordinated effort, they were just releasing material as they created it. Things only took off when Dave threw a bass line into the sequencer and Annie overdubbed a synth riff and began singing the line "Sweet dreams are made of this".
The second track "I've Got an Angel" features Annie's flute and some gritty synth bass that provides the perfect counterpoint to the polished vocal. I must confess, I didn't realise the next track "Wrap it up" was a cover version until I wrote this article. This track features the inimitable Green Gartside singing a duet with Annie to great effect. For some reason I have always liked the abstract, and vaguely sinister "Jennifer". This song is almost the equivalent of in impressionist painting with lyrics that are vague enough to allow the listener to interpret them and create their own story.
The album closes with two mid-tempo tracks in the form of "Somebody Told Me" and "This City Never Sleeps". The former song is a tense affair which relies upon the juxtaposition between a laconic Juno-60 bassline and Dave's bluesy slide guitar. The oppressive atmosphere of "This City Never Sleeps" is somehow disturbing and soporific in equal measure. Both songs seem to wind the album down and make a perfect ending.
A short time after the final track has come to an end, you can just about make out the sound of underground trains and there is even a "secret message". As I only owned the album on CD in the early nineties, I had no way of playing this reversed message and it wasn't until I recorded a WAV file into my PC and reversed it in 1995 that I finally heard Dave saying: "I enjoyed making that record. Very good.". And he's right, it is a very good record. 5/5
