Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is a truly amazing album. The band was fresh, new and very experimental. The songs are very artsy, some with a hint of left over traces of punk. If you're looking for anything as awful and chart geared as "Would I lie to you" on this gem, then pass this up. There is no "hit" single on this album; just great and haunting songs from a band that sounded like they were making music they wanted to, and not for mass consumption. Two singles were released from this album - one barely charted in the UK and the other failed totally, at least on a commercial level.
This album was before Annie Lennox started with her never ending, soulful ranting and wailing, (see destroyed versions of some of these songs on their 1983 concert video release). Just listen to the opening track, the haunting "English summer", followed by the wonderful upbeat failed single "Belinda", to the moody and wonderful "Take me to your heart". Just amazing. A real highlight is the agressive "Caveman head", in which Annie sings with a very deadpan tone with all sorts or distant shouting in the background.
Thankfully, this new reissue has the excellent B side of the singles, which were only previously available on pricey used vinyl. "Le sinistre" is a definite horror movie, and "Heartbeat heartbeat" is a fast, punchy, short song that remains my favorite Eurythmics B side. The reissue also includes 3 of the 4 live B sides from the "This is the house" 12" single, all of which are very good, (though why they left one off is bewildering to me).
The remastering of the CD is pretty good, though in truth I think my original CD sounded a bit better. With this reissue, along with the 'Sweet Dreams' reissue, you can hear some occasional bits of stereo fluctuation, which could be caused by the aging tapes or so-so tape trasfer equipment during the remastering. The booklet is amazing, containing many rare session photos that just show how wonderfully bizarre Dave and Annie were at this time.
Unfortunately, nothing from this album has ever been represented at all on the bands 'Greatest hits' CD's. Granted, it wasn't a big success, but at least the inclusion of one of the singles would give a better overall representation of their career. Instead you get all of that "Sisters are doing it for themselves" garbage.
Eurythmics continued making some interesting music on their next two albums 'Sweet dreams' and 'Touch', but those awful funky vibes were starting to come through, and once they dumped the electronic percussion for the dreadful 1985 album 'Be yourself tonight', it was all over with the rare exception of the occasional decent song.
This unique and wonderful album would definitely be one of my Desert Island choices - I'll never tire of it. It's definitely in my top 5 all-time favorite albums.
This album was before Annie Lennox started with her never ending, soulful ranting and wailing, (see destroyed versions of some of these songs on their 1983 concert video release). Just listen to the opening track, the haunting "English summer", followed by the wonderful upbeat failed single "Belinda", to the moody and wonderful "Take me to your heart". Just amazing. A real highlight is the agressive "Caveman head", in which Annie sings with a very deadpan tone with all sorts or distant shouting in the background.
Thankfully, this new reissue has the excellent B side of the singles, which were only previously available on pricey used vinyl. "Le sinistre" is a definite horror movie, and "Heartbeat heartbeat" is a fast, punchy, short song that remains my favorite Eurythmics B side. The reissue also includes 3 of the 4 live B sides from the "This is the house" 12" single, all of which are very good, (though why they left one off is bewildering to me).
The remastering of the CD is pretty good, though in truth I think my original CD sounded a bit better. With this reissue, along with the 'Sweet Dreams' reissue, you can hear some occasional bits of stereo fluctuation, which could be caused by the aging tapes or so-so tape trasfer equipment during the remastering. The booklet is amazing, containing many rare session photos that just show how wonderfully bizarre Dave and Annie were at this time.
Unfortunately, nothing from this album has ever been represented at all on the bands 'Greatest hits' CD's. Granted, it wasn't a big success, but at least the inclusion of one of the singles would give a better overall representation of their career. Instead you get all of that "Sisters are doing it for themselves" garbage.
Eurythmics continued making some interesting music on their next two albums 'Sweet dreams' and 'Touch', but those awful funky vibes were starting to come through, and once they dumped the electronic percussion for the dreadful 1985 album 'Be yourself tonight', it was all over with the rare exception of the occasional decent song.
This unique and wonderful album would definitely be one of my Desert Island choices - I'll never tire of it. It's definitely in my top 5 all-time favorite albums.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The first Eurythmics album (although actually the 5th time that former Longdancer and Tourist David A Stewart had made an album, whilst it was Annie Lennox's fourth, and the second time they'd been in the studio with legendary 'krautrock' producer Conny Plank...but this was the first time they'd be writing all the material and had creative control) is a rather muted, dreamy, unfocussed, psychedelic affair.
That's not to say it's no good - but none of the songs really leap out and arrest you as hit pop tunes the way much of their later work would - instead the album tends to cocoon the listener in an uneasy dislocated mood, full of Plank's trademark reverberting sound textures (there's tape flanging on here to match 'Ruckzuck' from the first Kraftwerk album of 1971, and plenty of echoing wierdness from Can's Leibzeit & Czukay).
All in all, this is a rather cold clammy mildewed garden, inhabited by a man who'd spent a large part of the 1970s living in squats taking LSD every day, and a woman who would experience two nervous breakdowns in the next 18 months.
That's not to say it's no good - but none of the songs really leap out and arrest you as hit pop tunes the way much of their later work would - instead the album tends to cocoon the listener in an uneasy dislocated mood, full of Plank's trademark reverberting sound textures (there's tape flanging on here to match 'Ruckzuck' from the first Kraftwerk album of 1971, and plenty of echoing wierdness from Can's Leibzeit & Czukay).
All in all, this is a rather cold clammy mildewed garden, inhabited by a man who'd spent a large part of the 1970s living in squats taking LSD every day, and a woman who would experience two nervous breakdowns in the next 18 months.
Anyhow, that's the music, how about this Sony-BMG remastered digipack? Well, the sound has a noticably improved clarity to my old 1980s RCA CD - the late Conny Plank would hopefully be delighted. The B-sides of the two singles from the original album make worthy additions ("HEARTBEAT HEARTBEAT" in particular is a gripping krautrock stomper), as are three live recordings from Eurythmics 1981 tour (performed by three persons and a tape machine) - originally these appeared as tracks on the 12" of their 1982 single, 'This is the House' - however, inexplicably, since the running time of the CD is only 57 minutes, the live version of "Your Time Will Come" from that 12" hasn't been included here - a shame, cos it was probably the best of the four!
Another minor gripe - although the digipack/booklet contains plenty of lovely previously unseen photos, the artwork from the two "Belinda" and "Never Gonna Cry Again" singles isn't included (the latter featured a striking photo of Lennox as a gargoyle, well worth seeing!), neither is the listing of musicians from the singles, and also the lyrics aren't included (they were on the original release).
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Why has this fantastic album slipped through the annals of music history, without the faintest recognition of a classic?? It is absolutely fantastic! I really dig the morose, yet beautiful vocals mixed up with those eerie and inventive guitare sounds to produce an overall mood and melody contained in 10 great tracks (particularly English Summer and Never Gonna Cry Again).
This album relies on the type of minimalism that exudes a non-pompous brilliance, making many albums of the early 80's great, such as Boy Don't Cry from the Cure or Garlands from Cocteau Twins.
If anything, I think that their follow-up album was quite a disappointment, apart from tracks "Sweet Dreams", "Love Is A Stranger" and "Jennifer".
This album relies on the type of minimalism that exudes a non-pompous brilliance, making many albums of the early 80's great, such as Boy Don't Cry from the Cure or Garlands from Cocteau Twins.
If anything, I think that their follow-up album was quite a disappointment, apart from tracks "Sweet Dreams", "Love Is A Stranger" and "Jennifer".
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Classic
The Eurythmics before they found chart success and glory.
I'd forgotten how much I liked this album until I revisited it recently....... Read more
I'd forgotten how much I liked this album until I revisited it recently....... Read more
Published 8 months ago by JustLetMeReadThisChapter
DIGIPACK
HAD THE CASSETTE, THEN THE CD,NOW THIS DIGIPACK ,LOTS OF GOOD STUFF ON IT WELL WORTH THE MONEY....NICE TO HEAR LIVE STUFF
Published 10 months ago by DODGE
Dreamy, multitextured music
This dreamy, avant-garde album of 1981 gave little indication of the Eurythmics' subsequent melodic pop direction that led them to mega stardom for most of the decade. Read more
Published on 5 Jun 2009 by Pieter
Atmospheric and haunting
This experimental, avant-garde album gave no indication of the Eurythmics' subsequent melodic pop direction and mega stardom. Read more
Published on 27 Nov 2004 by Pieter
Back where it all started...
Melancholy, French lyrics and bleakness are not usually things that one would associate with a normal garden, but then this is the Eurythmics we're looking at. Read more
Published on 25 Oct 2002 by Pete A
Seriously Overlooked Electro-Rock Album
This album had been bugging me for years after I withdrew it from the local library once, without making a decent copy, largely due to the immensely catchy "She's Invisible... Read more
Published on 4 Sep 2002 by Ophiicus
The Tourists Grow Up
Ahhhh....what an album!. One can hear Annie Lennox's vocal style emerging and developing very well but it would be years before the Eurythmics moved away from the later... Read more
Published on 20 July 2001 by A. Reynolds
WISTFUL & HAUNTING
This dreamy, avant-garde album of 1981 gave little indication of the Eurythmics' subsequent melodic pop direction that led them to mega stardom for most of the decade. Read more
Published on 14 July 2000 by Pieter
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
