The Legendary Annie Lennox
I was truly looking forward to writing this review. There are so many things that need to be said in regards to this woman. Its beyond her voice, beyond her presence, beyond her deeds, its all of it rolled up into one. The Great Annie Lennox.
As most people, my first experience with Annie Lennox was with the band, The Eurythmics. The 80s brought about sooo many amazing bands into my life and The Eurythmics were one of them. The moment I saw her I saw fire. LOL. That short red hair, the stunning eyes, the androgynous look made me think “Who IS that???” Then I heard that voice!
Annie has this voice that you see her and think, “wow that just came out of her mouth… really…awesome!”. Its deep,sultry, powerful, shocking, beautiful, enchanting, I could go on forever. You heard her voice and you forgot about everything around you. All that mattered was her voice. The great thing was my mom fell in love with her too and when you are 8 years old, with not many friends, and raised by a single mom, your bond is stronger and having our love for The Eurythmics and Annie Lennox made it just that much more fun!
So eventually Scottish-born Annie took a much needed break from the Eurythmics to work on solo work and whoa did THAT take off!!
Her first “solo” work was mainly a duet with Al Green covering the song “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” for the movie Scrooged. it was produced by her Eurythmics cohort Dave Stewart and it was just uphill from there.
Her first solo album Diva is probably one of THE most amazing albums ever. The songs “Why” and “Walking On Broken Glass” were epic! I can listen to Why and cry my eyes out. Its basically everything I feel in my head when I feel supressed or patronized. Its someone yelling for you “THIS IS HOW I FEEL YOU DONT KNOW HOW I FEEL!!” Its such a release you want to laugh, scream, cry, shake your fist, breathe a sigh of relief. Walking on Broken Glass the range of octaves for her in the bridge are just so amazing. Its a standard of mine in karaoke. Little Bird is also a favorite from that album. The video for it is just as great. A bunch of lookalikes from all her personas in her many different videos from the past. Its a fun romp!
She also did a song for the movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The movie kinda sucked but the song “Song for a Vampire” is one of the most beautiful songs in the world. I wish I had sang it. I wish I had that talent. I do have talent but wow, to be Annie Lennox!
Anyways after Diva came Medusa which was an album of cover songs however I gotta tell ya, I forgot No More I Love You’s wasnt her own song. In fact almost all the songs on that cd you forget they are from other people because she makes them her own.
Bare was exactly that but in a good way. A bit more simplistic yet just as beautiful. Annie found her niche and its as a phenomenal solo diva!
As for soundtrack work, she release yet another gem with her song for Return of the King, “Into the West”. It won a well deserved Oscar for best original song.
More recently in 2007 she had put out yet another album entitled, Songs of Mass Destruction. I highly suggest checking out all of her work. Annie Lennox is sheer majesty! I bow down in reverence.
The video I have is Song for a Vampire from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It was hard finding a video since most were disabled for embedding yet I lucked out with this one!
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