Eurythmics – Peace
Like a lot of groups – Man Or Astroman?, the Moody Blues and others – the Eurythmics suddenly reunited in 1999, as if the year 2000 signaled the end of everything (or at least the end of the line for any veteran groups who planned on reuniting).
And for at least the first two tracks on Peace, I thought that the Eurythmics of old had gone the way of the Moody Blues of old. There was a time when the Eurythmics were the cutting edge, riding the crest of the new wave sound in the early 80s. Very little of that history is acknowledged here, in an album which sounds very much like an Annie Lennox solo project with Dave Stewart playing backup.
“Peace Is Just A Word”, “I Want It All” and “Power To The Meek” are the only tracks which hearken back to the days when the Eurythmics were synonymous with musical innovation. I mean, not to imply that I don’t enjoy a good Annie Lennox vocal as much as the next listener, but there was something about the Eurythmics from 1981 to 1985 – between In The Garden and the hard-rocking Be Yourself Tonight – that was more than the sum of its parts. Dave Stewart went on to do solo projects and collaborations with such artists as Candy Dulfer, while Annie launched a solo career that never quite went stratospheric. Whether they were charting untouched new wave territory, or rolling in the soul with their later albums, Lennox and Stewart were always better as a team than as two solo acts.
Yet Peace comes across as one of Annie Lennox’s solo releases – lots of string backing, woodwinds in a few places, and generally soft rock all around. Dave Stewart’s a capable rock musician, and that is hardly heard on Peace.
Some of the ballads are nice though: “17 Again” addresses the follies of teenage relationships and convictions (while also referencing “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)”, the original Eurythmics hit), and Lifted hints at the 
gospel choir backing that the Eurythmics briefly experimented with in the late 1980s. “I Saved The World Today” is also relaxing, if a little bit Pollyanna in its subject matter.
Overall, this quick-reunion-for-a-millennial-album reaps some decent tunes, but just not the sound that fans of the Eurythmics have come to expect – and some may find that disappointing.
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- 17 Again (4:55)
- I Saved The World Today (4:53)
- Power To The Meek (3:18)
- Beautiful Child (3:27)
- Anything But Strong (5:04)
- Peace Is Just A Word (5:51)
- I’ve Tried Everything (4:17)
- I Want It All (3:32)
- My True Love (4:45)
- Forever (4:08)
- Lifted (4:49)
Released by: Arista
Release date: 1999
Total running time: 48:58
If there was ever a bigger switch in a group’s sound in the 1980s, I must’ve missed it. From the folks who brought you “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” and “Here Comes The Rain Again” comes a chronicle of the band’s hits and oddities (my all-time Eurythmics favorite remains, to this day, the very weird “Love Is A Stranger,” and that’s here too). Included are such personal favorites “Who’s That Girl?” (not the Madonna song, thank you very much), the hard-rocking “Would I Lie To You?”, and my two favorites from their last album, “There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)” and “Don’t Ask Me 
Why”. If you liked the Eurythmics but aren’t up for tracking down their original catalog, chances are you can save a lot of searching and find the song(s) you liked here.