The early years of the Eurythmics are remembered largely for their marketing; Annie Lennox dressed like a New Wave Ziggy Stardust in order to sell Sweet Dreams to MTV kids, and her overtly androgynous posing, complete with orange-dyed crew cut, seems almost clownish in retrospect. But the blaze of their image obscures the strengths of their music—here evident even on a deeper cut—pitting Lennox's soulful power vocals against the bleak machine-scape of Dave A. Stewart's synthesizers and drum machines. The contrast would not be more evident than on No Fear No Hate No Pain (No Broken Hearts). Over a beat that at first recalls Vangelis' Chariots of Fire theme (and later Vangelis' Blade Runner theme—Stewart went into soundtracks himself at one point), Lennox compares the struggles of waking up in the morning to cold, cold steel. With the detached churn of Stewart's electronics, we believe her. During the chorus, however—as Lennox sings "No fear no hate no pain..." and her voice leaps up a fifth for each "no"—she begins to sound mechanized herself. Entering the second verse, she compares holding a gun to...cold, cold steel. She references shooting up a line or two later, so probably this "killing gun" is a metaphor for a needle filled with drugs that she uses to survive living in the dystopia of her robotic world. Although now it sounds like the drum machine is shooting a gun. At least it's not a sample of an actual gun. You know, back in those days you had to make your own sfx. On computers.Friday, October 2, 2009
999,974: Eurythmics — No Fear No Hate No Pain (No Broken Hearts)
The early years of the Eurythmics are remembered largely for their marketing; Annie Lennox dressed like a New Wave Ziggy Stardust in order to sell Sweet Dreams to MTV kids, and her overtly androgynous posing, complete with orange-dyed crew cut, seems almost clownish in retrospect. But the blaze of their image obscures the strengths of their music—here evident even on a deeper cut—pitting Lennox's soulful power vocals against the bleak machine-scape of Dave A. Stewart's synthesizers and drum machines. The contrast would not be more evident than on No Fear No Hate No Pain (No Broken Hearts). Over a beat that at first recalls Vangelis' Chariots of Fire theme (and later Vangelis' Blade Runner theme—Stewart went into soundtracks himself at one point), Lennox compares the struggles of waking up in the morning to cold, cold steel. With the detached churn of Stewart's electronics, we believe her. During the chorus, however—as Lennox sings "No fear no hate no pain..." and her voice leaps up a fifth for each "no"—she begins to sound mechanized herself. Entering the second verse, she compares holding a gun to...cold, cold steel. She references shooting up a line or two later, so probably this "killing gun" is a metaphor for a needle filled with drugs that she uses to survive living in the dystopia of her robotic world. Although now it sounds like the drum machine is shooting a gun. At least it's not a sample of an actual gun. You know, back in those days you had to make your own sfx. On computers.
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