Welcome to what will be known as “1981-Day Monday.” A theme that may run all summer long. We’ll see where it goes after that.
The premise? Well, it’ll be for me to write about an album from 1981 that I have either never listened to at all, or have not heard for a very long time, and then share my thoughts on it. The vast majority will be albums I have never listened to before, either by artists I am a fairweather fan of, or perhaps an act I might have heard of at some point but don’t know any of their music at all.
I’m starting this exploration with an album that I am pretty sure I have never played before. I’m not even sure I knew of its existence until very recently.
I have been a fan of Eurythmics for many, many years. Since the time of ‘Sweet Dreams’ so it astounds me that I never really knew of In The Garden or had ever explored it before. Last night I gave it a listen.
I enjoyed it. I’m not sure yet where I’d place it within the canon of Eurythmics music. A second listen is definitely required and desired – so that’s a good thing! The first track that really drew my attention that I took deeper notice of was ‘Take Me to Your Heart,’ swiftly followed by ‘She’s Invisible Now.’ Then I was drawn back again during ‘Never Gonna Cry Again’ and ‘All the Young (People of Today).’ Finally, it seemed as if the end track ‘Revenge’ strongly signalled where Annie and Dave would go next on their musical journey.
But ‘Take Me to Your Heart’ for me was the album’s stand-out. I kept wondering what it was reminding me of. There was something about it that sounded like someone I was more familiar with – a more recent artist. Then it hit me! It was the sound of Pollyn I was hearing. Annie was singing in a softer style and it was reminding me so much of Genevieve Artadi’s voice. The style of the music too was very Pollyn.
Looking at the personnel for the album, I was surprised to read that it was produced by Conny Plank and that Hulger Czukay had been involved, let alone that some duties were covered by Clem Burke. But it was the drumming of Jaki Liebezeit on All the earlier tracks mentioned (minus ‘She’s Invisible Now’) that won me over.
I get the sense that it’s a kind of “bridge” album, somewhat straddling some of the sounds of The Tourists before moving onto by 1983 would become a quite signature Eurythmics sound, heavily synth-oriented pop. I don’t hear too much of any Krautrock influences given Plank produced the album and several other German electronic/Euro-dance/synth-pop demi-gods were involved in its production.
I am definitely interested in listening to it again and it has only confirmed my suspicion and belief that there are many gems from 1981 that have managed to elude me for the past 40+ years that I am relishing the idea of exploring.
This is just the first week of this – the concept coined just this morning. Next week I’ll hopefully be more erudite with my wording and more prepared with what I’ll write about the next album I’ll explore. With that in mind, I may come back to In The Garden at the end of this whole 1981 albums exploration. That only seems fair.
Until next week, adios!
And for some comparison – a bit of Pollyn…
