In the garden

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In the garden
Studio album by Eurythmics

Publication
(s)

October 16, 1981

Label (s) RCA Records / BMG

Genre (s)

New wave

Title (number)

10

running time

39min 10s

production

Eurythmics, Conny Plank

chronology
- In the garden Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
(1983)

In the Garden is the debut album of British pop - duo Eurythmics . It was released in October 1981. Despite some good reviews, the album was not a commercial success, only the pre-released single Never Gonna Cry Again hit the charts in the UK.

Recordings

In February 1981 Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart went to the Conny Plank recording studio in Wolperath to record their debut album on the basis of numerous demo recordings. Bassist Holger Czukay and drummer Jaki Liebezeit (both Can ), drummer Robert Görl and singer Gabi Delgado-López (both DAF ) as well as blondie drummer Clem Burke worked as studio musicians . Annie Lennox was able to win the renowned Sir Timothy Wheater as saxophonist . The titles of the album were written by Lennox and Stewart, and Roger Pomphrey, a close friend of the duo, worked on some of the compositions. He also recorded most of the guitar tracks. The studio musicians involved played a key role in arranging the individual tracks. Was produced in the Garden by Conny Plank, which in return a third of the royalties secured the album. The recordings lasted until June 1981.

Content

The album is about a lonely woman named Belinda who is unable to relate to the outside world and does not trust anyone. She stays in different rooms and occasionally in her garden and believes that she is invisible. Belinda is introduced in English Summer , and composer Dave Stewart tries to portray the character of the protagonist through a melancholy mood and a change in key between minor and major . With Belinda , stylistically reminiscent of the former band of Lennox and Stewart The Tourists , the story continues and continues with Take Me to Your Heart . The song processes influences from bands like The Cure or Siouxsie and the Banshees . She's Invisible Now picks up the theme of the first song both lyrically and musically, supported by a monotonous countdown and the noises of a cash register .

Caveman Head , which, like English Summer, was co-composed by Roger Pomphrey, features distorted guitars and percussions topped by Lennox's siren-like vocals. It leaves the listener in the dark about whether the protagonist indulges in sexual fantasies. The following Never Gonna Cry Again with its catchy and poppy melody was released as a single in advance . Even more relaxed than Never Gonna Cry Again sounds underlaid with a gentle bass line All the Young (People of Today) in which to sarcastic reported way about the contemporary sexual preferences. Sing-Sing , sung mainly in French , is based on a monotonous electronic basic theme that is repeated endlessly and is intended to reflect the monotony of Belinda's life. The last track on the album, Revenge , is a no-nonsense pop song that is about a sadistic woman who plays with people around her as if they were dolls.

Artwork

In March 1981, through friends Alex McDowell , I got in touch with photographer Peter Ashworth, who became known for the cover photography for the 1980 album Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam & The Ants . The photo sessions took place in a garden in the Swiss Cottage district of London . The lush green of the garden contrasted with the artists in black and Annie Lennox's hair dyed orange. In the following years there was a brief affair between Lennox and Ashworth.

publication

In May 1981, the album's first single, Never Gonna Cry Again, was released on RCA Records , on the B-side was Le Sinistre, a song that is not on the album. Despite good reviews, a television appearance and a music video , the single did not have the hoped-for success and only reached number 63 on the British charts.

In August 1981 the second single Belinda was released, here too, Heartbeat Heartbeat was a song on the B-side, which is not represented on the album. Due to the moderate success of Never Gonna Cry Again, the record company did not provide any money for a music video , and the single could not make it into the charts. The album itself was only released in Europe in October 1981 and, despite some good reviews, could not place in any hit parade . Following the release, the duo went on a tour of Great Britain, taking everything from sound to lighting into their own hands.

Track list

  1. English Summer (Lennox, Pomphrey, Stewart) - 4:02
  2. Belinda (Lennox, Stewart) - 3:58
  3. Take Me to Your Heart (Lennox, Stewart) - 3:35
  4. She's Invisible Now (Lennox, Stewart) - 3:30
  5. Your Time Will Come (Lennox, Stewart) - 4:34
  6. Caveman Head (Lennox, Pomphrey, Stewart) - 3:59
  7. Never Gonna Cry Again (Lennox, Stewart) - 3:05
  8. All the Young (People of Today) (Lennox, Stewart) - 4:14
  9. Sing-Sing (Lennox, Stewart) - 4:05
  10. Revenge (Lennox, Stewart) - 4:31

reception

The reviews were mixed. The NME celebrated the album as the right step towards mature music and noted that the former tourists had arrived qualitatively where they wanted to be. The newspaper The Guardian described the album as a very pleasant and stylish, although the material is not always as impressive as the artists themselves. The Time Out criticized the indecision between "pastoral pop and German modernism", and the reviewer of the Record Mirror concluded that he could not decide whether it was "a good album or just a bunch of chocolates".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sutherland / Ellis, p. 119.
  2. ↑ a b Sutherland / Ellis, p. 120.
  3. ↑ a b Sutherland / Ellis, p. 121.
  4. ↑ Sutherland / Ellis, p. 122.
  5. ↑ a b c Sutherland / Ellis, p. 126.
  6. ↑ Sutherland / Ellis, p. 129.
  7. ↑ Sutherland / Ellis, p. 127.

literature

  • Bryony Sutherland, Lucy Ellis: Annie Lennox: The Biography . Omnibus Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-7119-9192-7 , pp. 117-129 .

Web links