Savage (album)

Savage
Studio album by Eurythmics
Publication (s)	November 2nd 1987
Label (s)	RCA Records
Genre (s)	Synth pop , electronic music
Title (number)	12
running time	47 min, 20 s
production	David A. Stewart
chronology Revenge (1986) Savage We Too Are One (1989)

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Savage   DE 23 11/23/1987 (13 weeks)   AT 17th December 15, 1987 (4 weeks)   CH 10 11/29/1987 (5 weeks)   UK 7th 11/21/1987 (33 weeks)   US 41 December 26, 1987 (19 weeks)

Singles

Beethoven (I Love to Listen To)   DE 28 11/09/1987 (11 weeks)   CH 19th 11/08/1987 (5 weeks)   UK 25th October 24, 1987 (5 weeks) Shame   DE 53 02/01/1988 (5 weeks)   UK 41 December 19, 1987 (7 weeks) I need a man   UK 26th 04/09/1988 (5 weeks)   US 46 01/30/1988 (10 weeks) You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart   UK 16 06/11/1988 (9 weeks)   US 64 May 28, 1988 (7 weeks)

Savage is the sixth official studio album of British pop - duo Eurythmics . It was released in November 1987 by RCA Records and achieved silver status in Great Britain for more than 60,000 units and gold status in Switzerland for 25,000 units.

Emergence

The preparatory work and the recordings for the album were accompanied by changes in the private lives of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart .

In March 1987 Lennox separated from her then partner, the dancer and choreographer Billy Poveda. Lennox processed the breakup in the lyrics for the album, which she began to write around this time. On March 18, 1987, the Eurythmics appeared in the course of the promotion for the previous album Revenge in the Japanese capital Tokyo , the concert was recorded for a documentary film . This later appeared under the title Brand New Day after a piece that Lennox had already written for the upcoming album. From the summer of 1987, Lennox had a liaison with assistant director Uri Fruchtmann .

Dave Stewart married his heavily pregnant girlfriend Siobhan Fahey on August 1, 1987 at Château Dangu in Normandy . Tension arose between him and Lennox over Stewart's impending paternity.

After returning from his honeymoon , Stewart began recording Savage at Château Dangu in the fall of 1987 . Annie Lennox was only in the studio twice during the three months of recording. After Stewart had mostly finished recording the instrumental tracks, he met with Lennox in Paris . The musicians settled their personal differences and Lennox went to the studio for a week to record the vocals.

Musically, the album represented a return to the roots of eurythmics in synth-pop of the early 1980s; in addition to Stewart and Lennox, only Olle Romo was involved in the recordings as a programmer. Stewart had composed the music by himself and recorded it with the help of synthesizers . Annie Lennox summed up that with the album the Eurythmics had reached depths that they had never reached before.

Music and lyrics

The album begins with Beethoven (I Love to Listen To) , which was released as a pre- release single in late October 1987 . The song is based on a pounding, evocative rhythm paired with a dynamic synthesizer melody. Annie Lennox's singing is highly articulate and evokes the British upper class accent, the lyrics are about a woman who mocks the lifestyle of young women. The following I've Got a Lover (Back in Japan) is carried by a catchy melody and Lennox's warm vocals, reminiscent of Aretha Franklin . He addresses the problems of love relationships. At the end of the song, the protagonist finally met the man of her dreams, this refers to Lennox's relationship with Fruchtmann. Do you want to break up? is a light and sugar-sweet song that impressively demonstrates Stewart's abilities as a producer. The content is about an unhappy relationship from which the protagonist tries to break out. The worn love song You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart is about disillusionment. When recording Shame , Annie Lennox's vocals were overdubbed several times to support the melody through the instruments. The song problematizes the fact that a star is loved by his fans but has problems finding a partner for life. The A-side ends with Savage . The text is written in the third person, consists of two simple stanzas and deals with the fact that art has the ability to free the world from its entropy . The centerpiece of the song is a long guitar solo.

The B-side begins with I Need a Man , a song about lust and female domination. Just like the following Put the Blame On Me , it is characterized by a distorted guitar riff, the latter reminiscent of the glam rock band Faster Pussycat . Heaven is an instrumental with a few words that are either whispered or whispered. The music should paint the picture of a perfect sky. The next track, Wide Eyed Girl, is a simple pop song that is given a live atmosphere by sampled applause. The song is considered unsuitable for the album. The acoustic guitars in I Need You make the song appear as a folk song. Laughter in the background creates a cocktail party atmosphere. The album ends with the simple and gospel-like Brand New Day . It also marks the end of one of Annie Lennox's most personal albums and describes the anticipation of the new day after waking up from a bad dream.

Track list

1. Beethoven (I Love to Listen To) - 4:48
2. I've Got a Lover (Back in Japan) - 4:25
3. Do you want to break up? - 3:38
4. You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart - 3:50
5. Shame - 4:23
6. Savage - 4:10
7. I Need a Man - 4:21
8. Put the Blame on Me - 3:44
9. Heaven - 3:28
10. Wide Eyed Girl - 3:29
11. I Need You - 3:22
12. Brand New Day - 3:42

All songs and lyrics were composed by Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart.

Reviews

Bill Coleman of Billboard Magazine calls Savage brilliant and one of the best albums in eurythmics. It combines the eccentricity of In the Garden and 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother) with the commercially oriented synth rock of Touch and Revenge . The album is refreshing and imaginative and exactly what the club owners expected from the band. Tony Mitchell of Sounds wrote that the album was ripe and the songwriting was better than what you find on contemporary albums. Glenn O'Brien from Spin sums up that Savage is a very pleasant album that strikes a very good balance between “ metaphysical values, slapstick , euphoric sound quality, lovable sensuality and attractive intelligence”. William Ruhlmann from Allmusic says that with Savage the Eurythmics took a step back in their artistic development. He laments the album's comparatively low commercial success in the USA and criticizes the lack of inspiration.

literature

• Bryony Sutherland, Lucy Ellis: Annie Lennox: The Biography . Omnibus Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-7119-9192-7 , pp. 285-291 .
• Glenn O'Brien: Spins Platter du Jour: Eurythmics - Savage . In: Spin Magazine . March 1988, p. 26-27 .

Web links

• Savage in Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ release date
2. ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH Charts UK Charts US
3. ^ Sutherland, Ellis: Annie Lennox: The Biography , p. 283.
4. ^ Sutherland, Ellis: Annie Lennox: The Biography , p. 286.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Sutherland, Ellis: Annie Lennox: The Biography , p. 287.
6. ↑ Glenn O'Brien in: Spin Magazine , p. 26.
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Sutherland, Ellis: Annie Lennox: The Biography , p. 288.
8. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Glenn O'Brien in: Spin Magazine , p. 27.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Sutherland, Ellis: Annie Lennox: The Biography , p. 289.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Sutherland, Ellis: Annie Lennox: The Biography , p. 290.
11. ↑ ^{a b} Sutherland, Ellis: Annie Lennox: The Biography , p. 291.
12. ↑ Bill Coleman, Eurythmics' Savage Sure To Unleash Club Tracks . In: Billboard Magazine . December 26, 1987, p. 35 .