For those of you picking up this new CD by Annie Lennox primarily for the benefit song \u201cSing,\u201d I would advise you to be warned. It\u2019s the worst song on the album. With its headline-grabbing Choir of 23 (only Madonna and Joss Stone\u2019s voice can be heard), the track is poorly conceived and, as a result, falls completely apart from the sheer weight of it all. In short, it\u2019s a mess. <\/p>\n
Yes, Annie is doing all she can here to bring the issue of AIDS in Africa to the fore, but America has been rendered immobile by all the causes out there competing for our attention and help. We\u2019re in the middle of a stupid war, Annie, or have you noticed? The subject of the Middle East alone has been causing enough apathy, without adding the plight of Africa into the mix. <\/p>\n
Apart from \u201cSing,\u201d there are plenty of other morose, downbeat material to ponder over on Songs Of Mass Destruction<\/i>, Annie Lennox\u2019s fourth solo album. Titles like \u201cDark Road,\u201d \u201cThrough The Glass Darkly\u201d and \u201cLost\u201d are just what the manic depressives of the world have ordered. It’s dark, gloomy and simply perfect for those of us who seem to get more out of music like this than any amount of time spent in a psychiatrist\u2019s office. If anything, much of this record could be used as an adjunct to one\u2019s therapy. I\u2019m not kidding. <\/p>\n
But like our moods, the music here is ever changing. When the upbeat numbers kick in (and there are more of those this time around), the emotionally-charged lyrics give the listener a moment of freedom and catharsis from their melancholic burdens. Hearing Annie break free at the end of \u201cLove Is Blind\u201d when she recites \u201cTired of being down on luck, tired of being beaten up, tired of being so screwed up\u201d lets you know that Annie means some serious business. <\/p>\n
She then proceeds to take things to the next level on \u201cGhosts In My Machine\u201d (think \u201cTake Your Pain Away\u201d) and \u201cWomankind\u201d (think \u201cSisters Are Doing It For Themselves\u201d). Many of the other songs are the type of gauzy fare we have come to expect from the former Eurythmic. Personally, I could do without hearing another \u201cWhy\u201d retread. Nevertheless, ballads like \u201cSmithereens,\u201d \u201cBig Sky\u201d and \u201cFingernail Moon\u201d are also there for the taking. Undoubtedly, Enya and Dido fans will find that kind of relaxing stuff appealing. Call me old school, but I\u2019ll take \u201cLittle Bird\u201d and even \u201cColoured Bedspread\u201d (dumb titles, great songs) over that other boring stuff any day. <\/p>\n
Oh and by the way, Glen Ballard of Alanis Morissette fame produced this album, which is, by far, Annie\u2019s personal best thus far. Look out Grammy Awards, here she comes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":29032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5848],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-40546","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-annie-lennox","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40546"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40546"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}