{"id":41162,"date":"2008-10-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/1984-for-the-love-of-big-brother\/"},"modified":"2008-10-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-19T00:00:00","slug":"1984-for-the-love-of-big-brother","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/1984-for-the-love-of-big-brother\/","title":{"rendered":"1984: For The Love Of Big Brother"},"content":{"rendered":"

Considering all the songs are performed by the same artist, 1984: For The Love Of Big Brother <\/i>is more like a concept album than an actual film soundtrack. Still, it does have more music than actual lyrics, and many times, singer Annie Lennox is left to use her voice as nothing more than window dressing for several instrumental pieces (such as \u201cI Did It Just The Same\u201d and \u201cGreetings From A Dead Man\u201d). With such minimum participation by Lennox<\/st1:place>, it\u2019s a wonder her producer\/partner David A. Stewart opted to use her at all on this project. Though the lyrics may be few and far between on this record, Stewart and Lennox<\/st1:place> were given complete and total freedom in creating a film soundtrack\/score of their own design.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The fruits of their labor are best represented by 1984<\/i>\u2019s two singles, \u201cSexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)\u201d and \u201cJulia.\u201d I remember when \u201cSexcrime\u201d was first released and the minor controversy it stirred up in its wake. Back then, it was considered taboo for a song to have the word \u201csex\u201d in its title, so it was hardly surprising that radio stations refused to play it. It was the first danceable track Eurythmics had released up to that point and it is certainly the fiercest and most extreme in their entire catalog. It may have been dead on arrival when it came to mainstream public opinion, but I love it. As for the overlong, languid ballad \u201cJulia,\u201d it is all about atmosphere and Lennox<\/st1:place>\u2019s shimmering vocal talents, even if it does prove to be an impenetrable listen that requires tremendous patience on behalf of the listener.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Two other standouts on this album that would make the book\u2019s author George Orwell proud are \u201cFor The Love Of Big Brother\u201d and \u201cDoubleplusgood.\u201d The former is a wonderful chill-out number that has some nice Middle-Eastern elements, while the latter is a pulsating anthem set to primitive sounding beats and percussion. Lennox<\/st1:place> seizes the opportunity to make both tracks her own, also helping to demonstrate her incredible range as a vocalist in the process. She has always had the rare ability to morph into the perfect persona that each song requires. On \u201cFor The Love Of Big Brother,\u201d she is purring seductively, while on \u201cDoubleplusgood\u201d she is broadcasting the news in some obscure language, even counting numbers down in a menacing tone of voice at the song\u2019s end.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Eurythmics would try once more to win over the American public with their singular, extreme creative visions with 1987\u2019s Savage<\/i>. Unfortunately, in the sanitized Reagan era, we weren\u2019t quite ready to deal with anything edgy or experimental, preferring to go about our daily, 9 to 5<\/st1:time>, suburban, Pleasantville<\/i> lives safely and quietly. We didn\u2019t want to know what may have been lurking in the dark right around the corner. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":29568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7834],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41162","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-eurythmics","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41162","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=41162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41162"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}