Eurythmics
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

THE REVIEW

The beauty of the eighties is that they are clear, the distinction between good and bad is sharp. On one side, there are the good (qualitatively good because they might actually be really bad) like Depeche Mode, the Smiths, Joy Division and all those nice folks there, and on the other side there are the bad (qualitatively bad because they surely have rampant sentimentalism among their values, as is typical for most crappy musicians) like Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, and all those unpleasant folks there. The doubt arises when considering a group like the Eurythmics: where to place this atypical duo reworking pop and electronic with Kraftwerkian memory while winking at the charts? If I had to decide based on image and hairstyles, I would have no doubt about placing them among the most obnoxious bad guys of all the '80s, but the value of the songs on this album is almost always high and stimulating, tempting me to classify them among the good ones, perhaps with an asterisk to remind us of their certain style lapses.

The coordinates of Sweet Dreams are clear from the start: Love Is A Stranger is an electronic funk among the best of those years, but the best is yet to come. I've Got An Angel is proto-techno enriched by the phrases of the pan flute and the extraordinary voice of Annie Lennox. The rhythm picks up again with Wrap It Up and I Could Give You but one of the masterpieces of the album is The Walk, an elegiac Annie Lennox inserts herself on a Kraftwerk-style bass riff, then between vocal call and response, a wonderful trumpet accompanies the chorus. Together with the subsequent Sweet Dreams and Jennifer, it composes the most beautiful manifesto/triptych the new-romantic movement could have.
The rest of the album continues to flow on the now-known coordinates: icy voice, treated bass and obsessive/danceable synths. Two tracks still stand out: This Is The House, which, although starting very kitschy (and partially remaining so), saves itself thanks to a bass that would make Prince pale, and the concluding track, which seems like sultry electro but reveals itself as a small ambient gem.

In short, when all is said and done, the Eurythmics are among the good ones, maybe not yet in Paradise because surely they must atone for a few years in Purgatory for their horrid look (and for the hideous reunion of Peace), but soon they will definitively pass among the blessed.