To buy or not to buy was the question. Two months ago there were rumblings about Scottish diva ANNIE LENNOX being on the verge of releasing a brand new solo album titled NOSTALGIA. Having been a fan of EURYTHMICS and an album here and there of her solo work I thought "Hey! Anything new from Ms. LENNOX is good news." The cryptic announcement came right after the release of BLONDIE's brilliant and overlooked album GHOSTS OF DOWNLOAD and CHRISSIE HYNDE's first solo album STOCKHOLM. It's been great to see my favorite women in rock release new albums in the same year. I honestly expected nothing from Ms LENNOX given her activism of late so  news of an album was exciting but what was it that she was she going to get all "nostalgic" about on her new release? Her previous effort was a Christmas album (A CHRISTMAS CORNUCOPIA in 2010) and while her take on yuletide hymns was indeed  a bit left of center this wasn't the same LENNOX I came to know - a post-modern beauty with an icy gaze and disillusioned perspective on romance that made for some of the most inspired, twisted pop lyrics of the REAGAN-era. Of course this prickly sense of songcraft was given extra sheen thanks to DAVID STEWART's musical backing and LENNOX's chilling contralto which could go from robotic to soulful in a moments notice. Given the sonic scope of EURYTHMICS' epic catalog (from the synth heavy bluesy romp of SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS to the orchestral HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN to the all out soul rock of WOULD I LIE TO YOU?) I wouldn't have blamed LENNOX for getting 'nostalgic' and revisiting her own pop past with that grandly understated interpretive sense of hers. I would've bought it.

Unfortunately - and maybe even predictably - LENNOX's NOSTALGIA explores that dusty old American Songbook that many a Voice Major refers to when auditioning for academic placement and consideration. How many times have we heard SUMMERTIME? How many times have we heard GEORGIA ON MY MIND? Too damn many. Given LENNOX's past as a musical interpreter (MEDUSA back in 1995 and A CHRISTMAS CORNUCOPIA in 2010) one can deduce that she is able to service the songs admirably with that reedy croon of hers - and she does. NOSTALGIA's best moments are YOU BELONG TO ME, SEPTEMBER IN THE RAIN, THE NEARNESS OF YOU and the uncharacteristically playful and plucky MOOD INDIGO. That song has that spark that her reading of SCREAMING JAY HAWKINS' I PUT A SPELL ON YOU fails to create. For a woman who made a career out of telling an unfaithful buck that she could see right through him I PUT A SPELL ON YOU should've been one of her more incendiary moments right up there with WOULD I LIE TO YOU?.

Yes, LENNOX delivers some nice moments here but her tribute to the works of HOAGY CARMICHAEL and GEORGE GERSHWIN come across as studied. In recent interviews she has paid lip service to the relevance of these songs in today's culture while calling out the "Feminism Lite" approach of BEYONCE. Sure our culture could use more music that speaks to the injustices that go on and whoever a said a litle less twerking was a bad idea? But was revisiting these tried a true songs the way to do it? As a solo artist LENNOX isnt' the most prolific songwriter but when she's pen to paper in the past songs like WHY,  WALKING ON BROKEN GLASS and COLD  proved that she could cast a spell just as well as any songwriter from the past.   I seem to remember a time when LENNOX was more interested in challenging people's perceptions and not bowing to convention or compromise as one of rock's most daring performers . With NOSTALGIA she takes the easy way out and goes for popular acclaim. Too bad. I still think she is more than just a voice.

SWEET DREAMS (ARE MADE OF THiS) - 1983

LOVE iS A STRANGER - 1982

HERE COMES THE RAiN AGAIN - 1983


WHO'S THAT GiRL? - 1983


WOULD i LiE TO YOU? - 1985

THERE MUST BE AN ANGEL (PLAYiNG WiTH MY HEART) -1985


SiSTERS ARE DOiN' iT (FOR THEMSELVES) - 1985


MiSSiONARY MAN - 1986


THORN iN MY SiDE - 1986
b

i NEED A MAN - 1987


DON'T ASK ME WHY - 1989

WHY - 1992

WALKING ON BROKEN GLASS - 1992


NO MORE i LOVE YOU'S - 1995

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