FEATURE:
Right By Your Side
Eurythmics’ Touch at Forty
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ARGUABLY one the best album by Eurythmics…
IN THIS PHOTO: Eurhythmics in 1983
the stunning Touch turns forty on 14th November. Featuring classics Right By Your Side, Who’s That Girl?, and Here Comes the Rain Again, it is an album that ranks alongside the very best of the 1980s. To make its forthcoming anniversary, I wanted to dive a bit deeper. The third studio album by Annie Lennox and David Stewart, Touch became the duo's first number-one album on the U.K. Albums Chart. It peaked at seven on the U.S. Billboard 200. It has since been certified Platinum in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Touch was listed 500th on Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, and again on a revised list in 2012, at number 492. I think it deserves an even higher place. It is an album that arrived in the same year as Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). The fact that this Eurythmics album is so cherished and celebrated might take something away Touch. I do feel that Touch is a slightly more accessible and stronger album. In any case, there are not as many features online about Touch than you’d hope for. I am going to bring together some reviews that give us some context and insight. In 21017, SputnikMusic gave their take on an album that, whilst not the very best from Eurythmics, has plenty of wonderful moments:
“When last we left Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart (collectively known as Eurythmics), they had survived a stint in the failed British band The Tourists and a mostly-ignored debut album (In the Garden) (1981) to release Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (1983), the LP that put them over the top. Touch, released late in 1983, was the album that would make sure they'd stay there for the next decade and beyond. It was a #1 album in the U.K. and a #10 album in the U.S., and was eventually certified as Platinum in both countries, also going Double-Platinum in Canada and Gold in Germany. Additionally, it was named as one of Rolling Stone magazine's Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, and again in 2012 when they revised their list. Touch made Eurythmics international superstars.
The sound here is a continuation of the direction they moved in on Sweet Dreams, mixing Lennox's dominating R&B voice and her various yips, grunts and vocal sound effects with Stewart's textured synthesizers, programmed drums and understated guitars. When I reviewed Sweet Dreams, one Sputnik reader commented that that album was "bereft of soul, devoid of depth", and while I wouldn't state it that harshly, he has a point. Eurythmics as a band was a triumph of form over feeling. Stewart wanted to take advantage of the new technologies of the time to reimagine and remake pop rock music, while Lennox was in many ways as much an actress as a singer, trying on personas and characters the way a young girl might try on the clothes in her mother's (and father's) closet. When the band toured in support of Touch, Lennox had herself carried onto the stage on a litter by several burly men like a modern Cleopatra, and during the course of the show, she engaged in various wig and costume changes, her singing all the while supported by a pair of impressive female backup singers. The music on Touch is fun and interesting. What it isn't is packed with emotions, or with big thoughts, unless we're talking about thoughts regarding instrumental structure and expression.
There are only nine songs on Touch, but three of them were hit singles, all of which are still pretty well known today almost thirty-five years later. "Here Comes the Rain Again", the first track on the LP, is one of my favorite Eurythmics songs. It opens with swirling synthesizers that somehow evoke the feeling of rain, and contains one of Lennox's best, if most understated, vocals, as she continuously pleads with her lover to "Talk to me/Like lovers do". Of the three singles, "Here Comes the Rain Again" was the most successful in the U.S. However, the highest charting single in the band's native Britain was the one exception to that "form over feeling" thing I talked about, "Who's That Girl?". While the video for the song was playful, featuring Lennox portraying both male and female characters while Stewart cavorts around with a gaggle of beautiful women on his arm, the lyrics tell the story of a woman deeply hurt by her lover's insincerity and infidelity: "Dumb hearts get broken/Just like china cups/The language of love/Has left me broken on the rocks". (I don't know if the lyrics were written from personal experience or not, but it's worth noting here that Lennox and Stewart were once a couple, although by this time, they had been broken up for several years.) The third single was the most whimsical of the three, "Right By Your Side". This one features a calypso music background, complete with synthesized steel drum and marimba sounds, as Lennox whistles, tweets, barks and plays the jungle girl who needs to "swing from limb to limb" as she explains to her lover how much she needs "to be right by your side".
Most of the other tracks are pretty solid as well. "No Fear, No Hate, No Pain (No Broken Hearts)" is one of Eurythmics' most underrated songs. It's a slow, ominous number that really lets Lennox cut loose with those powerful tonsils of hers. "Paint a Rumour" and "Cool Blue" are also particularly strong tracks. The first features some of Stewart's most interesting synthetic percussion, as Lennox plays call and response with herself: "I have heard a whisper/(What did it say?)/I have heard a whisper/(Make it go away)". "Cool Blue", on the other hand, boasts a higher-pitched synth pattern layered over some nice bass, and even gives Stewart a chance to showcase some popping guitar and bass during the break.
Touch was one of the more preeminent albums of the 1980s. It was also the culmination of Eurythmics' synthesizer period. Although they would continue this experiment for one more album, 1984's 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother) soundtrack album, that LP was less successful and less consistent than either Sweet Dreams or Touch. Having established themselves as one of the most successful bands in the world by then, their sound evolved to more of a straight R&B sound on 1985's Be Yourself Tonight. But that's a tale for another day. In any event, if you are someone who likes their music steeped in emotional depth, chances are that Touch will leave you cold. But if you can live without that, there are a lot of treats to be had in this album, ranging from Lennox's compelling vocals and theatrical presentation to Stewart's various experiments in musical architecture. Touch continues to be Eurythmics' highest-rated album on this website, and for good reason”.
I do think there needs to be more evaluation of Touch. More David Stewart’s (or David A Stewart as he is listed) has some of the worst hallmarks of the time in terms of some cheesy and sickly compositions. Without the same New Wave thrills, chills and sultriness as Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), I think that Touch is still fascinating and has more than enough to recommend. This is what Classic Pop offered when they listed and dug into the catalogue of Eurythmics back in 2019:
“The Sweet Dreams album spawned a phenomenon, with Annie and Dave swept away in the eye of a pop hurricane. Now one of the most iconic duos on the planet, Touch was written on the road during Eurythmics’ global Sweet Dreams Tour, then recorded and mixed in just three weeks at their London studio, The Church.
If this was something of a rush job when compared to the leisurely pace of its predecessor, then the pair made it look easy. Their lo-fi approach meant that the synths and drum machines needed in the writing process were easily transportable; hotel rooms around the world became their new testing grounds.
Always the masters of starting albums on a stand-out track, opener Here Comes The Rain Again was no exception. With dramatic stabbing strings courtesy of arranger Michael Kamen, the lyrics were inspired by an argument that Dave and Annie had while on a songwriting retreat at the Columbus Hotel in New York.
The wriggling electro groove of Regrets is fleshed out with slap bass and, gradually, the introduction of bursts of Latin brass; the duo’s sonic horizons were changing as they took on influences gleaned from traversing the globe on tour.
Similarly influenced by their live work is the joyous Right By Your Side – a departure for the duo – which incorporates calypso elements including synthesized steel drums, a marimba and a horn section.
Dub textures add interest to Cool Blue although the song is dwarfed in statue and relegated to relative filler when measured against next track Who’s That Girl?, a gorgeous, poised synth ballad with Lennox cast in the role of a jealous lover interrogating her cheating partner. The First Cut is an exercise in sinewy 80s white funk and the detached Aqua another example of an eviscerating Annie laying bare a relationship in crisis or decay. Lennox’s inimitable vocals pair wonderfully with the Kraftwerk electronica of epic closer Paint A Rumour. Despite the pressures of writing to such tight schedules, Annie and Dave rarely drop the ball here. A strong effort”.
I will round off with a review from AllMusic. Touch is definitely worthy of a new audience. You do hear songs from it on the radio. They tend to be the singles. That is fair enough! I feel a few of its deep cuts, that never get played, should be given more exposure. Cool Blue and Aqua come to mind. In any case, as it turns forty on 14th November, I think it is only right we spotlight a mighty work:
“Eurythmics followed their 1982 breakthrough album Sweet Dreams with the superior Touch, which yielded three hit singles and kept the innovative duo at the forefront of the 1980s British new wave explosion and MTV phenomenon. Mixing cold, hard, synthesized riffs with warm, luscious vocals, the duo crafted some of the most unique and trendsetting music the 1980s had to offer. Subsequent albums found the duo leaning heavier toward straightforward rock -- this album found them at the height of their electronic incarnation. The lead single, "Here Comes the Rain Again," is a melodramatic opus, complete with pre-techno beats, sweeping strings, and Annie Lennox' rushing, cool vocals. The soulful "Who's That Girl" is an icy, steamy throwback to the torch songs of yesteryear, with Lennox oozing sensuality from every syllable emitted from her lips. The final hit, "Right by Your Side," finds the duo in a cheerful, Caribbean-inspired mode. Other standouts include the seven-and-a-half-minute disco trance of "Paint a Rumour," the driving "The First Cut," and the icy, spellbinding, and sparse "No Fear No Hate No Pain (No Broken Hearts)." The cool, sophisticated musical experimentalism all over Touch cemented Eurythmics' reputation as one of the most innovative duos of their time; the hit singles solidified their reputation as dependable 1980s hitmakers and MTV mainstays. Touch is a testament to what Eurythmics were at the height of their electronic-techno phase and, without doubt, is a milestone in 1980s pop music”.
The brilliant Touch is an album that I first heard when I was a child. Songs such as Right By Your Side made an impression straight away. It took a while longer for the rest of the album to reveal its charms. I have a lot of love for Touch. Maybe not as celebrated as Be Yourself Tonight (1985), I feel Touch is a lot stronger than it has been given credit for. If you have not heard Touch in a while, then do make sure that you…
LISTEN to it today.