plorentz's Full Review: Peace [Bonus Tracks] [Digipak] [Remaster] by Euryt...
And we arrive at a place we might have hoped for, but always thought impossible...
Our Christmases are getting longer and more involved. Friday night we spent the evening with our son's biological mother and grandparents, and his brother (who lives with another foster family), in a crowded livingroom with unwrapped presents all over the place, a delicate assemblage of complex, largely unspoken-for emotions circling plates of cheese and crackers and summer sausage. The next day, opening presents at Perkins with our son's sisters and their parents.
And finally, Christmas Day itself. A sweet and low-key afternoon spent with, of all people, my partner's (Jewish) ex-wife - a woman who, I might add, I once loudly and publicly argued with over the alleged maltreatment of our dogs. But then, such arguments are rarely about what their surface appearances would suggest; whatever emotional magma had been boiling under the surface of my relationship with her has since cooled into something more resembling bedrock. She's become family, and there we were yesterday, singing and dancing along with the Buckinghams' "Don't You Care" in our livingroom as James (and Stew) looked on in embarrassment and, perhaps, astonishment.
What a long, strange family we have become - but no less effective for that strangeness, no matter what frothing-at-the-mouth politicians might have to say in the matter. Between our families, my mother, my father, my five sisters, my two brothers, my partner, his mother, his aunts and uncles and cousins and their children, my nephews and nieces, the other couples, gay and straight, Christian and not, in our circle - the ones who've stayed together and the one that split up this year, and their children - my ex and James's ex, our son, his birth family, and his brother's and sisters' adopted families: there is a peace. It wouldn't make for great television, and it would probably take a lot of the fiery oomph out of a Moral Majority speech, but it is what it is.
- - - - -
On a strictly conceptual level, the wholly unexpected eight studio album by The Eurythmics, appropriately titled Peace, is an incredible moving piece of work. Arriving in stores in the summer of '99, fully ten years after the duo's last album We Too Are One (and their very bitter break-up), Peace began almost by accident. But then, maybe "accident" is the wrong word, implying a sudden event or change. I'm more inclined to think that The Eurythmics arrived at the creation of this album after a long, gradual process of reconciliation, a process as natural as it was unintentional, a process that seems to have had more to do with personal intimacy and love rather than art.
The music of Peace is cozy stuff. Comfort music. There's a sighing gentleness to the record, like those fleece blankets my mother made for all of us for Christmas a couple years ago, the ones I curl up with in my recliner on winter nights like last night. Much of the friction that informed and, indeed, powered the group's best work in the 1980s - not just the personal frictions between Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox, but the musical frictions between electronics and soul, the lyrical frictions between affection and disgust, the vocal frictions between aggression and vulnerability - have been eased.
At times, the effects of that easement are bone-chilling. But mostly, it's just anticlimactic. The album is at its most worthwhile when the duo seem to confront their "peace" head on, creating a new tension between past and present. At first, for instance, the album's lead single and opening track "17 Again" sounds plain and just-this-side-of-boring, generic fodder for Lite FM playlists - but just before the song fades out, Annie reclaims one of her bitterest (and most famous) lyrics and sort of absolves them:
Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
I traveled the world and the seven seas
Everybody's looking for something
The first time I heard the end of "17 Again", I got shivers, and - y'know? - I still do. But then, with the way it seems to close that circle, maybe the song might have worked better as the new track on a career retrospective than as an anchor for a whole new studio album. (Incidentally, the "Sweet Dreams" coda is almost completely edited out of the version of "17 Again" that appears on the recently released Ultimate Collection.)
There are certainly lots of lovely moments on Peace. There's no denying the orchestral majesty or the melodic power of ballads like "Anything But Strong" and "Peace Is Just a Word". "Lifted" closes the album with a hauntingly straightforward chorus that seems to conjure the gospel perseverance of freedom fighters and civil rights marchers.
But elsewhere, even the album's most rocking songs - "Power to the Meek" and "I Want It All" - are simply lacking in cojones. They made be loud, they may be raucous, but they have no real edge, especially when considered alongside some of the band's classic singles. "Forever" may (or may not) be a John Lennon tribute, but it's also weighed down by obvious, gimmicky Sgt. Pepperisms. The album's second single "I Saved The World Today" is certainly catchy enough, but falls far short of compelling.
- - - - -
Credit Legacy for not skipping this one over in its long-awaited Eurythmics reissue campaign. However, Peace, being a mere 6 years old, and also somewhat anomalous in origin, seems to warrant this kingly treatment the least. It would seem that in order to make the reissue a little more desirable to folks (like me) whose memories of the album and its deficiencies are still quite fresh, Legacy might have offered more in the way of bonus tracks. Why not, for instance, including the two new tracks recorded for the Ultimate Collection. (After all, anyone buying this reissue has likely already spent a lot of money buying all these reissues - and they all sell for the price of a standard new release - why make that guy also buy an additional hits collection?)
Nevertheless, Peace, though still as lovingly packaged as the rest of these reissues - in glossy, tri-fold digipaks with a generous photo-filled booklet with notes by Phill Savidge and art direction by longtime Eurythmics associate Laurence Stevens - skimps on the bonus tracks, giving us three enjoyable, but not especially revealing acoustic performances of album tracks, and a twinkly unreleased track called "Something In the Air".
It's hard to find fault with an album imbued with so much love and reconciliation, and Peace certainly sounds better now, far and well-removed from the anticipation surrounding its original release (which, I suppose, bodes well for its future); but it's also the group's flattest, least dynamic record - and Arista / Legacy doesn't do enough to reward the people who might make a second purchase of the album.
- - - - -
RATINGS:
Original album: 3 stars
Reissue: 3 1/2 stars
Total: 3 1/4 stars rounded down
- - - - -
BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
"Peace" [deluxe edition] by The Eurythmics
Arista / Legacy Records
Originally released 1999
Reissue released 11/15/2005
Produced by The Eurythmics
Remastered by Ian Cooper
64 min.
SONGS: 17 Again - I Saved The World Today - Power to the Meek - Beautiful Child - Anything But Strong - Peace Is Just a Word - I've Tried Everything - I Want It All - My True Love - Forever - Lifted /BONUS: Beautiful Child (acoustic) - 17 Again (acoustic) - I Saved the World Today (acoustic) - Something in the Air
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
![Peace [Bonus Tracks] [Digipak] [Remaster] by Eurythmics](http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/dc/e6/3d/2004559180-177x150-0-0.jpg)
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.