Review of Eurythmics' "Touch"

Touch (1983) is the third album from British band/duo Eurythmics. After disbanding in 1990 to pursue solo careers and other projects, lead singer Annie Lennox and instrumentalist Dave Stewart reformed earlier this year with a new album- Peace- and a new tour.

With the benefits of hindsight, it was about this time which marked the peak of the band's success. This on its own makes Touch an interesting album to listen too. Typically for a Eurythmics work this one is full of little synthesised noises and beats which pop up all over the place. Unsurprisingly this makes both band and album seem very dated. This is a very 80s record.

Another feature of Touch is that it initially comes across as a very silly collection of songs- and all those 80s noises don't help either. However, after being given quite a few listens, all those strange beeps and beats begin to make some sort of success. Suddenly what seemed unplanned, unskilled and pretentious now sounds well thought out and very clever.

A typical example is 'No Fear, No Hate, No Pain (No Broken Hearts)'. At first its easy to dismiss this song as very annoying. But then, quite unexpectedly, it begins to seep into the brain. It has a strange hypnotic quality about it. The synthesised melodies suddenly seem quite effective.

Admittedly not all the songs are like this. 'Here Comes the Rain Again' and 'Who's that Girl', two favourites of radio programmers all round the world, are catchy. But these are the exceptions. Generally Touch creeps up on the listener.

With that in mind it definitely is an album that has to be persevered with. Certainly the band's style is not for everyone, especially for people who detest 80s music. Nevertheless for casual music fans this is a good record from a good band.

RATING: 7/10

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