This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Did you catch Eurythmics’ performance on the Saturday Night Live 25th anniversary show? If not, don’t sweat it; you didn’t really miss much. Just Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart and their latest hired-gun band going through the motions of another greatest-hits medley: Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This, Here Comes The Rain Again, yadda yadda yadda.
For a band kicking off a long-awaited reunion, though — not to mention promoting their first new album together in a decade — it was a telling move. Normally, you’d expect folks in their position to plug their new single. But as Dave and Annie hinted that night — and as the CD Peace makes abundantly clear — this reunion is not about moving forward but looking back, not about winning new fans but pleasing the old ones.
Need proof? Just put the disc in, push play and check out leadoff track and leadoff single 17 Again — or, as you might soon think of it, Sweet Dreams Again. At first, when Lennox croons “sweet dreams are made of anything that gets you in the scene,” over a jangly pop background, it’s kind of cool to hear her slyly mining her own past. But when she takes it to the next level — inserting Sweet Dreams’ chorus into the song — it turns from in-joke to crass hucksterism: Hey, remember that song? Well, here’s another one just like it!
Sadly, while that sort of sonic recycling is found throughout Peace, that’s about as close as it ever comes to recreating the edgy brilliance and innovation of Eurythmics’ early breakthrough discs. Loaded with mid-tempo pop and syrupy fare, much of the album instead recalls the ballad-swollen, diva-centric solo albums Lennox issued in the ’80s. Of Peace’s 11 tracks, only two even make an effort to rock, and only one — the Iggy Pop-ish wail of I Want It All — manages to succeed. Apparently, Stewart, who, for my money, never wrote a better song than the Stax-influenced stomper Would I Lie To You?, left his distortion pedal at home. Or maybe Lennox left him at home — although he’s listed as co-writer of these tracks, he’s all but invisible on the album, relegated to the role of guitar player while Andy Wright plays keyboards and programs all the computers.
Or maybe 10 years is just too long to be away. Either way, Peace is too peaceful for it’s own good — and definitely not the stuff sweet reunion dreams are made of.
