Eurythmics' debut album, In the Garden, is the
missing link between the work of the Tourists, who included both Dave Stewart
and Annie Lennox, and 1983's commercial breakthrough, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of
This). Co-produced by Kraftwerk producer Conny Plank at his studio in Germany,
it has some of the distant, mechanistic feel of the European electronic music
movement, but less of the pop sensibility of later Eurythmics. The chief
difference is in Lennox's singing; even when the musical bed is appealing, Lennox
floats ethereally over it, and the listener doesn't focus on her. As a result,
In the Garden wasn't much of a success, though when Eurythmics streamlined
their sound and emphasized Lennox's dominating voice on subsequent releases,
they found mass popularity.
In a nutshell, In The
Garden is a hidden gem. I say “hidden” because initially, even though the band
was signed to RCA, the record was only available in the US as an import.
Recorded at Conny Plank’s studio in Cologne, in Germany, in 1981, In The Garden
belies its humble origins and stands the test of time, more than anything
simply because it comes from the heart. Produced by Plank himself (who’d
produced Devo and Kraftwerk) and featuring Blondie’s Clem Burke on drums and
Can’s Holgar Czukey on (amongst other things) “Thai stringed instruments and
French horn”, the record could have very easily kicked off the electro-clash
movement; if historians hadn’t seen fit to slot in this particular episode a
decade or so later.
Clem’s recruitment came
about because Dave and Annie saw him in a club and Annie persuaded Dave to go
up to him and ask him if he wanted to join. And Holgar? Well, “Holgar was
always around at Conny’s and Conny himself was always so stimulating and interesting
and Holgar just happened to be too, as well as being extremely eccentric and
great fun to play with.” Holgar, of course, had been Stockhausen’s star pupil
and Stockhausen’s son, Marcus, ended up playing brass on In The Garden. You can
tell the Blondie influences on, in particular, Your Time Will Come, but whether
this is anything to do with Clem or Annie’s personal fascination with Debbie
Harry is a moot point. For Annie, Blondie was “the ultimate pop band” although
for others this is something that Eurythmics were soon to become themselves.
Listening to In The Garden
now, some three and a half decades after its release, is to be transported back
to an era when electronic artists like Depeche Mode and Human League and even
David Bowie ruled the airwaves. There are other influences too: Dave’s guitar
work is reminiscent of both Chameleons and Magazine and the track Take Me To
Your Heart is all lost-future, contemporaneous Kraftwek. Another track, namely
She’s Invisible Now, is almost defiantly no wave (if you remember that, you
really have been paying attention) with more than a nod to Marbles’ nature of
the song is no more-or-less offset by the “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1″
countdown which gives an even more recognizable nod to Bowie’s Space Oddity. Moreover,
as if to prove her European credentials, Annie sings in French on Sing Sing and
of revenge on, ahem, Revenge a theme that Eurythmics would return to on a later
record.
Ultimately, of course, In The Garden is the
tale of Eurythmics taking flight for the first time, of Dave and Annie striding
out into the world as equals, as one and of them letting their hair down after
the trials and tribulations of The Tourists. It has innocence and beauty and is
probably unlike every other Eurythmics record you will ever hear. For some
Eurythmics’ aficionados it is their favourite record. And for others, quite
soon, it may become theirs too.
