Track Listing

1. Would I Lie To You
2. There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)
3. I Love You Like A Ball And Chain
4. Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves - Eurythmics & Aretha Franklin
5. Conditioned Soul
6. Adrian
7. It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back)
8. Here Comes That Sinking Feeling
9. Better To Have Lost In Love (Than Never To Have Loved At All)
10. Grown Up Girls
11. Tous Les Garcons Et Les Filles
12. Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves - Eurythmics & Aretha Franklin
13. Would I Lie To You
14. Conditioned Soul
15. Hello I Love You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #522369 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-04
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Casting off their rep for digital iciness, the Eurythmics got Be Yourself Tonight over on electric fire and the fluttering warmth of Annie Lennox's voice; the first two seconds of "There Must Be an Angel" are the prettiest seconds ever recorded. In fact, it's essentially a deep soul album in white-English-geek drag, from the Stax horns of "Would I Lie to You" to the guest shots by Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder to Lennox and Elvis Costello doing their best Marvin-and-Tammi impression on "Adrian". But the style points wouldn't matter without great songs and this disc has some of the band's finest: the best feminist anthem ever written, rockers that dig their heels in deep and love songs fuelled by real longing and joy. --Douglas Wolk

Customer Reviews

SONIC SPLENDOR
Whoah! This album kicks up a storm! I think it was intended as the band's excursion into R&B and Soul, but it's much more than that in its stylistic variety, many moods and moving songs. It starts revealing its pleasures with the uptempo Would I Lie To You, followed by the delicate pop of There Must Be An Angel, and reaches a climax on the duet with Aretha Franklin, a brilliant tour de force. Conditioned Soul is another gem with beautiful intricate and dramatic guitar infusions and Lennox at her vocal best on some of their most poetic lyrics. Not as resigned as Savage, Be Yourself Tonight still has an undertone of sorrow, as in the tender Adrian. A great slice of 80's R&B follows in the form of It's Alright, followed by the most sorrowful of all, the entrancing Here Comes That Sinking Feeling with its doubled-up vocals (one set sounding like it's spoken over the telephone) which gives it an eerie feel. It concludes with the bittersweet Better To Have Lost In Love, a haunting finale that is a rousing affirmation of hope. Some of Eurythmics most literate and profound work is found here, but it's serious stuff and not always as accessible as their other masterpieces like Sweet Dreams or Revenge. Then again, it's nowhere near as difficult as In The Garden or as bleak as Savage. Be Yourself Tonight is an album of real soul.

Out with the old and in with the new...
So the Eurythmics, hot off the success of "Touch" and "1984", decided to leap into fairly new territory. How you ask? By removing their renowned synthesisers and replacing them with an array of gospel singers, guitars and some surprise guests. Yes, "Be Yourself Tonight" marked the first artistic shift for the Eurythmics from synth-pop to rock-and-or-roll. The album recast Annie Lennox into a blond bombshell and Dave Stewart into a guitar god. The first track "Would I Lie To You" opens brilliantly, quickly removing any doubt about a loss a creative ideals. Again, Lennox's vocals are top-notch, with some nifty guitar skills from Stewart. The next track "There Must Be Angel" is the duo's (to this date) only UK NO.1. And deservedly so, for although it is slightly tongue-in-cheek, for Annie, it's tounge-and-vocals. More highlights include the Tibetan soundscape intro of "Conditioned Soul", the saucy feminist duet "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves" with Aretha Franklin and the twisted "Adrian" with Elvis Costello. Any downpoints? Well, just a few; the album art is slightly dull (a blurred still from the "Would I Lie To You" video- apparently the original design was too graphic), and the final 2 tracks "Here Comes That Sinking Feeling" and "Better to have lost in love" are somewhat repetitive of each other. Overall, "Be Yourself Tonight" is just that- no illusions, no electronics, just Dave and Annie singing away with their usual flair. Just a shame that that flair seemed to later vanish...

More Brilliance!
The Eurythmics just cant stop pumping out more and more high quality music and you dont have to be a Eurythmics fanatic like me in order to appriciate any of their albums. Annie Lennox has one of the best if not the best female voice in the music industry and she uses it to the full along with Dave Stewarts superb instrumentation in tracks like "Better to have lost in love than never to have loved at all" and "There must be an angel" (One of their best works) to take you to another world where you float on the lyrics, like being immerssed in a bath full of Champagne. Although its signature track "There must be an angel" has a dated tone, it is still a beautiful piece of music. Just like Sweet Dreams on the Sweet Dreams album or Missionary Man on the Revenge album.

All of the tracks share a common musical semi-divinity that makes you realise how few very good bands there actually were in the 80's. Some others being R.E.M and, erm, well, ..., . Well I'm sure that there were others. In any event, the Eurythmics first album for 10 years, "Peace" is also equally as good, if not better than any of the magic that they produced in years past.

Even if you have never heard of the Eurythmics. Go and by all of their albums now, and you can start with this one, "Be Yourself Tonight".