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Showing reviews 126-129 of 129
 Very Powerful Material October 2, 2007
Anthony Morelli (Montreal, Canada)
48 out of 66 found this review helpful
SOMD (Annie's 4th Solo Recording) is a very powerful album and definitely worth the wait. I've been a fan of Annie's singing since way back in the early 80s'. As all AL's songs have, SOMD strikes right where a song should, track-wise. Track 8 (Coloured Bedspreads) really stands out and caught my attention...and I truly believe it could/should be Annie's next single. The arrangements in this particular song are dramatic and edgy, which remind me very much of "How Long" from the Eurythmics CD "We too are one".
Over the years, Annie's styles have evolved and I simply adore all 4 solo albums. With Bare and SOMD, Annie uses more of her upper range, which is jsut as powerful, clear and edgy. Her voice still sends chills when I listen to SOMD, and her lyrics are chilling and clever. That's why the woman is a living legend. She makes being an music industry icon look so easy. SOMD has an edge which her previous albums lacked, and the album as a whole, continues where Bare left off. Obviously having Glen Ballard as an inspiring producer has helped.
Since "Dark Road" was available for download online, I've had it on my myspace page...and the song really set the soundscape of my mood and my page for the past few weeks. "DR" is the perfect opener for SOMD and I believe Annie will gain many new fans because of this beautiful song and video.
Package-wise, here's what you'll find:
The cd comes in a jewel case with a 12-page booklet. The inside (traycard) has no artwork, so the cd is resting on a dark brown, almost black background. The booklet is fully illustrated, featuring full lyrics & song credits. The recent photos we've seen of Annie on the net are NOT in the booklet. But the 3 photos you'll find in the booklet are all based upon the artwork/style of the front cover. I think these photos are beautiful and showcase Annie as she's rarely been seen before. Dressed in a large tulle gown with gold lamé halter top, she's looking splendid and fierce. Annie is unlike any other artist in the current music industry, to the point where you can't tell her age. Only Annie can play around with such clever imagry and such.
Photography: Mike Owen
Design: Allan Martin
Emotionally charged, song after song, SOMD pumps out nothing but pure brilliance. Filled with pain and the power to overcome it all, Annie knows how to use her singing/songwriting gift to its fullest potential. Since 2003, she's only proven to us that she's gotten better with time. None of the material on SOMD is transparent or commercial. Everything hits home right where it should. Each song tells its story and has a strong purpose and place on the album. SOMD goes to all four corners of the music spectrum and back, allowing us a fair taste of Annie's fierceness and softer, velvet-smooth side.
Fierce is the exact word to describe Annie at this point in her career. Just by looking at the photo of her in the middle of the booklet, you'll see what I mean. Spread the word and buy this album for your family and friends. It's not a forgettable album and is certainly one of those gems which will quickly grow on you. SOMD definitely deserves more than 5 stars.
 The iconic diva returns with a mixed bag. October 2, 2007
unplug and listen
27 out of 32 found this review helpful
Annie has come up with a real cracker, a collection of songs which, while steeped in the bleak lyrical outlook of their creator, a woman who seems destined to yearn, weep and howl at the moon, is nevertheless beautiful and rich and stirring.
There's a whole lifetime of experience crammed into this thing, and Lennox's voice has never sounded better - in the lower registers it's like seasoned teak, then it soars into an icy stratosphere.
"For her fourth solo outing, Annie Lennox has ditched her usual producer, Stephen Lipson, in favour of Glen Ballard, the American best known for inflicting Alanis Morissette upon the world. While there's no denying the power and command of Lennox's vocals throughout, it's not a particularly fruitful alliance, Ballard's bland sound denuding the songs of impact. Alarm bells really start ringing two-thirds of the way through, when one realises that "Coloured Bedspread" is just about the most enjoyable thing here, precisely because its understated Eighties electro-funk so closely resembles her work in Eurythmics. The rest of the album vacillates between sludgy power ballads, such as "Smithereens" and "Lost", and Elton-esque MOR rockers, such as "Love is Blind". The Aids-benefit anthem "Sing" struggles to make much impression despite a choir comprised of virtually every popular female singer in the Western world, and a few from beyond.
Lennox's greatest failing throughout "Songs of Mass Destruction" is her too-eager recourse to lyrical cliché, a parade of banalities every bit as clunky as that title".Andy Gill.
She, it's easy to forget, is one of the greatest singers that Britain has ever produced. She can purr softly, reach high notes that only the uber-divas of the nineties (Celine Dion, Regina Belle, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey) normally attempt.
"Dark Road", the first single from "Songs of Mass Destruction" - only her third album of original material in a decade and a half - is a timely reminder of the Scottish songstress' awesome vocal chops.
Over portentous, melancholy piano chords, Lennox croons world-weary, slightly ambiguous lyrics - "Maybe I'm still searchin' but I don't know what it means, all the fires of destruction are still burnin' in my dreams" - with tenderness and restraint. Its melody grows in stature with every spin, while its tumultuous, strutting middle eight feels like the smashing vase that ends the bitter sulk of a domestic dispute.
The album is Lennox at her haunting best, with the sort of velvet vocals your average female singer would mud-wrestle her granny for.
Lennox demonstrates yet again, if proof was still needed, she's one of the most iconic divas of our time, someone to be treasured and revered. No matter what new path she treads in her career, she turns it into her own and proceeds to dazzle even the most hardened of critics.
Highlights : "Coloured Bedspread", "Dark Road",and "Smithereenes"
Emotional. October 2, 2007
the bomba (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful
Annie Lennox doesn't do light and fluffy. You either welcome the austerity of that three-octave voice - or run for the hills.
When last we heard from her, in 2003 when she released the album "Bare", she was recovering from her second divorce.
Beneath the seductively melodic surface, the rawness of her emotional state was documented in a desolate and often self-lacerating style.
Four years later, she is back with "Songs of Mass Destruction", a title hardly suggestive of joie de vivre.
Her fourth solo album is a wonderful brooding affair.
The new single "Dark Road" is ostensibly about a failed love affair - but also refers to our love-hate relationship with America; the gospel-tinged "Ghosts", a bruised lament.
But it's not all woe. Check out the dissonant "Womankind" ('Wish I had a lover who could turn this squalor into wine'), while the show stopper is "Sing" - a collaboration with 23 female superstars, including Madonna, Joss Stone, Dido, Shakira, Pink and..lo and behold! even Celine Dion, contributed - that is incandescent.
It is a feminist anthem inspired by Aids activists in South Africa, with all profits going to TAC (Treatment Action Campaign).
Annie Lennox's personal emotional territory is universal emotional territory.
There's nowhere else to be when that voice is singing.
"Songs of Mass Destruction" is a powerful piece of work, and it showcases a voice that has developed a depth and power that are unmatched in today's pop landscape.
The album turns out to be a fairly appropriate title for this collection of tunes. Like little cluster bombs, each of these tracks comes power-packed with a devastating emotional charge, with Lennox's crystal-clear vocals merely adding to the impact.
This is raw, beautiful and brutal stuff, wrapped up in soaring melodies and sweet harmony.
FANTASTIC, ENERGETIC AND GORGEOUS October 2, 2007
Jonathan (of the Sea)
12 out of 20 found this review helpful
Best thing Annie Lennox has done. (and I don't through that around easily, being a life long eurythmics fan) her performance on this new disc is transcendent, evolved, polished, clear and passionate, there is an emotion she invokes lyrically and vocally; a philosophy, an intense intimacy, penetrating and relatable, all encompassing and utterly personal simultaneously. Musically very energetic, full of soul (naturally), authentic, highly danceable to most tracks, especially Ghost in My Machine, Womankind, Coloured Bedspread, Sing... You can decide which songs are best, for they're all fantastic!
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