Eurythmics - Touch

The Eurythmics were always a band I respected and often found myself liking what I heard on the radio. Then there was "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves" a song I suppose was an anthem but to me was right up there with Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac" in terms of how many notes could play on the radio before I could change the station. If you're curious the answer was not many.

Over the years I'd pick up a few of Annie's solo releases, the exceptional Medussa, and the decent follow up Diva, and even get her rather excruciating A Christmas Cornucopia and I love Christmas music, but this was next level cringe with none of Annie's quirky charm. In terms of The Eurythmics stuff I had The Ultimate Collection and that checked off all the boxes for me. Heck, Dave's work as a producer was pretty stellar from Tom Petty to Ringo Starr.

If you'd have asked me what their debut record was I'd have confidently proclaimed Touch, but then I'd have been wrong. This was their third, and it would break huge for them, after Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) from earlier in 1983 primed them for success. Funny, I had assumed "Sweet Dreams" and "Here Comes the Rain" were from the same album. Shows you what I know. 

With "Here Comes the Rain Again" it was the near perfect combination of a great song and the exploding market for accompanying videos. 1983 was a great year in many respects (it was a great year for them at any rate). Video programs were everywhere, and even one of our local stations dedicated a thirty minute block to showing this new form of music for those who didn't have MTV (MuchMusic didn't start broadcasting until the summer of 1984) which was most of us. This is where I first saw the video for "Here Comes the Rain Again" as well as Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me with Science" (I don't know why I can remember this, but can't figure out why I just walked into the garage).

I remember seeing an interview with Dave Stewart where he was asked about his use of technology and he told them how obtained that "cutting edge" drum sound by hitting a door with a stick. I never forgot that ... although I may not be remembering it correctly either.

So here we have Touch, the big break album, and I totally ignored it when it came out. Sure, I liked "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", "Here Comes the Rain Again" and "Who's that Girl" but for the most part I leaned toward rock, and I only had some much to spend on records. At some point they got huge, and I lumped them in with Culture Club, Duran Duran and Cyndi Lauper as acts to ignore and roll my eyes at. 

Time of course would have the last laugh, ha ha ha. I was deep in the bins just looking for new things to try, and I find a beautiful copy of Touch, shrinkwrap still on the cover, and the insert was there and everything. The vinyl though looked like it was used in a game of Ultimate Frisbee. Most of the rash was superficial, but there were a couple of deeper scratches - one in particular that provided a couple of nice pops near the end of "Who's that Girl?" one the first side, and a few nice clicks on "No Fear, No Hate, No Pain (No Broken Heart)" that was really disappointing. I'll suck it up and put on my big boy pants when I play the album.

Finally having a chance to read the liner notes one of the first things that jumps out is how organic the songs were in terms of instrumentation. Sure, they were heavy users of technology, but they were also big on real horns, real strings, real bass and even a baritone sax. I'm sure at the time there was pressure to just program as much as possible, but with hindsight and the benefit of almost 40 years the decision to use real people has enabled the album to sound of its time, and yet not sound completely dated.

Touch is a really good album, and being able to hear it as a cohesive album rather than just isolating the singles on a best of collection is a great experience. There was a time the album even floated into Rolling Stone Magazines Top 500 Album lists - twice. First in 2003, and then again 2012. Both times near the bottom, but still on the list. The latest iteration didn't include them - they had to make room for all those Kanye albums - no, really he bumped quite a few off the list.

Well, on the list or not they made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022 which is pretty cool. Heck, even Duran Duran made it on the same night, and honestly that was cool too. At least it wasn't Culture Club (who knows, one day I'll find one of their albums in the dollar bin, and I'll but it and I'm hoping I'll hate it).

"Ha ha ha" laughed time as it waited patiently for me in the wings.