Ultimate Collection

by

Eurythmics

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The Eurythmics singles were always much better than the complete albums they came from and The Ultimate Collection gathers together their greatest hits plus two new songs. "Here Comes The Rain Again" is their finest moment and one of the best singles from the 80's. "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" was their lone number one single and is a great synth-pop song while "Would I Lie To You?" has a crunching guitar riff and blazing horn section. "I Saved The World Today" from their late 90's comeback album is a beautiful track. The two new songs open and close the album. The upbeat "I Got A Life" is the opener and better of the two songs with a downcast "Was It Just Another Affair" closing out the album. The Eurythmics made some of the 80's most intelligent and best produced songs and they still hold up twenty years later.

Okay, the best part about this second hits collection is that all the songs are digitally remastered, that it includes "17 Again" and "I Saved The World Today" from their last cd "Peace" and that it includes two new tracks, "I've Got A Life" and "Was It Just Another Love Affair?", Dave and Annie's first music together in six years. Also, on one disc you have 19 songs and 80 minutes of music for good value, plus the lyrics to all the songs are included.

Now the bad part. There really should be an ESSENTIAL Eurythmics compilation consisting of two discs, so as to cover all the hits plus all the great album cuts. For example, this compilation left out "Never Gonna Cry Again", "Take Me To Your Heart" and "Belinda" from their 1981 debut "In The Garden". Take your pick of songs from their 1982 sophomore effort "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)". The only tracks included here are the title track and "Love Is A Stranger". Same could be said of their third album "Touch". There were other great songs on that album. There are no tracks from their soundtrack album to "1984 For The Love Of Big Brother". They ought to include "Sexcrime (1984)", "Julia", "For The Love Of Big Brother" and "Doubleplusgood".

There were other solid tracks from 1985's "Be Yourself Tonight" such as "Conditioned Soul" and "I Love You Like A Ball And Chain". 1986's "Revenge" is sufficiently covered. "Savage" is woefully under-represented leaving out "Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)", "I've Got A Lover (Back In Japan)", "Shame" and "Brand New Day". For some strange reason there are NO songs from 1989's "We Too Are One" album. They should include "The King And Queen Of America", "Don't Ask Me Why", "Angel" and then there's "My My Baby's Gonna Cry", "How Long?" and "When The Day Goes Down".

While we're at it, why not include some solo work like the Annie Lennox/Al Green 1988 cover of "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" or "Love Song For A Vampire" from 1992's "Dracula". There are some good Dave Stewart solo tracks as well from his four solo albums. Why not include Annie's "Why", "Walking On Broken Glass", "Little Bird", "No More 'I Love You's'" and "Pavement Cracks".

All I'm saying is that this could have been better for fans and for casual listeners. There are no extensive liner notes or chart information included in the booklet. As it stands, "I've Got A Life" is great, but too bad it won't get the radio play it deserves, and "Was It Just Another Love Affair" is good retro-seventies r&b fodder. So, let me be clear, the Eurythmics get five stars, but whoever put this compilation together receives three stars for lack of effort grade. I should give an F grade to lack of research and conciseness. With all the fad being two disc, career spanning hits collections these days, this was a great error.