Songs of Mass Destruction review

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It is pretty doubtful that there are many people in contemporary audience who never heard about Annie Lennox. The lady is so popular that she possibly has fans even among natives from wild jungles of Amazon. Of course, success didn't come to her at once, her path to fame was thorny enough, but life dedicated to music has brought its benefits - Annie Lennox became one of the most respected women of show business long time ago. As it is well known the most prolific and successful period of her career fell on 80's when she was a member of Eurythmics. Seven studio albums, worldwide popularity and indisputable authority – such was the result of musical activities of this mega popular British duo, which lasted for eight years. In comparison with it Lennox's solo career looks quite scanty, three albums in eleven years is not that much, admit that. But is it really appropriate to reproach her? The fact that Annie Lennox manages to stay in the highest elite of pop music releasing one album in four years is the best evidence of her talent and unreachable professional level. Her fans probably feel themselves a little bit deprived of her attention, but on the other hand they are secured with one hundred percent guarantee of that any disc of this irreproachable songstress is a real masterpiece of pop music.

Annie Lennox sounds inimitable as always

This year Annie Lennox released her new, fourth ever since solo album Songs Of Mass Destruction. Stylistically, the record is realized in typical for Annie Lennox manner and combines rhythmical pop in the vein of late Eurythmics and slightly concerned ballads with theatrically epic air, which is characteristic for her solo attempts. There are no special innovations; the record is generally dominated by the same thick textures but nevertheless it still has some surprises. Annie Lennox decided to decline services of her longtime collaborator Stephen Lipson who was responsible for the sound production of her records since her very first album Diva released in 1992 and turned for help to producer Glen Ballard, known for his works with Alanis Morisette and Dave Matthews Band. As a result the record's overall sounding turned out to be more American, chill sharpness of British sound was washed down a little bit in favor of expansiveness and pop rock softness. However, as a whole, it doesn't have a strong impact on overall impression as the general driving force of the album is still lying in Annie Lennox's voice, which sounds strong, impressive and extremely emotional as always.

Annie Lennox cannot record boring albums

Despite its gloomy title Songs Of Mass Destruction doesn't contain songs, which could be called absolutely depressing. Detached from subject matters of lyrics, which are basically dedicated to such eternal problems of humanity as war, poverty, religious conflicts and things alike the material as such sounds quite positive. Particularly, Love Is Blind and Ghost In My Machine are sufficiently fast and bouncy tracks. But words are hard thing to neglect therefore everything looks pretty ambiguous. Thus, for instance, Love Is Blind's lyrics is heaving almost undisguised suicidal character, which goes in combination with purely major chords and this imparts the song an additional massage. However, the most sincere and emotional songs are ballads. They don't have that dichotomy between themes and the music itself, but sadness and despair are not always their basic elements either. While Darks Road's piano driven arrangement coincides with Lennox's sad mood, Smithereens has gleams of hope, represented by beautiful melodies, tactful arrangements and gospel backing vocals. A track called Sing deserves special attention. Lennox had to gather almost every prominent female singer of today to record this song. Anastacia, Isobel Campbell, Dido, Celine Dion, Melissa Etheridge, Fergie, Beth Gibbons, Faith Hill, Angelique Kidjo, Beverley Knight, Gladys Knight, k.d. lang, Madonna, Sarah McLachlan, Beth Orton, Pink, Bonnie Raitt, Shakira, Shingai Shoniwa, Joss Stone, Sugababes, KT Tunstall, and Martha Wainwright – you will hardly find such a selection anywhere else. But don't be too hopeful, generally they sing all together so it is pretty difficult to recognize any certain artist in this choir. Sing sounds very vigorous and uncompromising just like a real anthem of feminists. Songs Of Mass Destruction will definitely suite to any lover of mature pop music. The album was made on the highest possible professional level in both musical and lyrical sense. Actually this is something you could expect from Annie Lennox because she has proven that she cannot record boring albums long time ago.