[REVIEW] Annie Lennox, Songs of Mass Destruction

[rfmcdonald]

I didn't have high hopes for Annie Lennox's fourth solo studio album, Songs of Mass Destruction. Her previous album Bare, emotionally intense though it may have been and full of well-constructed songs, tended to lack ("Pavement Cracks" aside) the spark that had given her best Eurythmics and solo work that special punch. Songs of Mass Destruction isn't quite as good as all that, perhaps because Lennox has been shying away from that kind of pop stardom for some time, but it does have well-written songs rendered emotionally accessible and given an understated production by Glen Ballard. Singles like "Dark Road" and the anti-AIDS chorus "Sing" are enjoyable, but I've come to prefer album tracks like"Through the Glass Darkly," "Ghosts In My Machine" and especially "Coloured Bedspread," that last a dreamy synth-pop song that sounds like it could have been a Eurythmics single of some kind.