CLASSIC ALBUM
TOUCH EURYTHMICS
ANNIE LENNOX AND DAVE STEWART’S THIRD ALBUM PROVED THEY WERE NO FLASH IN THE PAN. TOUCH WAS A RICH AND EXPANSIVE COLLECTION OF TRACKS, AT VARIOUS POINTS MAJESTIC OR DOWNRIGHT FUNKY, THAT HELPED TO CEMENT THEIR PLACE IN POP HISTORY.
FELIX ROWE
1983’s Touch was Eurythmics’ first UK No.1 album and features three Top 10 singles
© Getty
WHERE ITS PREDECESSOR IS GRITTIER AND MORE DYSTOPIAN, TOUCH IS LUSHER SONICALLY AND MORE PLAYFUL
© DPA Picture Alliance / Alamy Stock Photo
Early
success can be the death of a burgeoning artist, suddenly thrust into the spotlight and then tasked with repeating the feat. No such worries for former flames, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. By the time they ascended to the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 at the start of 1983, the ‘hot new act’ were already industry old-timers. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) was actually their fifth studio album together, including the three long-players in two years by New Wave hopefuls, The Tourists – and that’s before we get on to Dave Stewart’s two long-forgotten, early-70s records with the folk group, Longdancer.
So, when the time came to follow up the Eurythmics’ breakthrough, it was not so much the ‘difficult second album’, but rather business as usual. Touch was the duo’s third studio LP under their new moniker – their second within the same year, in what amounts to an extremely prolific run of productivity. The progression is equally impressive. Where its lo-fi predecessor is grittier and more dystopian, Touch is comparatively lusher sonically, bolder in production, and (at times) much funkier and more playful.