The 1980s were an incredibly productive decade for Eurythmics. After bursting on to the pop scene with the krautrock textures of 1981’s In The Garden, there was an album a year almost without fail all the way through to 1989’s We Too Are One and their first extended hiatus. Coming slap bang in the middle of everything is their fourth/fifth album Be Yourself Tonight, released on Monday 29 April 1985. Just five months earlier the duo had released what was intended as a soundtrack album (not without controversy), 1984 (For The Love Of Big Brother), for the film of the George Orwell novel and were riding a huge critical wave.
Largely recorded in the outer suburbs of Paris with additional tracking in Detroit and Los Angeles, Be Yourself Tonight continued Eurythmics’ high profile progression, but saw Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart cast off their digital iciness. According to Annie, the duo wanted to make “commercial but also very individual” music that was a concerted, commercial shift away from their trademark experimental synthetic pop to adopt a more traditional band-based rock and R&B sound.
Having said that, thanks to Lennox’s leanings, there was often a vein of ’60s rhythm and blues running underneath even the most synthesized of Eurythmics songs. Stereogum were pretty on the ball when they offered the observation that with a sweet Wrecking Crew arrangement, Here Comes The Rain Again could have been a hit for Diana Ross and the Supremes, one of Annie’s favourite groups growing up in the austere granite grey of Aberdeen.
The release of Be Yourself Tonight also coincided with a new look for the singer, who ditched the carrot-topped child of Ziggy Stardust androgyny of the previous albums and became, in biographer Lucy O’Brien’s words, “a bleach-blonde rock ‘n’ roller.”
While it does contain some genuinely exceptional songs, the record as a whole comes off a little overrated in retrospect. Be Yourself Tonight is essentially a deep soul album in white-English-geek drag. As far as exploring new song structures and broadening the sonic palette then Be Yourself is atypically conventional and perhaps unadventurous, though in terms of songwriting it’s an extremely solid piece of work.
Would I Lie To You? is a brash, uncompromising album opener and lead single, giving listeners a first hint that they’re in for a raucous ride. Everything in this deliciously defiant two-finger salute clicks: the almost disco bassline, the metallic – but nowhere near generic metallic – guitar riffs, the funky gasping-for-air brass section, and the fiery emotionalism of Annie’s soaring vocals (caterwauling, one less kind review opined at the time), all combine to make the song one of the finest examples of Eighties white rhythm and blues. Now you know how it goes: if you ain’t got a great set of lungs, you ain’t truly fit for R&B, and if you ain’t got enough vocal hook lines to back it up, your R&B is gonna stink like a skunk down a drainpipe.
Neither is a problem on Be Yourself Tonight. Annie’s singing only gets better with time, so much, in fact, that she goes toe-to-toe (and holding her own) with Aretha Franklin’s powerhouse pipes and manages to match the Queen of Soul (no mean feat, obviously) seamlessly on Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves, the bombastic gospel-inflected duet that has since become a feminist anthem, and also serves as the centrepiece and defines the album.
Sticking with the singles, I’ve often felt It’s Alright (Baby’s Coming Back) was one of the more under-appreciated Eurythmics 45s from their first flush, but aside from the bass-heavy electronic pulses and the yearning fluttering warmth of Lennox’s vocals, the song was notable for marking the first time a Eurythmics album boasted four bona fide hits. Moreover, the duo did go on to receive an Ivor Novello Award in 1986 for the track, recognising the composition’s musical and lyrical importance. From: https://www.stevepafford.com/beyourself/
