We're comin' outta the kitchen, there's something we forgot to say to u

April 29, 2020 5:58 AM

1985 was a ridiculously strong year for music releases. April 29, 1985, Eurythmics' fourth album Be Yourself Tonight became a worldwide success [YT album link, 44m] with several hit singles, and moved their sound from synth-pop to rock. Side A: Would I Lie To You? [video], There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) [video], I Love You Like A Ball And Chain, Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves (with Aretha Franklin) [video] [yes, this video was in 1985]

Side B: Conditioned Soul [Ed. note: !], Adrain, It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back) [video], Here Comes That Sinking Feeling, Better To Have Lost In Love (Than Never To Have Loved At All)

Bonus: B-sides and (glorious 80s) remixes

Would I Lie To You (E.T. Mix)
Would I Lie To You (Extended Mix)
Here Comes That Sinking Feeling (LP Version) [not the same as the version on the album]
Grown Up Girls
There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) (Special Dance Mix)
Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves (E.T. Mix)
Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves (LP Version) [not the same as the version on the album]
Tous Les Garçons Et Les Filles

posted by hippybear (18 comments total)

I know we did this a couple of years ago, but I found remixes this time and it fits in well with my ongoing series.
posted by hippybear at 5:59 AM on April 29, 2020

This isn't a deep insight. But I was 14 in '85 and all this music sounded so... new and exotic to me then. But so much of it was just slightly tweaked and re-arranged R&B/Soul from 25 years before done by white British folks with cool haircuts.

Not a criticism, just an observation of how pop culture works. I guess it still works this way. I did and still do love Eurythmics.
posted by SoberHighland at 6:41 AM on April 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

The Eurythmics and The Police were my favorite bands in high school, and I listened to all of their albums over and over and over again. I feel like I say this every time you post one of these, hippybear, but it astounds me how etched in my memory these songs are. I was also 14 when this came out, and I remember every single word of every single song on this album. But ask me the names of my teachers at the time, or what I had for lunch yesterday, and I can't recall a thing. I guess the magic formula is hormones + repetition + music...

Hmm - I wonder how I could make that work for me now?
posted by widdershins at 6:55 AM on April 29, 2020 [4 favorites]

This is great, but I've always liked Revenge a little bit better (and, yes, I know this puts me in the minority, but there you go).

Thanks for the post.
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 6:56 AM on April 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

I was slightly older than widdershins and SoberHighland, but the album also holds a special place in my heart; among other things, it was the first thing I bought with my first paycheque. Limeridge Mall, July 1985. What a time.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:10 AM on April 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

Limeridge Mall? That's a proper noun I haven't thought about for a few decades, since leaving Burlington in the mid 90s.
posted by stevil at 7:51 AM on April 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

I first saw One Crazy Summer when I was 8 or 9 years old. I just realized, 30 years later, that this entire time I thought "Would I Lie to You" was an original song written for that movie.
posted by JohnFredra at 8:23 AM on April 29, 2020

I always thought "It's Alright (Baby's Comin' Back)" didn't get enough love.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:29 AM on April 29, 2020 [6 favorites]

"It's Alright (Baby's Comin' Back)"

I wonder if Player tried to to shake them down, like they tried with Jellyfish.
posted by thelonius at 8:46 AM on April 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

I will not lie to you: that's my go-to album for blasting while I clean the house. It's impossible to not be moving to that music and singing along while nobody else can hear you.
posted by mightshould at 11:37 AM on April 29, 2020

My favourite of theirs since it came out when I was 17, although I also rate Sweet Dreams and Revenge highly. This was the first CD I bought when I started revisiting '80s pop after my '90s alternative phase and replacing my aging tapes. Well, this, and Songs from the Big Chair. Somehow, I can't imagine "the first album I streamed after a while" sticking in the memory the same way for people twenty years my junior, but who knows...

Such classic mid-80s sounds. "Conditioned Soul"! I love it all. I was going to say "look at that killer A side", but look at that killer B side as well. Every track is essential.
posted by rory at 1:06 PM on April 29, 2020

Extremely random Eurythmics fact: they formed in Wagga Wagga.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 1:50 PM on April 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

And named themselves after the Tourist hotel.
posted by emf at 4:47 PM on April 29, 2020

It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back) is one of those glorious songs that I had almost forgotten. (How is that possible?) I wonder if the guitar styling near the end was influenced by Holger Czukay's Movies (1979) (or, obviously, by African highlife.)

Aha! In the Garden is the debut studio album by the British new wave duo Eurythmics. It was released on 16 October 1981 by RCA Records. It was co-produced with 'krautrock' producer Conny Plank, at his studio in Cologne, and features numerous guest musicians including Blondie drummer Clem Burke, Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft drummer Robert Görl, and Can duo Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit. Holder didn't play guitar on that album (he's credited with "French horn, brass, thai stringed instrument, walking"), but there is a connection.
posted by maudlin at 6:00 PM on April 29, 2020

Love this album; this was often in teenage-me's Walkman. The swirling stereo panning towards the end of Ball and Chain is really striking on headphones.

It always felt to me that the joyousness Angel and Sisters were a little out-of-place when set against the bleak iciness of the other songs. The sequence of songs on side B: so so chilly. (It's almost certainly not alright that baby's coming back; and it really does matter where he's been.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 6:28 PM on April 29, 2020

Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves (with Aretha Franklin) yt [video yt ] [yes, this video was in 1985]

Directed by two men. *sigh*
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:09 PM on April 29, 2020

This album is etched into my hard inner audio files. I can hear it all just reading this thread.
posted by Oyéah at 8:29 PM on April 29, 2020

The swirling stereo panning towards the end of Ball and Chain is really striking on headphones.

There were several possible choices for which YT to post of this song, and one of them had the most pronounced swirl (the others were more back-and-forth and less sort of binaural 3D space), so I picked that one to link. It's pretty extraordinary even just though my iMac stereo speakers.
posted by hippybear at 8:58 PM on April 29, 2020 [1 favorite]