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
CLASSIC ALBUM
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.
Unlike so many classic albums to grace these pages, Touch is not the tortured tale of protracted sessions, spent aching over each syllable. In fact, Touch was both recorded and mixed in just three weeks – a phenomenal work ethic that would put many of their contemporaries to shame.
Such a pace might be standard fare for a rough-and-ready garage band, essentially knocking out their live set on tape. But Touch is something else entirely: a precise, meticulously produced and multi-layered work; a shiny and ambitious pop effort, peppered with subtle flourishes that only reveal themselves over time.
Of course, the release was expedited to satiate the sudden huge demand for the duo who until recently had languished in relative obscurity. Certainly, the pair must have felt some pressure to deliver the goods. And fast. Speaking to The Tube in October 1983, Annie (ever the realist) acknowledged: “Well, we had a schedule to meet.”
Meanwhile, in the same interview, Dave proffered a more optimistic take: “Well,
