The Eurythmics Look Back
The Eurythmics will reissue their entire back catalog — each title remastered and featuring a number of unreleased
tracks, including covers of Lou Reed, the Doors, David Bowie and the Smiths — on November 15th. But today, the chart-topping duo of Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox will celebrate their stellar career with Eurythmics Ultimate
Collection, a nineteen-song best-of featuring such classics as “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” and “Here Comes the Rain Again,” as well as their first new recordings together in six years.
According to Stewart, the new songs — “I’ve Got a Life” and “Was It Just Another Love Affair?” — came about quickly and organically, while Lennox was visiting him in Los
Angeles. “Annie was staying with me on holiday, and she wanted to see the studio that [fellow producer] Glen [Ballard] and I had decorated all in white — like John Lennon’s room in Imagine,” he says. “We were there only forty-five minutes, and we’d already written ‘I’ve Got a Life.’ We
started to record it, and, by the time we drove home, we were playing the CD in the car.”
In addition to the Eurythmics, the tireless Stewart has a
full plate. He’s currently developing two programs for TV: a “quirky and offbeat” animated series for Nickelodeon, and a series for HBO with Six Feet Under‘s Alan Poul. He is also resurrecting Platinum Weird, a project he originally conceived of around 1973, or as he refers to the period: “my sort of drugged-out, bonkers years going between London and Amsterdam.” A duo with American hit-making songwriter Kara DioGuardi (Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears, Santana), Platinum Weird will be “revealed” early next year — likely in March — with both an album, produced by John Shanks
(Ashlee Simpson, Kelly Clarkson), and a short film.
“The sound of Platinum Weird has got its roots in kind of guitar, bass, drums,” Stewart says. “I suppose it’s like early Fleetwood Mac or bands from the Seventies, but it’s got a contemporary sound to it. And, of course, it’s got a complete
mixture of English and American, because Kara’s from New York and I’m from Northeast England.”
With both Platinum Weird and Eurythmics on his mind,
Stewart has envisioned a tour with the two outfits. But though Stewart and Lennox remain close — and he is thrilled with the new songs — fans shouldn’t expect the full-fledged return of the Eighties hitmakers. “I think you should expect sporadic things,” he says. “Annie and I have decided to play until we’re both sixty-five years old and perform at the Albert Hall
for a week with an orchestra.”