Customer Reviews

Revenge

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wow! After great synth albums like Sweet Dreams and Touch and 1985's Soul/R&B excursion Be Yourself Tonight, Eurythmics created this riveting rock album of moving melodic songs. I don't like the meandering Missionary Man, but thereafter it's genius all the way! Thorn In My Side is a dramatic ballad with a great sense of finality, When Tomorrow Comes is a soaring number where Annie's voice goes full throttle, The Last Time is an eerie, brooding ballad with strange voice effects, and The Miracle Of Love is another lovely melodic pop song. These rank amongst the best compositions of Eurythmics, on a par with classics like Love Is A Stranger, Sweet Dreams, Right By Your Side and There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart). I also love the full rock sound they use here - it makes an interesting change from the earlier synth-based sound. Other favorites include Take Your Pain Away and the gentle, wistful I Remember You with its torch-song vocal and textured instrumentation. Perhaps some Eurythmics fans didn't like the rock textures of this album, but to me it remains one of their best.

Ok, one thing that I didn't quite enjoy about this album is that Eurythmics seemed to ignore their synthesized roots, and plunge into their new sound. This might not have been what all Eurythmics fans enjoyed, because Annie Lennox & Dave Stewart had revitalized the music world as it is, but hey there is nothing wrong with this album at all. It also sold by the thousands, but critics were still not pleased. But in my opinion, I never really get tired of this song. Songs like "Missionary Man," "When Tomorrow Comes," and "Let's Go" are very high points on this record, and there are very touching, and heart-felt ballads such as "The Miracle Of Love," and "I Remember You" that nearly made me cry the first time I heard them, and I'm not one to do that when I listen to songs. And songs such as "Thorn In My Side," "The Last Time" and "In This Town" which will just about get your blood pressure sky high. The only low point on this album is "Take Your Pain Away," musically it is arranged bad, but like I said it's just my opinion. So if your a 80's rocker, this is the album for you, but if you prefer the more "synthesized" Eurythmics records, then this isn't for you.

This has to be one of the best albums released in the 80s.I think the Eurythmics were one of the only people to mix synth pop with soul.A song worth checking out is The Miracle of Love.A song that didnt get alot of airplay in America.

In 1986, Eurythmics released their fifth album entitled, REVENGE, an album where Eurythmics proved that they can still win the fans over with their music. This album shows that Eurythmics are still within their sound of 80s Synthesized Pop & Rock, but this album allowed The Eurythmics to include the sound of acoustic guitars and a heavier sound of synthesizers. This album is unbelievably amazing. It remains as one of their absolute best out of their entire discography.

MISSIONARY MAN
The fourth & final single from the album. Although, I really enjoy this song, I do not understand what it is about. But it is definitely a great song. The music video, in which I have seen recently on VH1 Classics' Tuesday Two-Play, is oustandingly incredible, but eerily freaky for the most part.

THORN IN MY SIDE
The second single from the album. The acoustic guitar that is played in the very beginning of the song is unbelievable. The song is one of my favorites all the way. One of my favorite sections of this song, aside from the acoustic introduction in the beginning, is the spoken phrase Annie says before the first verse. That spoken phrase is said like this, "...You gave me such a bad time, tried to hurt me, but now I know..." A song not to miss.

WHEN TOMORROW COMES
The first single from the album. Another amazing song that I can sing along with. Annie's voice is pure gold.

THE LAST TIME
Great.

THE MIRACLE OF LOVE
The third single from the album. Great.

LET'S GO!
Awesome.

A LITTLE OF YOU
Another awesome song. Why wasn't this one released as a single?

IN THIS TOWN (Live)
Amazing.

I REMEMBER YOU
Amazing.

WHEN TOMORROW COMES (12" Dance Mix) (Unlisted Bonus Track)
This song, as I have already indicated, is an unlisted bonus track. An awesome mix.

This is an album that I listen over and over again. I honestly cannot get enough of this album. This album's front cover is their best album cover yet. There is no need for me to describe, since you all could see it for yourselves.

This was a minor disappointment. It was the follow up to the fantastic Be Yourself Tonight, one of the best albums of 1986.

The album starts out well enough with Missionary Man. Then it moves on to Thorn in My Side, which is good but not on par with the best of the Eurythmics. After that, the whole album just slows down. It isn't bad, it just doesn't come close to matching the fire or the inventiveness found in Be Yourself Tonight. The songs are just ordinary. The music isn't up to standards either. Some of the guitar and sax solos are just bland and pointless. The CD does pick up with the last two songs. However, I usually get so bored with the middle I usually don't stick around to hear the last two tracks.

This CD has the greatest number of Eurythmic hits on it. It is because of the blandness appealing to the lowest common denominator. It is why white bread is so popular in the US.

If all you crave is the sounds of "Sweet Dreams" and "Here Comes the Rain Again," this CD may not be what you expected, but it is still very much Dave & Annie. Songs like "Let's Go" make you want to jump in the car and start weaving lanes at 70+mph. "The Miracle of Love" is the wonderful acoustic piece that brings out Dave Stewart's vocals with Annie Lennox's... very acoustic, vocal and a sweet song... countered w/ rocking riffs like "Missionary Man," this is an ecclectic collection of songs that took me by surprise when I first heard it (back on vinyl! egad!). I saw the Revenge tour back in 1986 and it was awesome... they performed songs from every track on this CD as well as their most famous hits... excellent work by an excellent group.

The Eurythmics had previously shifted into a "soul/rock" sound on "Be Yourself Tonight" which was received critically & commercially well. The experiment of that record gave the Eurythmics more musical credibility, so the question was could they follow the same success?

While some may've thought "Revenge" to be a lukewarm successor to "Be Yourself Tonight", I think it more than lives up to the previous bar set by that album, almost moving it higher.

"Revenge" moves specifcally into a more rock, or 1980's bar rock with synth flourishes, soul leanings, & immaculate pop melodies. I find that the securing of a live band, the drummer of Blondie (Clem Burke), a much welcomed addition help seal the deal. Annie delivers some of her most searing vocals & Dave arrangements sparkle with creativity & sponeaity.

The album kicks off with the bluesy, ballsy "Missionary Man" which after a intro of blurred harmonica histrionics, kicks into gear with Annie's smooth voice. The track ranks as one of their finest single cuts, as well as compositions. From there you are treated to the euphoria of "When Tomorrow Comes" which celebrates the prospect of love growing with each day, this joy is conveyed in the sharp drumming & keyboard shading.

Other highlights include the slick "The Last Time", raucous "Let's Go!", the fantastic ballad "The Miracle of Love", & a personal favorite "Take Your Pain Away". I love the latter because it starts of as a band jam, much sharpened of course, but has a club leaning or beat underneath it. This "beat" at one point takes stage, switching the band sound to the back, then quickly shifting the band sound back to the front.

The record seems to balance lyrically the promise of love, yet the paranoia of the failure of love. This is seen in tracks such as the mentioned "The Last Time", more specifically the soul seether "Thorn In My Side" & bittersweet tang of "A Little of You". "Be Yourself Tonight" definitely had more of a romantic feel, which still spilled over here, but you see the side of romance gone bad here. The paranoia of love here would totally become bitter & take shape on the follow-up "Savage".

Commercially, this heralded a slump in the Eurythmics American career, but in their native U.K. the record steamed ahead as a hit. One of my favorites, I recommend if you want to see Annie & Dave at their most focused, and with their most "bite".

After the fantastic "Be Yourself Tonight," the Eurythmics moved almost completely away from the synth sound of their early albums into a full-fledged rock album with heavy R&B influences. The lead-off single and the first song on the album promised great things from the duo for their sixth studio album "Revenge."
With a futuristic, imaginative video, "Missionary Man" delivered everything the Eurythmics were about: great hooks, hip-moving beats, powerful vocals, electric energy and biting lyrics. From there, however, the album begins to slip. It's not that the songwriting isn't good here ("Thorn In My Side," "The Miracle of Love" and "Last Time" are all good songs), it's just that there's really nothing very memorable beyond the first track. The energy seems to be wearing thin and Annie and Dave lack the diversity and creativity in their songwriting.
This is definitely an album worth listening to, it's just not the best of what they could do. The album before and the masterpiece after ("Savage") prove that this is just a temporary creative slip. As with all their work, however, when you find the Eurythmics at their least effective, it's still usually way above the par in comparison to their contemporaries.

Other Eurythmics albums I would skip around to the next good song but this album I could listen to the hole thing. Be yourself tonight was a good album but personaly Revenge was and still is the best.

I find this album, Revenge, to be the best album by the Eurythmics. Other albums, such as touch, I would have to jump back and forth to different songs but not with this album. The hole album is great and worth buying.I would reconmend this album to all new wave 80's lovers.