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As one of the most iconic and respected women in contemporary public life, Annie Lennox is also one of the most beloved and inspirational artists within popular culture.
In an artistic career that has already spanned over 25 years, she has consistently pushed boundaries and embraced excellence, creating music that has become an integral part of the soundtrack to our lives.
She has also achieved global album sales in excess of 78 million and has been recognised with a plethora of awards, among them Grammys, Brits (she has received more than any other female artist), a Golden Globe and an Oscar for her song Into The West, from The Lord of the Rings.
Described as “the greatest living white soul singer” by VH1, she is also a respected humanitarian and a role model to millions of women worldwide. No wonder then that the arrival of new material from Lennox is always a cause for eager anticipation and celebration.
For her to say that she feels her forthcoming solo album represents her finest work to date will raise expectation to the highest level possible.
Due for an Autumn 2007 release, she says that it’s the closest she’s been so far to that authentically raw and emotional place, infused with the contrasts of beauty, yearning and sadness.
“I feel closer to my own cutting edge than ever before, and my voice seems to be in it’s prime”.
It’s a paradoxically uplifting, yet troubling piece of work, as the listener will discover. After a long and fruitful association with Steve Lipson, it marks her first collaboration with veteran producer Glenn Ballard.
The album was recorded in his LA studio The HIgh Window.
“I was looking for a different approach, and was introduced to Glen socially via Dave (Stewart),” she says. “He’s a wonderful person, and someone who I felt instinctively might understand me rather well musically. He’s a positive influence and facilitated my own creativity in a very natural way. Working with Glen was a total pleasure.”
Lennox brought preliminary work with her to their introductory sessions which she had recorded in London with long-time musical director Mike Stevens.
“Just sketchings-out of songs I’d written with no particular concept in mind. Glenn loved them, and felt they should be performed and recorded with a live band, track by track.”
The result, from the haunting introductory song, “Dark Road” to the closing epic, “Fingernail Moon”, is a sumptuous musical soundscape within which Annie’s soulful voice shines and soars.
That there is a strong female perspective running through all of these new songs is no accident.
“What’s it like to be a woman in rock”? was a recurring question in my early career, and I always felt too patronised by it to want to give a direct answer. Now I realise that being a woman has made for a totally different experience to the majority of the opposite sex in music. I’ve lived this (musical) life and inhabited this space long enough to feel I can definitely plant the flag on behalf of my gender. On songs like “Womankind” and “Sing”, I’m absolutely embracing a feminist theme.
That latter song, an anthem at once different to, but in the tradition of Eurythmics “Sisters (Are Doin’ It For Themselves”, is likely to become one of the most talked-about tracks of the year, featuring as it does an all-star choir of her female peers.
It had its genesis in Annie’s trips to Africa and her on-going involvement with Nelson Mandela’s 46664 and Treatment Action Campaign - organisations fighting for human rights, education and health care for those affected by the HIV AIDS virus.
(In South Africa, as many as one in three women are HIV positive).
After being given a CD of music with an HIV/Aids theme, written and performed by TAC activist members group “The Generics”, Lennox was inspired to try to bring their message to an international audience, and decided that the best way would be to incorporate one of their songs into one of her own.
“I chose a track where the theme is calling for the national implementation of a programme to prevent mother--to-baby HIV transmission, and then sent out a letter to 23 of the most internationally renowned female artists asking them to sing with me.”
“Everybody said yes, right away.” And so it is that “Sing” features (among illustrious others) the likes of Madonna, Joss Stone, Celine Dion, Gladys Knight, kd Lang, Angelique Kidjo, Bonnie Raitt, and Shakira.
Lennox plans to make the track available on internet, with all profits from downloads going to support TAC initiatives. “And I hope that there’ll be a ripple effect as people get to hear it, with each of the other artists involved (my sisters and contemporaries in arms, if you like) being asked about the song and the subjects it raises, so that fan bases will then take the time to check out the issue their heroines are supporting .
It’s a very heartfelt mission.
This combining of idealism with pragmatism (Lennox feels that it is through her music that she can best bring focus to the causes closest to her heart) is typical of the way this most singular of artists has managed her career.
As one of the most enduringly successful songwriters and performers in all of popular music, she is also an idol and inspiration to millions.
And with the new album she is taking that career to a new level of artistic accomplishment.
“When I look at the world around me, I see a totally insane place, full of violence and aggression, miscommunication and cruelty” she says.
“As a woman and a mother, it’s a harrowing prospect to cope with.
Then there’s all the stuff that’s actually within me, and within all of us - the unrequited love, the lack of peace, the chaos of thoughts and memories. These songs are my way of channelling those feelings and expelling that pain. I want people to connect with this. I want people to feel, ‘My God, she’s singing about MY life”. My blood and bones are in this music. I’ve given everything I have to offer here.”
A first single, the stunning “Dark Road”, is the perfect introduction to the project. Of its inspiration Annie says, “Every day as I was recording the album I had to drive down Sunset Boulevard to the studio, and I became very aware of the ironic symbolism I’d catch sight of along the way.”
“For me the people driving in their cars contrast with so many disenfranchised or dispossessed living on the outskirts of this all-pervasive consumerist society.
And therein lies a disturbing, sobering truth running through not just this one song but through the whole album. On life’s journey, so many dreams are smashed. There’s the constant possibility of falling by the wayside or slipping through the cracks. And whether we realize it or not ... we’re all on that path.”
