![\"Issue37-Annie-Lennox\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Issue37-Annie-Lennox.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nAnnie Lennox\u2014the wonderfully eccentric, madly soulful former Eurythmics singer\u2014has released a decidedly nonstandard standards album. Nostalgia<\/i>, the follow-up to 2010\u2019s critically lauded\u00a0A Christmas Cornucopia<\/i>, came about totally by accident after Lennox performed some jazz tunes with Herbie Hancock at the 2012 International AIDS Conference. \u201cIt struck me that I had this aspect of my voice,\u201d she says. \u201cI kept it in my brain and left it quietly, but there was still that curiosity, that question mark: \u2018I think I can do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Months later, Lennox revisited the idea. After going down a YouTube wormhole that led her from one vintage pop tune to another, she hopped on a tiny keyboard and began crafting gorgeously understated arrangements of some of her favorites. \u201cI wanted to represent them in a really fresh, truly authentic way and strip them down to what they really are,\u201d Lennox says. \u201cI hope I don\u2019t sound arrogant in saying that, because I\u2019m very reverential about the songs. But I felt that it had to be my approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among Nostalgia<\/i>\u2019s dozen tracks are three co-written by Hoagy Carmichael (\u201cMemphis in June,\u201d \u201cGeorgia on My Mind,\u201d and \u201cThe Nearness of You\u201d), one by George Gershwin (\u201cSummertime\u201d), two made famous by Billie Holiday (\u201cStrange Fruit\u201d and \u201cGod Bless the Child\u201d), and Screamin\u2019 Jay Hawkins\u2019 bizarro R&B gem \u201cI Put a Spell on You,\u201d famously covered by Nina Simone. \u201cI want people to listen to this album sitting down, sipping a nice liquor or whiskey slowly and becoming very introspective,\u201d Lennox says.<\/p>\n
How\u2019d you make the songs your own?<\/b><\/p>\n
First of all, you hear them, and they\u2019re external to you. And then you have to learn them. You imbibe them. They become internalized. You have to create your own version. I definitely did that. I sat at the keyboard and wrote the chords I felt would work for my versions\u2014because I\u2019m not interested in doing a copy. This is about interpretation. This is about getting so deep into the core of the song that I try to re-create it as my own.<\/p>\n
Do you bring an outsider\u2019s perspective?<\/b><\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a geographical thing\u2014music is universal. There I was, as a young teenager in northeast Scotland, dancing to music coming from Detroit\u2014Motown. And I was listening to the Beach Boys and the Mamas and the Papas. So much American music has traveled around the world. In the opposite way, music sourced in Britain traveled across the Atlantic over to the U.S. We\u2019ve always had this glorious cultural exchange. At the end of the day, maybe that\u2019s what\u2019s so beautiful about it, that it transcends the geographical boundaries.<\/p>\n
Did any songs surprise you?<\/b><\/p>\n
The first thing that struck me: I was drawn to the poetry of the lyrical content, and how evocative it could be. There\u2019s humor, too. That process of hearing a song\u2014you have to get it right. You really have to check that you\u2019re singing correctly. For example, in \u201cMemphis in June,\u201d there\u2019s the line \u201cmaking a blueberry pie.\u201d I realized Nina Simone sang \u201cmaking a rhubarb pie.\u201d Should it be blueberry? Should it be rhubarb? At the end of the day, I sang \u201cblueberry,\u201d because I felt it rolled off the tongue better than \u201crhubarb.\u201d You have to have a bit of leeway for artistic interpretation.<\/p>\n
Why are the arrangements so spare?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
There\u2019s an old adage: If you can sing a song and accompany it on guitar or keyboard, you know you\u2019ve got a song. If I could play these my way\u2014accompanying myself and singing them on a keyboard\u2014I knew I had something. I wanted to delve into a deeper place. I felt like I could draw out this blues, R&B influence that I feel so deeply. I didn\u2019t want to then apply a very lush, saccharine string or orchestral arrangement.<\/p>\n
How did you sequence the album?<\/b><\/p>\n
I was drawn to the songs in a random fashion. Once I recorded them, the next thing was to create the journey of the listener. Which is the first song I want people to hear? Everything is carefully crafted. \u201cStrange Fruit\u201d is the sixth track on the album, but when you\u2019re listening on vinyl, it\u2019s the last song on the first side. It takes you to the darkest point. After you\u2019ve gone down so deeply, I felt the next place you could come is restoration. This is where we get back on our feet. It\u2019s almost like redemption.<\/p>\n
Bold move including \u201cI Put a Spell on You.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
I guess I had to have guts to even think about covering it\u2014or tackling it; that\u2019s a better word. I felt like the song could be turned around. Screamin\u2019 Jay Hawkins\u2019 original is very much about ownership: a man owning a woman. It\u2019s a masculine take. And it\u2019s hilarious, and fabulous and wild. It\u2019s unique, but I love the feral madness of all that. But if a woman were to sing it, what is she saying? Is she saying she owns the man? I think it\u2019s a broader question. For so many years I\u2019ve been an activist, particularly for the human rights of women and girls, and I\u2019m terribly aware of the violence women go through, things you read about every day in the newspapers. When I\u2019m singing it, I\u2019m not singing it for myself, because I don\u2019t suffer these abuses. I\u2019m singing it for the global spirit of women. We are putting a boundary down: Do not abuse women.<\/p>\n
Is anyone writing classics these days?<\/b><\/p>\n
There are classic songs that have been written recently that will last the test of time. You\u2019ll know them when you hear them. Adele\u2019s 21<\/i> is a classic album. The hits on that album will last forever. Amy Winehouse\u2019s tracks on Back to Black<\/i> are classics. They have a spiritual quality about them, a caliber that ticks all the boxes.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve done three covers albums. Is there a new genre you\u2019d still like to explore?<\/b><\/p>\n
Not really. Every single album I\u2019ve ever made, with Eurythmics or as a solo artist, it\u2019s been a project. It\u2019s been a chapter of my life. It\u2019s been a part of my day-to-day journey. I\u2019m in the process of Nostalgia<\/i>. This is what I\u2019m doing. Once I come out on the other end, probably sometime next year, I\u2019ll have some time to myself, and I\u2019ll either walk away from music altogether, or I\u2019ll do something else.<\/p>\n
Walk away?<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u2019ve said that after every album: \u201cThis is the last. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m ever going to do another one.\u201d And then I do another one. With Elton John, he had a few comeback tours. People sometimes feel they\u2019ve had enough and want to get away. And then maybe they want to come back to it when they\u2019re ready.<\/p>\n
How do you define nostalgia?<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u2019m heading for 60 at the end of the year. My head is full of memories and experiences. At times, it comes through. I\u2019m here right now, but I\u2019m also thinking back to things that happened decades ago, and it\u2019s very resonant for me. I\u2019m finding that as I get older, I\u2019m still connected to things that happened in the past. I\u2019m living with my own sense of nostalgia. Another aspect of nostalgia is that people come up to me and they say things like, \u201cThe first time I did XYZ\u201d\u2014broke up with my boyfriend or did my first this or that\u2014\u201cyour music got me through.\u201d I realize Eurythmics music and my music are part of the collective nostalgia.<\/p>\n
\u2013Kenneth Partridge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ANNIE LENNOX The Scottish soul diva soars on a singular standards set Annie Lennox\u2014the wonderfully eccentric, madly soulful former Eurythmics singer\u2014has released a decidedly nonstandard standards album. Nostalgia, the follow-up to 2010\u2019s critically lauded\u00a0A Christmas Cornucopia, came about totally by accident after Lennox performed some jazz tunes with Herbie Hancock at the 2012 International AIDS […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[2345,7660],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14685,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14683\/revisions\/14685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}