The Annie Lennox Collection

If Annie Lennox had only her time in Eurythmics to claim, she'd still be recognized as one of the greatest modern pop and soul singers. In addition however, she has enjoyed massive success as a solo artist. Spanning seventeen years, a proper Annie Lennox retrospective of her solo material finally arrives. Heavily built on '90s-era hits, The Annie Lennox Collection is a mix of grooves, ballads, and two new recordings, and it is the artist's first official assembly of top charters and best tracks that represent her albums Diva (1992), Medusa (1995), Bare (2003), and Songs of Mass Destruction (2008). Much like the artist, all of these recordings have aged very well, with main producer Steve Lipson's synth-dominated soundscapes still as engaging as when they first were released.

Lennox's smart sequence perfectly juggles song keys and topics that pace the collection with a loose storyline filled with love, feminism and self-exploration. From the opening song's vibrant "ah" crescendos to the last track's lone "yeah..." backed by a solo piano, this project proceeds more like a well-conceived, original album than a simple retrospective. And though lyrics are included in the white eco-friendly packaging, Lennox emotes so much through her icy-to-passionate phrasings that it's almost distracting to be reading along while the CD plays.

The majority of this album's songs showcase Lennox, if not in crisis, in heightened drama. One sensational four-song sequence starts with the emotionally drained artist walking against the "Pavement Cracks" of a gray-skied city, asking, "Where is my comfort zone, a simple place to call my own." We may find a clue as to why she's feeling so drained in "Love Song For A Vampire" from Francis Ford Coppola's Hollywood take on Bram Stoker's Dracula. Its imagery and line, "Let me be the only one to keep you from the cold," cues-up "Cold," whose clever lyrics, "Dying is easy, it's living that scares me to death," serve as a potential alternate conclusion to "...Vampire." Then comes her "Dark Road" (with its slight melodic pilfering of Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'") that, as Lennox writes in the package's notes, is a "metaphor for life's journey"--the artist on "a dark way" that leads to her "house." Like the house, she has an open door that "didn't get there by itself," so we're left wondering if this is a warning, an invitation for love, or evidence of a great escape.

Mostly, The Annie Lennox Collection is a testament to her strength. You especially can hear a celebration of that growth in the last track, "Shining Light" (originally, an award-winning recording by the Irish alt-rock group, Ash), in which she pumps out affirmations such as, "You are a force, you are a constant source" and "You are a shining light, incandescent in the darkest night," like she was tossing around fistfuls of Halloween candy.

It's her powerful, rapturous voice that always seals the deal, and it conquers all fourteen pitch-perfect tracks, a feat seldom achieved by CDs (or CD/DVDs) with the word "Collection" in the title.

CD Tracks:
1. Little Bird - from the album Diva
2. Walking On Broken Glass - from the album Diva
3. Why - from the album Diva
4. No More "I Love You's" - from the album Medusa
5. Precious - from the album Diva
6. A Whiter Shade Of Pale - from the album Medusa
7. A Thousand Beautiful Things - from the album Bare
8. Sing - from the album Songs of Mass Destruction
9. Pavement Cracks - from the album Bare
10. Love Song For A Vampire - from the movie Bram Stoker's Dracula
11. Cold - from the album Diva
12. Dark Road - from the album Songs of Mass Destruction
13. Pattern Of My Life - new
14. Shining Light - new

DVD Tracks:
1. Little Bird
2. Walking On Broken Glass
3. Why
4. No More "I Love You's"
5. Precious
6. A Whiter Shade Of Pale
7. A Thousand Beautiful Things
8. Sing
9. Pavement Cracks
1o. Cold
11. Dark Road
12. Something So Right
13. Waiting In Vain

Musical Guests
	Fergie
	Shingai Shoniwa
	Dido
	Faith Hill
	Isobel Campbell
	Joss Stone
	K.D. Lang
	Madonna
	Martha Wainwright
	Melissa Etheridge
	Anastacia
	Angelique Kidjo
	Pink
	Sarah McLachlan
	Shakira
	Sugababes
	Beth Gibbons
	Beth Orton
	Beverley Knight
	Gladys Knig

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The Annie Lennox Collection