In the Garden | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 2 October 1981[1] | |||
Recorded | January–May 1981 | |||
Studio | Conny's Studio, Wolperath, Cologne | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 39:10 | |||
Label | RCA | |||
Producer |
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Eurythmics chronology | ||||
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Singles from In the Garden | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [4] |
Smash Hits | 7½/10[5] |
In the Garden is the debut studio album by the British new wave duo Eurythmics.[6] It was released on 2 October 1981 by RCA Records.
It was co-produced with krautrock producer Conny Plank at his studio in Cologne, and features numerous guest musicians including Blondie drummer Clem Burke, Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft drummer Robert Görl, and Can duo Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit. Plank had previously worked with the duo whilst they were in their previous band the Tourists.
Two singles were released from the album in the UK, "Never Gonna Cry Again" and "Belinda". Neither the album nor the singles achieved much commercial success, although "Never Gonna Cry Again" charted at number 63 in the UK singles chart.[7]
On 14 November 2005, RCA repackaged and released Eurythmics' back catalogue as "2005 Deluxe Edition Reissues". The re-issue of In the Garden added the B-sides from the album's two singles, plus three tracks recorded live on the accompanying tour.
Stewart first met Lennox in 1977 at the health food restaurant Pippins, where the latter was employed as a waitress. During that time, Lennox was studying at Royal Academy of Music and Stewart was performing in the band Longdancer with Peet Coombes. The three formed the Tourists, a folk band, with Coombs serving as the primary songwriter and Lennox playing a Vox keyboard that once belonged to John Lennon. However, the band collapsed in part due to Coombe's drug dependency.[8][9] Stewart, who became romantically and musically involved with Lennox upon hearing her playing a song on the harmonium, had ended their romantic relationship around the time the Tourists dissolved, although the two still remained on amicable terms and formed Eurythmics in 1980.[9][10]
The duo recorded In the Garden in Germany with Conny Plank serving as producer.[11] Stewart was encouraged by Plank and several session members to incorporate a variety of sonic textures into the songs. Stewart first developed an interest in field recordings as a child and had experimented with recording sounds from a bakery adjacent to his house.
On In the Garden, Conny Plank and Holger Czukay from CAN and Jaki [Liebezeit] would teach me to just record all different kind of sounds and mix them into the actual track—and even if you can't identify them, the whole track comes alive. I've always done that ever since, and it all goes back to being a kid and making a recording in the baking shop.[12]
In an effort to distance himself from the music of the Tourists, Stewart sold two of his guitars and replaced them with a Roland TR-606 drum machine, a Roland Space Echo, and a synthesiser. Stewart explained that this decision was partially in response to a perceived pivot away from guitar-oriented albums in England. "The punk movement had happened and had annihilated anything to do with guitar records. If you were in England, it was a joke if you just made a normal guitar record."[13]
Plank encouraged the band to experiment with microphone placement during the recording process. This resulted in microphones being suspended up in a barn and dangling over a well in certain instances. Stewart credited Plank with sharing techniques that prepared him to become a record producer.[13]
In a favourable review in Smash Hits magazine, Tim de Lisle commented "The ex-Tourists pack their bags and leave the safe pastures of pure English pop for the electronic delights of Cologne and superstar producer Connie Plank. On the way, they mug up on their Ultravox, Bowie, and Joy Division without forgetting their own roots, and the result is an intelligent, accessible first album."[5]
William Ruhlmann of AllMusic thought that Lennox's "ethereal" vocals were more subdued on In the Garden compared to the band's subsequent releases. He further described the album's production as having a "distant, mechanistic feel of the European electronic music movement, but less of the pop sensibility of later Eurythmics."[3]
All tracks are written by Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart, except "English Summer" and "Caveman Head" co-written by Roger Pomphrey
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "English Summer" | 4:02 |
2. | "Belinda" | 3:58 |
3. | "Take Me to Your Heart" | 3:35 |
4. | "She's Invisible Now" | 3:30 |
5. | "Your Time Will Come" | 4:34 |
6. | "Caveman Head" | 3:59 |
7. | "Never Gonna Cry Again" | 3:05 |
8. | "All the Young (People of Today)" | 4:14 |
9. | "Sing-Sing" | 4:05 |
10. | "Revenge" | 4:31 |
No. | Title | Length |
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11. | "Le Sinestre" | 2:44 |
12. | "Heartbeat Heartbeat" | 2:02 |
13. | "Never Gonna Cry Again" (Live) | 4:36 |
14. | "4/4 in Leather" (Live) | 3:05 |
15. | "Take Me to Your Heart" (Live) | 4:57 |