Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

“Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by Eurythmics (1983) Even if we set aside the popularity of the title track, this album stands on its own as a fine musical production. It’s best heard from start to finish, noting the fittingness of the attention-grabbing opening track (“Love Is a Stranger”), the LP-flipping start of side two (“Sweet Dreams”), and the wistful goodbye of the closing track (“This City Never Sleeps”). The cohesion is in the sound. It’s wonderfully constructed. Annie Lennox is a first rate lyricist, presenting intriguing and unsubtle metaphors that bring the listener to well considered conclusions. She knows not to overwork the images. An example is the didactic line (in “Sweet Dreams”) “Everybody's lookin' for something”, followed by a compelling explanatory quatrain that sounds like it burst into her consciousness after a fresh reading of Aristotle’s Categories: Some of them want to use you Some of them want to get used by you Some of them want to abuse you Some of them want to be abused As a progressively potent breakdown of the relationship between universal desires and the listener’s role in their fulfillment, that about covers it. But what questions remain! What feelings haunt! The grooves are dominated by synthetic bass lines that drive from the basement and provide a (usually dark) background for freshly gathered sonic bouquets. Dave Stewart is a masterful composer/producer. Lennox has a fine voice, with exceptional contralto range that is notably powerful on the low end. And while dubbing melodies in three octaves (“The Walk”), she still has room for soaring descants. Freddie Mercury comes to mind. Choral directors salivate. This album is proof positive that synth and pop can be excellent music. 4/5 (almost a 5)

In 11th grade my video production teacher gave me the keys to his Mercedes to run an errand and this album was in the CD player. Shout out to Mr. Fix, the coolest teacher.

Sweet dreams the song is a timeless classic, the rest of the album is not, it drags a lot and the spanish song is just shameful

Each song feels like 30 seconds worth of material stretched to 3 minutes. Also, ever song except sweet dreams is musically boring, besides.

Ace, early 80s synth-pop and dance. Always enjoyed this LP. Jennifer is haunting and great. The singles are rightly smash hits. Awesome album.

The hits are true classics, some other parts (especially towards the end) are not really memorable.

It's fine, but I feel like a lot of the songs were too much potatoes and not enough meat, you feel me? I'm hungry.

Very nice. We grew up with hits from Eurythmics and Annie Lennox, especially "Sweet Dreams." I always enjoy '80s new wave, but it took me a few tracks to really get into this. The production is really solid, and Annie Lennox's vocals are always nice, but overall it wasn't as explosive as I expected. Maybe just because the hits like "Sweet Dreams" and "Here Comes the Rain Again" feel so big that some of these songs feel meek in comparison. But it's still a good project. Also, "Jennifer" sounds like a precursor to "Goodbye Horses" by Q Lazarus. That’s more than okay with me. Favorite tracks: Sweet Dreams, Jennifer, The Walk. Album art: I really like the different font choices, and the geometric shapes, but the picture in the middle is just way too small. It's comically large framing. 3.5/5

I don't have that many thoughts about this. There isn't anything that really sticks out to me as memorable (outside of sweet dreams but i think that's just because it's famous) but I don't think that it's doing anything particularly bad either. Middle of the road for me. 2.5/5

LOVE LOVE LOVE! Big fan of the Eurythmics and enjoyed the album.

Vocals and electronic music makes this one a classic.

Loads of cool stuff here but the title track is so immense

The album has some good moments, but the vibe is somehow not quite right. With synth as the key instrument, it takes some magic to make music that sounds human. Hopefully, there will be examples of European new wave on this list too!

One of the most classic synthpop albums of the 1980s, Sweet Dreams helped to create and establish the genre. Unlike some of their contemporaries, Annie Lenox's R&B vocals shine, refusing to get lost in the techno beat. A great listen even 40 years later and jam packed full of dance tunes, this album is part of the origin story of modern club and dance music. Without Sweat Dreams, as well as late era Donna Summers and New Order's Blue Monday, we wouldn't have modern EDM.

I deeply, madly love The Eurythmics and I feel they are severely underrated. To me they are THE sound of the 80s. One of my first real musical memories is being in my Mom's Honda Civic, hearing "Sweet Dreams" come on the radio, and being completely hypnotized by it. I can even remember the street we were on. As dark as this album tends to be, I associate it very strongly with my childhood. It is definitely where my fascination with electronic music began. I have always admired the way The Eurythmics combine cold, dark electronics with warm and soulful elements - Annie Lennox's incredible, shape-shifting voice being the warmest and most soulful element of all. It's an approach that seems like it would be easy to replicate but honestly I don't know if I've ever heard it better than on this album.

I would go as far as a title it the music that defined the 80s and was ahead of its time at the same time, and that's even without taking "Sweet Dreams" song

Listened to it once and it was meh. Listened after i got high and it was great.

better than i expected. very listenable. nice word joe.

Quintessential 80’s

An old favourite, straight from the 80's. Intelligent pop. Annie Lennox voice is always incredible.

Enjoyed it a lot more than I thought. I like some of the weirdness of it, it's a unique album

Solider 80er-Sound, Satellite of Love ist gut

11/19 Great Synth-Pop album. Standout Tracks: Love Is A Stranger, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Jennifer, This Is The House, This City Never Sleeps

Big fan of Annie Lennox after seeing her open up for Sting in the early 2000’s – so mostly Eurhythmics hits and some of her solo tracks, as her vocals – especially live, were stunningly good… Like most bands, Eurhythmics scattered their better songs across a number of albums, and there are several on here that were really well done… Best tracks IMO were – “Love Is A Stranger” – 5-stars out of 7… “The Walk” – 4-stars out of 7… “Sweet Dreams” – 6-stars of 7… “This City Never Sleeps” – 4-stars out of 7… Not a Eurhythmics aficionado by any means, but at their best – they have their own sound, and some awesome, and quite unique songs – and at their worst (i.e. on this album there is a dreadful version of “Wrap-It Up”…) they are just there for me… Glad I listened, and would probably give this a 2.50 for the solid tracks on the album, but there wasn’t really enough there to push it to a 3 – so a robust 2 in my book…

This album is really bad. It doesn't even have an interesting story behind it like some albums on here to make you realise why it's on the list. It literally just says 'Eurythmics second album'. Jennifer is one of the worst songs I've ever heard and somehow they instantly top it with This Is The House. I feel most people will probably give this album an extra star because of Sweet Dreams but I've never really liked that song either. The next album can't come quick enough

Banger

I love this genre/period in music, but Eurythmics do it in a unique and original way; the clean, crisp synths complement the purity of Lennox's voice. The way she moves from note to note is like autotune without the autotune. I knew and loved the obvious ones already, but Jennifer was a great new discovery. I also like the Talking Heads-esque lyrics of This Is The House. Somebody Told Me made me look up when PiL released Rise (it was three years after this) - the intro is very similar! If you enjoyed Annie Lennox, try her early 90s album 'Diva'.

Who am I to disagree?

who am I to disagree

A sublime 80s enjoyment when playing with gender appearance wasn't already old hat. Annie's pipes are legendary. I was introduced to this album when they performed at the 1984 Grammys which I happened to watch with my parents. I was captivated by Dave Stewart's performance on the electric violin (an instrument I had never seen at a rock concert before) and Annie's Elvis Presley outfit, complete with sideburns. Features great synth and electronic production at time when it was not easy to both before MIDI became a thing. MIDI had only been introduced in the early part of 1983 before Stewart and Lennox put to work later that same year, meshing the sounds of Kraftwerk with soul and R&B that contributed to the formation of a new genre of artists that would become Romanticism 80s pop. This album would inspire many of the band and genres to come in the 809s and all the way to present.

Annie Lennox is a goddess who blows away the vocals.

I didn't know this was the name of the album too. I remember when this song came out it was a smash. This is my first time listening to a Eurythmics album. I always thought Annie Lennox's voice was great. If Sweet Dreams was released today it would still be a hit.

Mostly not my style but too cool not to love.

5 stars

Excellent!

Annie Lennox is the undisputed Queen of white soul. This is another example of the fact that we're living in a post-Eurythmics world. When this came out, it was a karate chop through the typical pop of its day. A classic.

I loved the album I had not heard all of the tracks before but I am glad I had the opportunity now

I feel silly I’ve gone so long not listening to a full album of theirs.

Pop perfection from early 80s. Lenox’s vocals shine and Stewart’s electronic confection musically is a Synth pop dream. A sweet one at that.

One of the greatest of time. Every song is art.

Amazing album for working, cleaning or just generally doing boring tasks - it's groovy, engaging and light, like a good 80's synth pop album should be.

I could go about this band and Annie Lennox, but I'll abbreviate my review: •Annie Lennox live (solo) was the best show of my entire life. I saw her at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, and she could fill the venue with her voice at least three times over. That show was powerful. •I think Lennox is the best female vocalist due to her range, strength, and her ability to sing multiple genres. •Eurythmics are not so much pop as they are alt-new wave. I think that's why they were never really popular. •Lennox is Scottish and Stewart is English •Dave Stewart co-wrote Don't Come Around Here No More with Tom Petty. The Heartbreakers didn't want Stewart on the album (after all, he was British and the album was called Southern Accents, but the single was a huge success). •Lennox and Stewart were a great match and pushed electronic music to another level, and they were MTv video pioneers. •Lennox was gender bending before it was a thing. She wore men's suits and cross dressed more than once on MTv. No other female had done that before consistently on TV. •As a kid, I stopped in my tracks with mouth agape when I first saw Sweet Dreams on MTv. My little kid mind was blown to smithereens. My favorites from this album are Love Is a Stranger, I Could Give You (A Mirror), and Jennifer. Jennifer sounds like it could be in an 80s thriller-mystery movie, specifically Michael Mann's Manhunter. That film has neon hues, dark shadows, and ominous synth. I highly recommend it. (Plus, it's the first time we see the character Hannibal Lector on screen). I know this album and band aren't for everyone, but if you like 80s or modern synth, this album is definitely worth multiple listens. And as a side note, I absolutely adore Annie. She's a humanitarian and cares about the world. 5 stars.

Absolutely killer album that I need to listen to more often in my life

A great album with creative arrangements and killer vocals

Definitely some good songs on here. Sweet Dreams seems to get all the love. More people need to listen to the rest of the album. Something I've been noticing with a lot of these albums. How one song has over a billion listens and another song has under 100k is just wild. Listening to this twice straight through.

Part of the soundtrack for the 1980s. Contains some great tracks, the title track "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" obviously, but also "Love Is a Stranger", "Somebody Told Me", "This City Never Sleeps", and my favourite "Jennifer".

This has been an absolute favorite since it came out. So happy to listen to it today!

Awesome!

A delicious slice of 80s cake and about freaking time Annie Lennox showed up. A+

This album made a huge impression on me back in high school. I bought the cassette back in 1983 for Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), but the entire album is etched in my mind. Particularly memorable is the title track, Love Is A Stranger, Wrap It Up, and The Walk. And I really love the ultra moody Jennifer - and how it is follow by the festive This is the House. Such a great pairing! Such a great 80’s classic. It’s good to listen to the album in its entirety again! TERRIFIC!

annie lennox 4eva and eva

What can you even say?

Es un must. Love Is A Stranger , Jennifer, Satellite of Love.

Es un must. Love Is A Stranger , Jennifer, Satellite of Love.

Transcendental musically and vocally, showcases why the Eurythmics were one of the best acts of the 80's. 4.5/5

Absolutely flawless

Perfect

Pure 80's perfection.

Always fabulous Love Anne voice

This was a really revolutionary record and an exciting band at the time this album came out. The videos were really cool, and the sound was unusual, as was the songwriting. They had a brilliant career, and Annie Lennox went on to do some great solo work. I think this is the best Eurythmics record. I have been stingy with my fives but will give this a five as I think it's a solid nine on a ten point scale, and I'm rounding up because of how revolutionary everything was... the instrumentation, the look, the design of the album itself. It all felt NEW.

Certified BANGER! I fucking looooove the Eurythmics. They are the most 80's-ist thing of all 80s things and I truly enjoy everything about them. Annie Lennox is a goddess and I worship at the altar of her cool unbothered androgynous style and feminist badassery! I salute a legend and dance in her honour today.

Yeah you read that right, this is a 5 star album for me! I know that seems wild, but I truly every single song on this album brings something to the table. We all know the gigantic hit of a title track, and the Moody family members of the group are very familiar with Love Is A Stranger from years of mom’s mix cds in the car, but even songs like Jennifer or Somebody Told Me which sound like filler tracks at first end up building to a noisy satisfying conclusion. There are three big factors at play here: the production, the excellent songwriting, and Lennox’s incredible vocal performances. For the first point, if you didn’t listen to this through headphones, you did yourself a disservice. This was my first listen to the album as a whole and I was blown away by how the perfectly balanced and creative the mixing was. Synthesizers attack from every angle on the upbeat tracks while they fall into a lush ecosystem on the slower songs. The vocals rise and fall out of the mix as if they are another instrument fitting into their place with perfection. I appreciate this coming so soon after Culture Club because it really hammers home what the difference is between their generic sound va the Eurythmics’ unique tone. Second, I absolutely love the lyricism on this album. Moreso however, the synth lines stand out as unique and unmistakable. They have the darkness and grit of Dark Wave standards like Depeche Mode, but keep an airy lightness that transition smoothly into catchy choruses. It’s like everything great about the genre being put on full display. Third, not much I can say about Annie Lennox. If you hear her sing, you should get why she’s special. So yeah. 5 stars. Full disclosure I did rate the original release which ends with This City Never Sleeps (great closer by the way). I see there’s a 2005 rerelease with some bonus tracks but I’m not grading it on those (good thing too if the other bonus tracks match the quality of that Satellite Of Love cover).

Contains two of the best 80s singles with Love Is A Stranger and Sweet Dreams. It is not the perfect synthpop album, but the number of 5 star songs is such that I still rate it as a 5 star album, just like its two successors Touch and Be Yourself Tonight. 9/10

I had only heard the singles off this record; I was amazed at how much of this album I ended up liking!

Great

This album is made out of awesomeness.

The call and response at the beginning of wrap it up both gave me a jump scare and made me laugh. Jazz at the end of the walk is so cool. This album has a really cool vibe, feels like it takes me to a different place when I’m listening to it. The production also has a lot of cool layers, and I feel like I’m picking up new sounds on repeat listens. Sweet Dreams is a top 10 80s pop song for me. Wtf were they thinking with the Spanish in This is the House? Took me out of the flow of the album. Honestly, the whole album really falls apart after Jennifer. Which is a shame because the first 7 songs are an incredible run. This brings me to a philosophical decision, 7 songs I love followed by 3 utter disappointments. 25 minutes of music I love is good enough for me, and it helps that it’s consecutive so I don’t have to skip, I can just turn it off when I’m done. I’m gonna give it a light 5. Cover art: 9/10 did Kanye make this?

Loved it

GOD DAMN why are only one of these songs famous? dude more than half these tracks could’ve made them one hit wonders, they’re all so amazing 10/10

Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

Excellent post punk alt record. Obviously banger title track

Played this album a lot when it came out 40 years ago (!). Not so much in recent years - and this has been a mistake. I didn't care for some of their later pop/rock stuff, but this is an excellent synth pop album.

Loved Eurythmics before this project. Still a great album.

Muy bien lograda la atmósfera del disco, lo disfruté bastante :>

Annie Lennox slaps

Love it

It's a bit unfair to ask me to be objective since this is one of my all time favourite bands and albums. Annie and Dave. What a team! The greatest since Beauty and the Beast. I could listen to this all day. Perfect production and perfect New Wave Synth. And what a voice she has.

cool

Milestone... !

Wrap it up is so strange and I like it a lot. Fuck yeah. I was dancing down the street to Sweet Dreams. I really never got sick of this. It’s weird. It’s dancy. Good for them.

Bangers all round , fantastic

Classic electro 80s sound

Better than expected. For once the title track isn't the best jam!

The ethereal beauty of Annie Lennoxs voice never ceases from taking my breath away every time.

I've been listening to this album for years now and it's always such a joy. Everyone knows Sweet Dreams, but there is a lot of other really great stuff on here (Jennifer, This is the House, Love is A Stranger). Really pure 80s perfection here.

Love the rythm and the instruments !

After listening to their debut effort I wasn't holding out much hope. I love Annie's voice (weapon) but found it had that repetitive dullness that colours so much euro-electronic stuff (that definitely includes the humdrum that is Bowie's Berlin trilogy). But they got their groove going in this one, retaining the experimental edge while truly displaying their rhythmic, melodic pop sensibility. Songs like Somebody Told Me have that hypnotic quality while being fun.

Great album.

Maravilhoso!

I still enjoy the ginormous hit and title cut off this LP, but I’ve also heard it so many times that I now tend to take its initial shock appeal for granted. It was helpful to revisit the song in the overall context of this excellent album. The lyrics, first of all, are haunting: ‘Everybody’s lookin’ for something. Some of them want to use you.’ Uh oh, my guard is up. ‘Some of them want to get used by you.’ Hmm, things are beginning to get a little weird. ‘Some of them want to abuse you.’ OK, now I’m downright uncomfortable. ‘Some of them want to be abused.’ Oh, my. If you just slowly read those five sentences, with the words emphasized in their proper places, it ought to make the hairs on your arms rise. Just as you’re trying to shake that off, Dave Stewart then gets his sulky rich synth hooks into you, and now you’re in his grasp. Until Annie Lennox reasserts herself to conclude the number with a powerful lead vocal melody, terrific backup harmonies, and even a surprising descant. The thing is, though, that’s just one great song dwelling within the company of others even greater. The LP opens strong with ‘Love Is a Stanger,’ ‘in an open car to tempt you in and drive you far away… Love is a danger of a different kind. To take you away and leave you far behind.’ Compelling lyrics, delivered with precise vocal harmonies, and accentuated with echoes and other effects. Dave is adept at these studio techniques throughout. It’s an agreeable pairing, these two. The next two songs feature a Latin infused electronica, ‘I’ve Got an Angel,’ followed by ‘Wrap It Up,’ an Isaac Hayes and David Porter composition, but I remember hearing it first from the 1960s soul duo Sam and Dave. (Three years following the Eurythmics, blues band The Fabulous Thunderbirds would also score a big hit from their cover.) The Eurythmics’ take finds Annie channeling the likes of Aretha Franklin, but again through the musical filter of purely synthesized accompaniments. The effect is rather interesting, too. It might immediately come across as somewhat dispassionate, but a deeper, longer listen will begin to reveal its soulfulness of a different breed. It’s an authentic union of modern electronic dance music with old school soul and R&B. But the birth is not a combination, where both are heard equally; rather, they mingle and mix together to create a whole new, third, creation: like yeast reacting to barley malt and yielding beer. Sweet Dreams is probably better accompanied with a very dry martini, but you get what I’m sayin’. By the time I was five songs in (still before the hit ‘Sweet Dreams’), I knew the album was both growing and growing on me. ‘The Walk’ is artfully arranged, and the dual play between Annie’s melodic, assertive femininity to Dave’s baritone background is tasty. ‘Jennifer,’ though (the song following ‘Sweet Dreams’), was this album’s real triumph. With the background sounds of an ocean breaking at midnight, the lyrics concern a girl/woman who is lost, and eventually found underneath the water. The music is perfect for this mystery. Are we talking murder here, or some kind of tragic accident? Tell me she didn’t take her own life? Questions unanswered that left me pondering hours later. Dave’s sparse, pounding synth beat is dynamically unsettling, then finishes with a high register synth solo effected by a strange buzz tone that sounds fiendish. By now, the last three songs were more than a confirmation of this LP’s ability to fire on all cylinders: ‘This Is the House,’ with Annie’s harmonies arranged and performed with creative brilliance, ‘Somebody Told Me,’ with a funky robotic ‘oh well’ refrain that builds in intensity along with the singer’s shock and mounting anger, and the conclusion, ‘This City Never Sleeps,’ with its successful transportation of the listener into the shared space of an overcrowded apartment in the inner city, and traveling among the desperate and poor in the ‘underground trains.’ The outro gradually stretched out to infinity, and when it faded, unresolved, I was yearning for more, but with a personal experience to reflect upon. Sweat Dreams accomplishes something that occurs, thankfully, from time to time in pop music- carving out a bit of a new path and inviting the rest of us to hop in for a little off-roading thrill ride.

Wow, I loved this. I only knew the title track. This album reminded me a lot of Lady GaGa and I'm here for it.

geðveik

Sweet album, actually forgot to do this cause listening to that. Club movie

One of the best of the 80’s…loved this ..really forgot how much I appreciated this album….dancing the night away..good music….back in the day

Amazing

An old favourite that I used to enjoy dancing to with my sister when I was a child.

Great album , timeless!

Incredible. I have tons of nostalgia for this album and Eurythmics in general, and this album absolutely delivers

Es un must. Love Is A Stranger , Jennifer, Satellite of Love

Classic. Great music to zone out and drive to