a thread for annie lennox's 1992 "adult alternative" album DIVA

i don't think i've listened to this in 15 years

it was one of the 15-20 compact discs in my house growing up. i listened to this on repeat because i did not want to here sinatra's duets.

"Walking on Broken Glass" is a great fucking song and pretty much my go-to example for lyrical content not at all reflecting the bright and sweet music.

the singles from this were pretty big just as i was getting into the charts and so on - when i found out about the eurythmics i was pretty confused. i really liked "love song for a vampire"!

1992 was just plain the best year for singles ever in my life, srsly.

"Walking on Broken Glass" one of the truly COMPLICATED big hits of the period. I still don't quite understand how all the pieces of the rhythm work. I also really like the way Lennox delivers "Keep Young and Beautiful" -- just straight enough to give the thing a little sting. Superb record through and through.

"Why" is absolutely gorgeous. I still recite the litany of rhymes with "-ead" to impress friends.

The rest of the album? Not so much.

OH WAIT SORRY.

"Little Bird" is fabulous. In fact, this is the greatest video of Lennox's career:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI0gdIWJ4-w

I mean, it's at Madonna and Bowie's level of image savviness.

Ha speaking of which:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNG2z4wWkhA

That avocado green jacket is at Madonna and Annie Lennox's level of visual savviness.

Hahahah

"why" is so good

She flirted with boredom -- was very friendly with boring music -- for many years, so it's no surprise she became so irrelevant.

I love this album. I think I like every song on it. I loved the video for "Little Bird" with all the Annie Lennox "drag-clones."

Alfred OTM. I was so stoked for this record and so appalled by it.

an ex of mine would invariably put this record on when she was upset about something so hearing any of it fills me with tremendous anxiety

"Dying is easy/it's living that scares me to death."

i fuck w/ this album

huge annie lennox stan right here. up until the stuff that came after this album.

this is totally great tho.

this album sounds so good this a.m.

so people who love this one don't love Medusa? Medusa gives me feelings

Medusa has No More I Love You's, and I think her take on Waiting in Vain is quite genuinely gorgeous, but her Train in Vain is an unforgivable atrocity.

Her song in Dracula was the second or third best thing about that movie

All year, "Call Me Maybe" just made me reminisce about "Walking On Broken Glass."

i said this a while ago but it is my new karaoke goal to find myself singing "why" in drag

i also kinda love this album front to back, and especially bc it lands in a drifting and unresolved blue nile cowrite

I did a horrifying version of "Why" at karaoke once.

mine probably would be too but i feel the bare horror would be tempered by mascara

the only time I wrested the tune away from my hapless pipes was I sang-shouted the THIS IS THE BOOK AH NEVER READ part

Cool

Nice

saw some of her clips on bazoocam

i said this a while ago but it is my new karaoke goal to find myself singing "why" in drag

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson)

any luck?

This was the only CD my dad ever played in the car from its release till some point in the mid 90s.

this is the fear
this is the dread
these are the contents of my head

The sun's still shining in the big blue sky
But it don't mean nothing to me
Oh let the rain come down
Let the wind blow through me
I'm living in an empty room
With all the windows smashed
And I've got so little left to lose
That it feels just like I'm walking on broken glass

same

WALKING ON WALKING ON

Man, those are awful lyrics written down.

And yet, the single is OK.

hi, Brad

"walking on broken glass" is the greatest song of all time

Wrong.

The single mix of "Little Bird" is.

finally happy to agree to disagree about something

and the video

Wrong. This (spurious?) rap couplet is: Your Favorite Rap Couplets of the Moment, You Contrarian-Ass Mutha!

ok that's p good

You know what song kills me? "Primitive."

I know it’s from the next album but “no more i love yous” is all-time. Incredible video too

Yep

Brad, come back so we can talk about Diva.

1992 was just plain the best year for singles ever in my life, srsly.
― queen frostine (Eric H.), Sunday, February 7, 2010 5:07 PM (ten years ago)

I still pretty much believe this.

before I ever got into rock/metal, the singles from this album were my shit. I mean don't get me wrong, I still love them, but as a kid I was into this shit rather than the 'cool' pop of the moment.

guess I need to listen to the album proper beyond the singles finally

i finally did sing "why" while wearing a dress this year, in february (rip karaoke)

I love the Bowie-level image manipulation of the "Little Bird" video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjbNLVQ_Iwk

I bought this on a bootleg cassette from a man at Speke Market, it was such a bad copy I could barely hear it through the hiss.

Man my dad really loved this album in 1992.

Can't believe how long it took me to listen to this gorgeous album. I mean, it opens with two amazing singles, why wouldn't the rest of it be great

I believe that love alone might do these things for you

listening to annie's covers album medusa from 1995 this morning. it's hilarious! i genuinely like "whiter shade of pale" for its pomp melodrama anyway and this rendition goes full bore in that direction. also opens with "no more i love yous" (originally by the lover speaks). has ilm ever weighed in on that potentially lost classic?

anyway if you ever wanted to hear "i can't get next to you" with a flamenco guitar solo, i have good news for you friend!

(also for clarity: the album really isn't that good but like most covers records, it's a fun curiosity. and yeah, the blue nile song is what prompted me to check it out. not a bad version; pretty faithful to the og.)