Tracks: 9, total time: 39:12, year: 1984, genre: Pop/Funk
1984 (For The Love Of Big Brother) (UK Pressing)
1984 (For The Love Of Big Brother)
� 1989 RCA Records, Inc.
� 1995 Virgin Records Ltd.
Originally Released November 1984
CD Edition Released April 10, 1989
UK CD Edition Released October 16, 1995
AMGEXPERT REVIEW: While it is not billed as an Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, this album does contain, as a jacket note indicates, “music derived from Eurythmics.” The original score of the motion picture 1984, it was treated as a side project for marketingpurposes, not as Eurythmics’ full-fledged fourth new studio album. Fair enough. Much of the album is instrumental, and the closestthing to a pop song, “Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)” (which was a Top Ten hit in the U.K.), like the other vocal numbers, relates to the movie’s future fiction theme. As such, the album is substandard if judged as an independent Eurythmics album, adequate if judged as a soundtrack. — William Ruhlmann
Half.com Album Notes
Underheralded original soundtrack to the 1984 film of the same name based on the famous George Orwell allegory. Featuresdark, brooding, mostly experimental and instrumental tracks by the incomparable duo of Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox. Includes ‘Sexcrime (1984)’, ‘Doubleplusgood’, ‘Julia’ and six others.
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The Best Album of All Time, June 21, 2002
By L. Desrochers (Nottingham, NH, USA)
Maybe not of alltime, but certainly the best Eurythmics album: to think that I was put off by savage reviews (not to mention the controversy surrounding the movie director’s refusal to use any of the music in the film) and the first single, “SexCrime.” I didn’t buy it, the first time I didn’t buy a new Eurythmics album. Fortunately, a friend of mine had better taste and let me listen to his. I was immediately awed by the haunting, beautiful music, and have branded itmy favorite Eurythmics album ever since. “Julia” gets frequent mention, of course, as it should, but check out “For the Love of Big Brother” or “Winston’s Diary.” Music that stands the test of time; elements from this album are strewn throughout most pop music today.
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experimental eurythmics, August 8, 2000
By “i_hate_emoticons” (Seattle, WA USA)
Ibought this cd on a whim, as part of a Gift Certificate from a friend. I was intrigued by the many positive reviews which placedthis album with early industrial music rather than the rest of the Eurythmics catalogue of electronica. (Ie: “Isle of Man” era Ministry, Voivoid, etc.) I agree that there are elements of industrial roots here, but I really think that the album is more akin to”Dark Side of the Moon.” When I obtained the album, I realized that one track, “Julia” was one I’d been looking for for years, after seeing a video of several looped Annie Lennoxes singing a haunting song in an eerie acapella, on Asian MTV at around three in the morning.
The Eurythmics abandon their normal format to venture into the realm of the concept album. They concentrate on thetheme of Orwell’s story, deviating only for an instant with “Sexcrime” which was clearly designed to grab airtime. A thread of constant paranoia invades the album, and it stays true to Orwell’sclaustrophobic portrayal of a society bent upon absolute totalitarian control. I especially felt that “DoublePlusGood” and “Room101” accomplished this very well. In fact, “DoublePlusGood’s” rapidfire newscaster distillation of issues to simple “Goods, Bads, PlusGoods,” etc, building to an almost orgasmicly cheerful endingof repeated “Good, Good DoublePlusGood,” was delivered with the same cheer and artificiality as Seattle’s “King 5 News”, which made me wonder exactly how deep the connection ran.
I really enjoyed the album, because I felt that the Eurythmics really pushedthemselves with this. I think it is tragic that the most innovative work by the band is relegated to relative obscurity. More artists should be given the freedom to innovate, then we wouldn’t have so many cookie cutter groups that all sound as if they were pressed in plastic on some sound stage in Burbank.
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George Orwell would approve., June 11, 2000
ByShelley Shay (Denton, TX **(God Bless the USA!!)**)
The most”recent” movie based on “1984,” the 20th Century classic by George Orwell was very true to the book and likewise, so was this incredible piece of work by the Eurythmics. Penetrating lyrics, haunting sounds.
If you’re a big fan of the book like I am, you will definitely appreciate what the Eurythmics have accomplished… one song after another (including one creepy instrumental) thattells the scary, lonely story of Winston Smith, his love for Julia and the love everyone must have for Big Brother.
If you’rea new Eurythmics fan, this CD will hopefully inspire you to readthe book. Annie Lennox’s piercing voice and Dave’s rocking guitarriffs will keep you thinking about this riveting story, the characters and how our society can easily turn into Orwell’s horrificview of the future. Songs like “Room 101” will haunt you and songs like “Julia” will remind you of the brief glimpses of peace and happiness in Orwell’s story.
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Soundtrack? Excuse me?, September 12, 2003
By Laszlo Uriel “laszlo-laszlo” (San Francisco, CA USA)
Generally when a piece isrefered to as a “soundtrack” it is assumed to contain a collection of or selections from the background score of a the movie in question. Whether it’s hit songs, original music, or some combination, generally that musical score or collection is put together so one can listen to it verbatim without having the dialog and visuals in the way – the “soundtrack”. But this simply isn’t that.
The CD says on it “Music derived from Eurythmics’ original score of the motion picture 1984”. That is accurate. It is derived from the original score, but it is NOT the original score. I’ve seen this CD for sale at several places and this “direved from” aspect is generally played down.
It’s alright. It’s Eurythmics music. Eurythmics are good. But this isn’t their best by any means.I was very disappointed to realize I still didn’t have the actual”musical score from the movie 1984″. A lot of the ‘haunting’ feeling from the 1984 music is just gone from this.
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A ripoff., June 26, 2000
By Gary Pedoto (America)
At the last minute, Dominic Muldowney’s original score was pulled and replaced by the Eurythmics music. I bought this anyway thinking that it would in some way represent the music of thefilm. The best song and the THEME, “Oceania” (by Muldowney) is not even on this CD. This CD is not even technically a soundtracksince most of this music was not in the film and the music that WAS in the film is not on this CD. It wasn’t until years later theentire original score by Muldowney was released on CD and now there is talk of re-releasing the movie Nineteen Eighty-Four minusthe Eurythmics music and putting Dominic Muldowney’s original (and superior) music back where it was meant to be. It’s a shame that for a quick buck, the movie studio bigshots went with a pop music group who was big at the time and discarded Muldowney’s score.
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Haunting, melodic, inspiring…, March 25, 1999
By Curt ([email protected]) (Kent, Ohio)
I could not understand at the time of its release why this albumdidn’t do well. Then I realized that this was no ordinary “pop” album. Many people did not like the cd because it challenged them.One finds the tracks disturbing, nonsensical…at first. Listenmore closely, open your mind, and you might be able to understandDave Stewart and Annie Lennox’s intrepretation of 1984. Lennox uses her voice as an instrument, at times as hard and cold as steel (I Did It Just The Same), and at others as soft as falling leaves (Julia). This recording is exceptional.
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Musically it’s OK, but thematically it’s heavy-handedstuff., February 19, 1999
By The Sentinel (Vancouver, BritishColumbia Canada)
It’s not surprising that Michael Radford, the director of that great film of Orwell’s novel, “Nineteen Eighty-four,” was tearing his hair out when he heard about this proposed soundtrack. Richard Branson, the head of Virgin, the British multimedia conglomerate bankrolling the film, had taken it upon himself to have a contemporary pop act compose some danceable, radio-friendly music for the movie as a means of giving it some more marketable cachet since the production was going wildly overbudget. Ultimately, what they got was this truly strange New Wave novelty from Eurythmics. The director had already agreed on a more appropriate orchestral score by Dominic Muldowney and he vociferously denounced Virgin’s behest to use the Eurythmics’ music as botha professional betrayal and an infringement on his artistic freedom. As a result, only fragmentary bits and pieces of the pop duo’s “soundtrack” were actually used in the film, and Mr. Radford said some none too kind words about Eurythmics and the whole debacle on a televised awards show.
The music that appears on thisalbum (faithfully plugged in the movie’s closing credits), is, asthe liner notes inform us, merely “derived from Eurythmics’ original score for the film, 1984” (go figure). Suffice to say, “1984: For the Love of Big Brother” is not really a soundtrack per sebut, more accurately, a collection of contemporary pop songs conceptually BASED on “Nineteen Eighty-four” (think of something along the lines of Madonna’s “I’m Breathless” album for the movie “Dick Tracy” and you’ll know what I mean), and as such, it doesn’t entirely work.
Musically, this album has a certain appeal–it’s all doomy, gloomy Teutonic synth mantras and martial electro-beats: if you like New Order or Kraftwerk or the late 70’s Bowie-Eno collaborations you might go for this CD. Thematically though, this album is a bit hard to take, especially on two particular songs. The lyrics for “Sexcrime” and “Doubleplusgood” are preposterously silly in their naive, corny literal-mindedness. “Sexcrime” has a self-consciously Top-of-the-Pops-“hit-single”-circa- 1984 quality stamped all over it (the dreadful music video will make youcringe) and Annie Lennox’s histrionic vocal obbligato just sounds crudely intrusive in this context.
“Doubleplusgood,” on the other hand, is even more egregious: it’s a very thin, rather stupid, and bludgeoningly repetitive joke based on a trivial bit of background dialogue seriously intended in the film. Mercifully, neither track is featured in the film.
The one track that actually IS used–as a matter of fact, it serves consistently as the movie’s romantic lietmotiv–is the gorgeous, haunting accoustic ballad, “Julia.” It’s a heart-breakingly lovely song that, miraculously, manages to ENHANCE the film’s tremendous emotional impact inspades. But for no other reason, Eurythmics’ otherwise dubious participation in the movie was worthwhile–this one stand-out six-and-a-half-minute track is the only compelling reason for owningthis CD. I give “Julia” five stars, the rest of the songs, one ortwo, three at best. So, as you can see, I’ve split the difference in my overall rating.
I just wish that a proper soundtrack including the little sonic snippets of the used Eurythmics music and the whole of “Julia,” as well as all of Dominic Muldowney’s great, stirring score, was released instead of this generally self-indulgent and sometimes embarassing hodgepodge. What a pity it was not to be. At least they could come out with a CD single of “Julia.”
Unless, you’re a serious Eurythmics fan or completist, my advice would be to skip this CD–but by all means, for the loveof Big Brother AND great art, buy, BUY the video of Radford’s wonderful, stunning, passionate film. (You’ll hear enough of “Julia” in the movie, and if you have any kind of aesthetic or emotional sensitivity at all, you won’t be able to get it out of your head, believe me.)
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Clearing up the confusion, August 5, 2005
By Jehannum (England)
This CDcontains music that was partially used in the original cinema andVHS release of the 1984 film 1984.
The film’s director was,it seems, put under pressure to include The Eurythmics’ music because the film was released on the Virgin label, who wanted to promote their band.
The current DVD release of the film includesonly the Dominic Muldowney orchestral and choral score, compliant to the wishes of the director. I believe that the Eurythmics’ score is presented as an extra alternative soundtrack in this DVD.
When I first watched the film I noticed the disparity of musical styles and, I must say, I thought that the synthesised soundof the Eurythmics’ material spoiled the soundtrack.
I obtained Dominic Muldowney’s score (which has had a recent CD release)and found, to my surprise, that I missed the sound of the Eurythmics’ music. The synth textures, after more than 20 years, no longer sound incongruously modern, and their haunting effect is muchenhanced.
I was delighted to be able to buy this CD of the music, and was even more delighted by its excellent quality.
Ifyou really want the music from the film you will need to get both this and the Dominic Muldowney soundtrack.
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Lesser known facts, February 21, 2004
By J. Brady (PAWLEYS ISLAND, SC United States)
After Eurythmics blew upinternationally with the Sweet Dreams and Touch albums, this wasquietly released originally back in 1984. The director of the film 1984 is said to have rejected the soundtrack Eurythmics recorded as “too modern sounding” in favor of a mostly orchestral and traditional sounding score, which was written by someone else entirely. Although it wasn’t a commercial ( or critical ) sucess, it is probably my favorite Eurythmics cd, along with the first three( In the Garden, Sweet Dreams, and Touch ). The mix of the synthetic music, which is sometimes cold and mechanical, with the always incredible vocals of Annie Lennox, might seem on the surface like to oil and water – they just wouldn’t seem to go together. Itis that juxstaposition that I find the most intriguing. I personally never cared for this duo’s output when they began flirting with American styled R and B and giving their music a fuller “band”sound, with real drums, sax, etc. I much prefer the clinical, synthetic sounds of their earlier work, and I find 1984 to be the apex of this approach. This disc was SO ahead of it’s time. It sounds in places much like the ambient house music and world-beat music which became popular almost ten years after this album’s release. The instrumentals are often spare in arrangement, but feature very distintive sounds. It doesn’t sound like Dave Stewart hitany factory pre-sets on his syths, in other words, and took the easy way out, as so many synth-based groups of that era did. Thereare many highlights on this disc, from the stunningly beautifulballad “Julia” to the menacing “Room 101” to the tribal soundingpercussive attack of “Doubleplusgood.” There’s just so much variety here, which is especially refreshing coming from a duo who could have easily fallen into the cracks of the limitations set uponthem from being a so-called “synth pop” act. I got this as a cassette back when it was released originally and was very pleasantly surprised to find it in a used cd store in Seattle, Washington.It was never released in the US on cd and you might have to paya little more for it as an import, but if you like the first fewEurythmics releases, I highly recommend it. Five stars, absolutely.
S/N |
Time |
Song Title |
1. |
3:29 |
I Did It Just The Same |
2. |
3:59 |
Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four) |
3. |
5:06 |
For The Love Of Big Brother |
4. |
1:23 |
Winston’s Diary |
5. |
6:14 |
Greetings From A Dead Man |
6. |
6:41 |
Julia |
7. |
4:41 |
Doubleplusgood |
8. |
3:47 |
Ministry Of Love |
9. |
3:51 |
Room 101 |