''Savage'' is the sixth studio album by British pop duo

Eurythmics Eurythmics were a British pop duo consisting of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. They were both previously in The Tourists, a band which broke up in 1980. The duo released their first studio album, '' In the Garden'', in 1981 to little succ ...

, released on 9 November 1987 by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

. The album peaked at number seven on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

and has been certified Platinum by the

British Phonographic Industry British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with th ...

(BPI) for shipments in excess of 300,000 copies.

Background

Following the much more mainstream commercial content of their previous two albums, ''Savage'' saw Eurythmics "turn sharp left" (as band member Dave Stewart put it), returning to the much more experimental sound that their early albums incorporated. Produced in France (recorded at Chateau de Dangu in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

and mixed at Grande Armée Studios in Paris), the album made heavy use of the NED

Synclavier The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the early 1 ...

digital sampling keyboard. The only other musician working on the recordings with Stewart and

Annie Lennox Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the New wave music, new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician D ...

was drummer

Olle Romo Olle Romö is a Swedish music producer, songwriter, and drummer. Romo rehearsed with Swedish progressive rock group Kaipa in early 1982, however he left the group after a few weeks to join Eurythmics, and he was a drummer for them from the mid-to ...

, who handled much of the Synclavier programming. Lennox brought more of a feminist focus to her lyrics which was made more evident by the accompanying

video album A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

, which featured a video for each song.

Release and reception

Although the album was not as commercially successful as the duo's previous two albums, it reached the top 10 in the United Kingdom, spawned three UK top-30 singles, and has been certified Platinum. It was less successful in the United States, where it peaked at number 41. On 14 November 2005, Sony BMG repackaged and released most of Eurythmics' back catalogue (including ''Savage'') as deluxe edition reissues. Each of their eight studio albums' original track listings were supplemented with bonus tracks and remixes.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Savage''.

Eurythmics

David A. Stewart David Allan Stewart (born 9 September 1952) is an English musician, songwriter and record producer, best known for Eurythmics, his successful professional partnership with Annie Lennox. Sometimes credited as David A. Stewart, he won Best British ...

Additional musician

– programming

Technical

* Fred DeFaye – recording engineering; mixing engineering *

Alan Moulder Alan Moulder (born 11 June 1959) is an English record producer, mixing engineer, and audio engineer. Early life Moulder was born on 11 June 1959 in Boston, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Boston Grammar School. He had an interest in music fro ...

– lead vocal recording * Claude Pons – mixing engineering assistance * Manu Guiot – additional recording ; mixing engineering * Serge Pauchard – mixing engineering assistance * David A. Stewart – production

Artwork

Alastair Thain Alastair Thain (born 1961) is a German-born photographer. His portraits were published in 1991 as ''Skin Deep'', and many are held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London. With Tom Stoddart, he made work about the Siege of Sara ...

– sleeve photography * Laurence Stevens – sleeve design

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Savage (Album) 1987 albums Albums produced by David A. Stewart Avant-pop albums Eurythmics albums RCA Records albums