I have bought many other cds from many other artists, and after a few times of listening to them, they end up on the shelf collecting dust. This has never happened with 'Diva'. Annie speaks to your soul with her music. "Why", "Cold", these songs I have never grown tired of. They can still make me bawl like a baby. Annie Lennox's voice and vocal energy on this album...how can I do her justice with mere words, she touches your soul and your heart with her incredible vocal talent and the emotion she pours out in each tune. You can feel her pain, her love and, yes, sometimes even contempt in each word she sings. Her voice is hauntingly beautiful, wonderfully soulful, and deliciously creamy. She is one the greatest female singers of our century and this album proves it.
To a previous reviewer: "Diva is an honorific to be bestowed, not claimed"? Don't condescend, and don't criticise a work just because you haven't read between the lines. The title is meant to be ironic, as testified by the videos,interviews and bonus track "Keep Young And Beautiful".That's precisely what gives the largely gentle album its refreshingly intelligent pop edge. She's playing with the role of the trapped and fallen "diva". But best of all, she still manages to provide some sincere and beatiful tracks which transcend these ironies (notably "Why" and "The Gift"). All good stuff.
Annie Lennox is amazing. Her vocals and style in 'Diva' take my breath away!
There is not one track on this entire amazing CD that I ever skip. If I put it in my CD player, it is there from cover to cover.
Highlight songs: Why, Little Bird, Cold & Money Can't Buy It.
I don't believe there will ever be an album I hear that will over take this CDs place as my favorite.
Simply blows me away!
I didn't expect to like this CD as much as I do - I was never a fan of the Eurythmics, with the exception of a few songs. But the first time I heard Why? I was hooked.
This CD is a total departure from the sound of the Eurythmics. It has a stunning mix of ballads, pop, soul and jazz. The orchestration is second to none, and Lennox's vocals always meet or surpass the challenges presented in the songs. Her vocal range is incredible - it's as though she knows that her best instrument is that sultry, powerful, soulful, beautiful voice. I don't think there's a better, purer singer around today. The depth of emotion she expresses through her lyrics are such that every time you listen to the CD you get a different interpretation. I know that every time I hear it I find something I've missed the last time. This CD is definitely one I'd put on my "Desert Island List" and I consider it a necessity for any complete music collection.
It's always risky to close out an album with a novelty number as Annie Lennox does on this, her first solo release. Actually, the very inclusion of a novelty tune at all is kind of chancy. But thrown in as a closer, a jaunty bit of a lark can risk undercutting the mood of an entire album (at least for those who play CDs straight through these days). And by rights, the capper on this album, a 1930s style chauvinistic chestnut called "Keep Young And Beautiful" could be said to undermine what is, after all, an otherwise moody and atmospheric set.
But, go figure, but it works perfectly. You gotta hand it to the Scots siren, after a good deal of introspective sombreness, this bit of Jazz Age fluff is just about the cat's meow.
In fact, if the gorgeous gloom of the rest of the album (particularly as manifested on the tracks "Cold," "The Gift" and the big hit "Why") was kind of starting to get oppressive, the closer not only makes for a lighthearted exit, but actually makes a statement of sorts about "womanhood" in the '90s (when the record was first released) and the pre-feminist early 20th century.
And that is simply this: as hard as it may be to be an autonomous, independent, and (yes) liberated woman, it's hands down better than having to "keep young and beautiful, if you want to be loved..." Times have changed, and life and love have gotten maddeningly complex. But would you really be better off with an empty head and "a Marcel wave in your hair"? I didn't think so.
As for the rest of the album, well, it suffers a bit from saving much of the best stuff for last, including two of the three titles I cited above. "Why," of course, is the opener and it's just about a perfect pop record. You fall into it and fall in love with it, even before you quite realize what it's about. (I remember thinking it might have more social import or philosophical heft than it actually does: songs with titles like "Why" sometimes do.) But while I subsequently came to like the two or three songs that follow it well enough, they never seemed fully developed, never quite rich enough. "Walking On Broken Glass" continues the broken heart theme of "Why," but its profession of heartache is (of course deliberately) set to a jarringly sprightly bounce of a melody and a kitschy ice arena arrangement. Maybe it too should be viewed as somthing of a novelty tune.
DIVA has been hailed for its musical and lyrical spareness, as even the prosaic titles ("Precious," "Cold," "Primitive," et al.) suggest. Even when the title is a bit longer and more evocative, as for example "Legend In My Living Room," the narrative can be a bit skimpy. Starts off promisingly as a reminiscence of the singer's wild and wooly years and then devolves into so many "Have mercies." Tuneful enough, but there goes any hope of a grand statement, even if she does own up to being "the queen of doom"
But those gospel-styled shout outs do remind us of one Lennox's trademark stylistic devices (and, arguably, one her chief strengths). She can sing big, and she can sing black, but it's always a least a little ironic and definitely cold cold cold. I read once that she's been called the "white Grace Jones." But she's actually got a more powerful delivery than the devilish Ms. Jones ever did. I'd call her more of a cross between Grace SLICK (now that would be a dream duet--Gracie and Annie) and Aretha (who actually did duet with Ann on "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves"). Heavy on the soulful inflection, even heavier on the irony. If you hail from Aberdeen, and not Alabama, is there any other way to go?
Well, you can go one up on Sting, say. "Why" wraps up with a letter-perfect Sting-style litany ("This is the book I never read/These are the words I never said"). It builds so dramatically, so authoritatively that you don't want to argue with its conclusion. Yeah, that jerk never had a CLUE about how she felt. Of course, we never doubt her assertion that for her part, SHE could always read what her lover was thinking. She knew how HE felt. Post-modern sexual stereotyping? Or just a simple truth about a specific relationship. And is the song autobiographical enough that that relationship was real, or is it a fiction? Dunno. Things were so much easier back in the day of "Keep Young And Beautiful."
