A welcome return

The Eurythmics have never really recorded a consistently mind-blowing album. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) and Savage probably come close, but the group’s prolific output consists mostly of great singles buffered by a lot of filler.

Peace finds the group performing its trademark adult pop — unlike its synthesizer pop which some listeners find more interesting — and actually pull off a very coherent record.

Stewart throws Lennox some curves, draping her voice in strings on one track, then attempting to drown her out with a wall of guitars on others. But Lennox displays her versatility by sounding natural in any context given to her.

The songs on Peace are some of the strongest the group has produced. Not hard to do when Brian Wilson and the Beatles make for very obvious references. Under another group’s hand, such references would be clumsy.

Unlike on her solo work, Lennox sounds alive. Even her so-called “icy alto” sounds incredibly warm.

The charistmatic but celebrity-shy singer, while still scoring hits this decade, has been decidedly frugal with her productivity, and fans of her voice — which would sound good singing a traffic sign — would find Peace a good incentive to take a trip to the record shop.