Eurythmics' debut album, In the Garden, is the missing link between the work of
the Tourists, who included both
Dave Stewart and
Annie Lennox, and 1983's commercial breakthrough, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). Co-produced by
Kraftwerk producer
Conny Plank at his studio in Cologne, Germany, it has some of the distant, mechanistic feel of the European electronic music movement, but less of the pop sensibility of later
Eurythmics. The chief difference is in
Lennox's singing; even when the musical bed is appealing,
Lennox floats ethereally over it, and the listener doesn't focus on her. As a result, In the Garden wasn't much of a success, though when
Eurythmics streamlined their sound and emphasized
Lennox's dominating voice on subsequent releases, they found mass popularity. ~ William Ruhlmann