Pop Reviews : Eurythmics Recap 8-Album Career at Amphitheatre

As Michael Jackson sang in “Smooth Criminal”: Annie, are you OK? Are you OK, Annie?

Eurythmics lead singer Annie Lennox may not have been hit by a criminal’s knockout punch, but the band’s vision seems diminished, scattered and woozy, leaving it lurching from style to style from song to song now, like a chameleon that’s been hit by a blow and lost its senses.

Not that this rapid, random change of colors is an unpleasant thing to watch. The group’s show Monday at the Universal Amphitheatre was, for the most part, a dazzlingly entertaining recap of its eight-album career, even if a longtime fan might bemoan the now complete lack of direction in a band that earlier this decade seemed poised to lead the pop way.

Now, you can pick your persona: From the band’s early days, there was Annie the emotionally removed techno-pop goddess, coolly crooning the ballad “Here Comes the Rain Again” in front of a rear-projection wide screen full of sepia-toned cirrus clouds; from later on, Annie the warm-blooded rocker, camping it up in a long, tawdry wig with the primal “I Need a Man” or fighting off threats of damnation in “Missionary Man”; Annie as intense Space Age soul queen, wounded Euro-pop princess, bluesy folk singer and--in the more upbeat material from the uneven new album “We Too Are One”--commercial crowd-pleaser.

This sort of amiable revue quality is hard to fault, even as memories of earlier tours with much more artistic focus, like the sex-driven, hard-rocking “Revenge” show in 1986, lessen this one’s ultimate impact.

Their days of making visual statements seem to be behind them, probably out of necessity: Lennox had her pan-sexual image down pat so long ago that now she manages to look as if she is in drag whatever she wears, whether it’s a torn dress with black lingerie peeking out or a sharp white suit, while maintaining an uncontroversially feminine allure. What were once vices are now habits, etc. Her partner, David A. Stewart, too is a regular fashion plate, especially in his orange-and-purple get-up.

Strong musical statements were in correspondingly short supply, but there was fun to be had in how Lennox and guitarist-producer Stewart played fast and loose with the arrangements of some old favorites. This was no substitute for vision or direction, but playfulness too goes a long way. Backup singer Charlie Wilson, on leave from the Gap Band, sang scat solos to replace the original harmonica solos; a five-man horn section appeared for the final sixth of the set; most enjoyably, seven mid-set songs--including such unlikely choices as “Would I Lie to You?”--were performed mostly acoustically.

Eurythmics in a maintenance mode is far better than most pop outfits at their most challenging, but listening to bland new songs like “The King and Queen of America,” which doesn’t seem to be about anything, you may wonder what--if anything--this chameleon’s true colors are anymore.

The group also appears at the Universal Amphitheatre tonight.