‘Peace’ Amid the Upheaval and Renewal

Eurythmics’ first album since 1989 opens with a rhapsodic affirmation of renewal, and the richness of the production and radiance of Annie Lennox’s voice on “17 Again” serve startling notice that this is one reunion that’s not just going through the motions.

A ballad-heavy collection that considers the state of the world (pretty sorry) and the state of the singer (up and down), “Peace” (in stores Tuesday) recalls the English duo’s creative prime without relying on its most familiar signatures. Rather than the early synth-pop or the later soul update, it evokes Beatles, Bacharach and ‘60s film scores with a pastiche of orchestral pop and some cheerfully synthetic decoration.

But as before, things aren’t exactly what they seem. Beneath the calm of gliding voice and lavish strings, Lennox feels like “a bomb thats been left ticking way too long,” and she complains of an “endless noise sounding in my brain.”

If her low-profile solo career has let us forget the power of her singing, “Peace” brings it back home. With so many fine calibrations of volume, tone, timbre and attack, she can describe emotional shadings unavailable to most singers. It’s a voice that can’t be ignored or set in the background--there’s too much urgency in its pleas, too much fire in its contempt for the false and trivial.