Songs of Mass Destruction

Songs of Mass Destruction is the fourth studio album by Annie Lennox, released on 1 October 2007. It was her first album of new material since 2003's Bare and to date her most recent of original material.

Songs of Mass Destruction
Studio album by
Annie Lennox
Released1 October 2007
RecordedSeptember 2006 – February 2007
StudioThe High Window,[1] Hollywood;
Westlake,[2] West Hollywood
GenrePop rock, funk rock, blues rock, soul
Length46:51
LabelRCA
ProducerGlen Ballard
Annie Lennox chronology
Bare
(2003)		 Songs of Mass Destruction
(2007)		 The Annie Lennox Collection
(2009)
Singles from Songs of Mass Destruction
  1. "Dark Road"
    Released: 24 September 2007
  2. "Sing"
    Released: 1 December 2007
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic68[3]
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[4]
The Austin Chronicle[5]
BBC Music(very favourable)[6]
Entertainment Weekly(B)[7]
The Guardian[8]
Houston Chronicle[9]
Los Angeles Times[10]
People[11]
Rolling Stone[12]
Slant Magazine[13]
Stylus Magazine(D)[14]

Reception

Songs of Mass Destruction received generally favourable reviews from critics upon its release, holding a Metacritic's average score of 68 out of 100 based on 18 reviews.[3]

The album debuted at number 7 on the UK chart, where it has since been certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry. It peaked at number 9 on the U.S. Billboard 200 where it sold 78,000 copies its first week.[15] According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album had sold 275,000 copies in the United States as of October 2010 and 71,000 copies in United Kingdom.[16]

Singles

The first single, "Dark Road", originally appeared on Lennox's MySpace page[17] on 15 August 2007. It was subsequently released as a single on 24 September 2007 and charted at number 58 on the UK Singles Chart.

The second single, "Sing", was released digitally on 1 December 2007 and it had a physical release as a single on 17 March 2008. "Sing" is a collaboration between Lennox and 23 other prominent female acts and artists and is a charity record aimed to raise money and awareness for the HIV/AIDS organization Treatment Action Campaign. The line-up consists of Madonna (who sings solo on the second verse of the song), Anastacia, Isobel Campbell, Dido, Céline Dion, Melissa Etheridge, Fergie, Beth Gibbons, Faith Hill, Angélique Kidjo, Beverley Knight, Gladys Knight, k.d. lang, Sarah McLachlan, Beth Orton, Pink, Bonnie Raitt, Shakira, Shingai Shoniwa, Joss Stone, Sugababes, KT Tunstall, and Martha Wainwright.[18]

As Lennox reported herself on her official website, this song is about raising money and awareness for what she considers to be the HIV/AIDS genocide:[19]

Several years ago I personally witnessed Nelson Mandela, standing in front of his former prison cell on Robben Island, addressing the world's press. His message was that the pandemic of HIV/AIDS in Africa was in fact, a genocide. Since that time I resolved to do as much as I can to bring attention to the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Tour

On 13 September 2007, Lennox announced a primarily North American tour for Songs of Mass Destruction called "Annie Lennox Sings", which is only the third solo tour of her career. Lasting throughout October and November, 2007, the tour included 18 stops: London, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boulder, Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Washington, D.C., Nashville, Atlanta, Miami, New York City (two dates), Philadelphia, and Boston. The venues generally were at medium-size theatres, except in New York City, where one of the dates was a United Nations fundraiser at Wall Street restaurant Cipriani.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Annie Lennox, save "Womankind" which had additional writing by Nadirah X.

No.TitleLength
1."Dark Road"3:47
2."Love Is Blind"4:18
3."Smithereens"5:17
4."Ghosts in My Machine"3:30
5."Womankind" (featuring Nadirah X)4:28
6."Through the Glass Darkly"3:29
7."Lost"3:41
8."Coloured Bedspread"4:29
9."Sing" (featuring various female artists; see Singles above)4:48
10."Big Sky"4:02
11."Fingernail Moon"5:02
Barnes & Noble bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
12."Dark Road" (Acoustic version)3:30
13."Don't Take Me Down"3:52
iTunes special edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
12."Walking on Broken Glass" (Live)4:30
13."Dark Road" (Live)3:46
Deluxe edition enhanced CD
No.TitleLength
1."Track-by-track commentaries"46:51
2."Dark Road" (Music video)3:46
3."Bonus materials" 
Bonus track version
No.TitleLength
1."Little Bird" (Live)4:20
2."Walking On Broken Glass" (Live)4:30
3."Smithereens" (with Audio Commentary)5:15
4."Sing" (with Audio Commentary)4:46
5."Dark Road" (with Audio Commentary)3:47

Personnel

Charts

Notes
  1. Discogs – High Window profile
  2. Discogs – Westlake studios profile
  3. "'Songs of Mass Destruction' reviews". metacritic.com. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  4. Songs of Mass Destruction at AllMusic. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  5. Moser, Margalet. "Music Review: Songs of Mass Destruction – Annie Lennox". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 26 October 2007.
  6. BBC Music review
  7. Greenblatt, Leah. "Music Review: Songs of Mass Destruction – Annie Lennox". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 5 October 2007.
  8. Sullivan, Caroline. "Music Review: Songs of Mass Destruction – Annie Lennox". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 October 2007.
  9. Guerra, Joey. "Annie Lennox doesn't wallow in sadness on new disc". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2 October 2007.
  10. Cromelin, Richard (1 October 2007). "Grit, gospel and an army of Annies". articles.latimes.com. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  11. Arnold, Chuck (8 October 2007). "Picks and Pans Review: Songs of Mass Destruction". People. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  12. Rolling Stone review
  13. Slant Magazine review
  14. Stylus Magazine review Archived 2 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  15. Katie Hasty, "Springsteen Is Boss Of Album Chart With 'Magic'", Billboard.com, 10 October 2007.
  16. McLean, Craig. "Annie Lennox Draws Upon Childhood for Christmas Album". Billboard magazine. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  17. Annie Lennox Official MySpace Site
  18. RCA Label Group (UK) | News | Annie Lennox – A choir of 23 renowned female artists join Annie on her new album Archived 26 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  19. Official site for "Sing" Retrieved on 29 January 2008.
  20. "australian-charts.com Annie Lennox – Songs of Mass Destruction" (ASP). Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  21. "austriancharts.at Annie Lennox – Songs of Mass Destruction" (ASP). Hung Medien (in German). Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  22. "ultratop.be Annie Lennox – Songs of Mass Destruction" (ASP). Hung Medien (in Dutch). Ultratop. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  23. "ultratop.be Annie Lennox – Songs of Mass Destruction" (ASP). Hung Medien (in French). Ultratop. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  24. "allmusic ((( Songs of Mass Destruction > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))". allmusic.com. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  25. "danishcharts.dk Annie Lennox – Songs of Mass Destruction". danishcharts.dk. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  26. "dutchcharts.nl Annie Lennox – Songs of Mass Destruction" (ASP). Hung Medien (in Dutch). MegaCharts. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  27. "lescharts.com Annie Lennox – Songs of Mass Destruction" (ASP). lescharts.com (in French). SNEP. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  28. "Album Search: Annie Lennox – Songs of Mass Destruction" (in German). Media Control. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  29. "Top 75 Artist Album, Week Ending 4 October 2007". Irish Recorded Music Association. Chart-Track. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  30. "italiancharts.com Annie Lennox – Songs of Mass Destruction" (ASP). Hung Medien. MegaCharts. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  31. "spanishcharts.com – Annie Lennox – Songs of Mass Destruction" (ASP). Hung Medien. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  32. "swedishcharts.com Annie Lennox – Songs of Mass Destruction" (ASP) (in Swedish). Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  33. "Annie Lennox – Songs of Mass Destruction – hitparade.ch" (ASP). Hung Medien (in German). Swiss Music Charts. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  34. "Annie Lennox > Artists > Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 10 October 2013.
  35. "Hit Parade Italia – Gli album più venduti del 2007" (in Italian). hitparadeitalia.it. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  36. "British album certifications – Annie Lennox – Songs of Mass Destruction". British Phonographic Industry. Select albums in the Format field. Select Silver in the Certification field. Type Songs of Mass Destruction in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
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