Annie Lennox : 100 BEAUTIFUL SONGS

Number 16 : Honestly by Annie Lennox from Bare in 2003

016 Honestly Annie Lennox 100 Beautiful Songs cdz

Certainly one of Annie’s more unique songs as it is presented as a dual conversation competing for the listener’s attention. Performed underneath a ceiling of large lightbulbs, “Honestly” was one of the new tracks Annie performed on her Solo Tour, but the song was eventually cut from the setlist. It’s a beautiful moment on Bare, with all the angst and sorrow that encapsulates the album.

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The beauty that you gave
Has turned upon itself
And all the things you said
Evaporated
Evaporated
Was I blind
Deaf and dumb
To the words slipped from yur tongue?
Honestly, honestly, honestly
Alone in my bed
The things that you said
Go round in my head, still
It seems to be true
That nothin’ I do
Can influence you,
I tried and tried again
(Don’t you know I tried and tried again
To make you listen to me
But everything I said it always seemed to go right through you)
To make you notice me
(I turned myself into a person that I didn’t like
But please believe me when I say I know it wasn’t right)
But talking to myself
(I never thought that things would
Get to be so complicated
I never thought that you and me would end up o frustrated)
Won’t catch…

Our sweet #16, “Honestly,” never ceases to amaze me…the talent it takes to create a song that is in perfect harminy, and that is a conversation with yourself, with both selves singing at the same time. This emotionally charged beauty is a welcome addition to ‘Bare,’ as it helps showcase both sides of Annie’s feelings on the breakup…the side that is vunerable and victim and the side that thinks it is to blame. Both a conversational song to the listener, as well as to the singer (a confessional almost), it really is pure magic. “Alone in my head,” becomes not a statement or fact, but a wish, as the two sides of the muse think outloud, and cannot come to a conclusion or resolution, just singing in perfect key, statements on their raw feelings, all whilst intertwined in a gorgeous musical delight.

– Dan Mueller

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