Thorn in My Side

Built on a swaggering, blues-shaped riff and a snapping backbeat, this is Eurythmics deliberately roughing themselves up — guitars, honking horns, tambourine, and a rhythm section that struts rather than pulses, closer to Stax than to the synth-noir of *Sweet Dreams*. Lennox sings it with her lip curled, all clipped consonants and accusatory phrasing, sliding from a controlled mid-range simmer into a raw belt on the chorus that sounds genuinely aggrieved. The lyric is a catalogue of grievance delivered to someone who has been draining the singer for years: the thorn, the nail, the constant small wound that never quite kills. What keeps it from self-pity is the tempo — the song moves too fast for wallowing, and the backing vocals answer her lines with a gospel-ish call that turns private complaint into a public verdict. Stewart's production leaves space and grit around the drums, a conscious rebuke to the polished digital sheen dominating 1986 radio. It arrived as Eurythmics were reinventing themselves as a live rock band rather than a studio duo, and it plays that way. Ideal for driving away from an argument you've finally decided to end, volume up, the chorus arriving exactly when you need something to shout.