Annie Lennox has been “itching to get back on track” ever since back surgery to relieve a trapped nerve in her spinal cord last August postponed the planned fall release of “The Annie Lennox Collection.”
“I still have a constantly numb left foot, and I limp quite a bit,” Lennox tells Billboard.com of her condition. “Hopefully in the next six months it might improve some; it’s hard to say. It’s a bit of a drag, pardon the pun, but you just have to learn to live with it.”
Lennox, who received the Award of Merit at November’s American Music Awards, will now release the “Collection” album on Feb. 10, featuring a dozen hits from her post-Eurythmics solo albums, two new recordings — “Pattern of My Life,” written by Keane’s Tom Chaplin, and a cover of Ash’s “Shining Light” — and a DVD that includes videos of all 14 songs.
“It represents a culmination of many years of working, like rounding off a very long creative chapter,” Lennox says. “I usually don’t listen to my songs; I create new music or listen to other things. But I was able to listen to these for this (album) and say, ‘Yeah, alright, these are bloody good,’ kind of like rediscovering something. That sounds arrogant, but I was very pleased with them.”
And while her focus is on the “Collection,” which will include TV appearances in the U.S., Lennox says she’s ready to “go back in the studio and just experiment and have a lot of fun. I’m just ecstatic when I get a chance to be there and make music. That’s sometimes when I’m really happiest.”
Lennox has “no idea” what creative direction she might head in, but the “Collection” does bring her deal with Sony BMG to an end, which she says creates even more possibilities for what she does next.
“I’m looking at the industry of music and it’s constantly changing,” she notes. “By the time I’ve got some music to be released, I can consult with people and see what is the best way to do that. I just have a lot of freedom. It’s like a fresh, new beginning in a way. There’s a lot to be explored, so creatively it’s a very exciting time for me.”