LOS ANGELES, OCTOBER 2005: Back in the early 1940s, legendary crime writer Raymond Chandler used this suite of rooms on the sixth floor of a Hollywood office building as his work place and home away from home: The High Window, the third of his novels to feature the hard-bitten, Bogart-enacted detective Philip Marlowe was crafted on a typewriter here, and remains in print to this day. And now, this same downtown address is the centre of operations for omni-talented, mutli-tasking, forever-busy Dave Stewart, a son of Sunderland in north-east England but now settled on America�s west coast with his wife and young family. And it was here that he brought his former musical partner Annie Lennox two months ago, while she was on a flying visit to the US.

"I just wanted to show her my new studio set-up," he says in his typically soft-spoken, unassuming way, and nodding in the direction of a small, square room kitted out with the most cutting edge recording equipment currently available. Within hours the pair had written the best part of their first new material for 5 years, I've Got A Life remembers Annie, whose most recent accomplishments include mesmerising a global audience of millions with her performances at this summer�s Live 8 concerts in London and Edinburgh, and winning the 2004 Oscar for Best Original Song with 'Into The West', from The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King. While Dave himself has recently picked up a US Music Critic Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture for 'Old Habits Die Hard', for the celebrated re-make of 'Alfie'.

Sometimes however, the creative chemistry between two individuals is unstoppable and within hours Stewart and Lennox had come up with their first new joint material since Peace, the 1999 album that itself marked a reformation after nearly a decade spent apart. And not just any old material, either. "It�s bizarre even to be speaking of it as something real, considering that it all happened in such an unexpected, unplanned way," says Annie of the intense, compacted experience of composing together again this August. "But it did happen, and I recognise the quality of what we wrote that day. I've Got A Life is a great, anthemic song, no getting away from it. We�re both very proud of it." As anyone would be.

The first Eurythmics single in five years is quintessential Stewart & Lennox; its slow, stark, torch song-like opening leads into a thunderous, electro-driven track over which Annie's always impassioned vocals swoop and soar unmistakably. And all the key Eurythmics paradoxes are contained within it - lyrics that acknowledge celebration but also despair, alienation but also a powerful sense of self, and a trademark musical sound that pairs technology with the primal power of one awesome human voice. Absolutely no-one else could have made it. Considers Annie, "In daily life, we�re all accustomed to talking to different people in a different kind of way and when Dave and I get together, our musical conversation is somehow identifiably 'us'. We don�t plan it that way. It just happens."

Along with a second new song, Was It Just Another Love Affair, I've Got A Life adds a here-and-now coda to the personal musical history contained within the Ultimate Collection, a 19-track Greatest Hits lp. The statistics are already well-known, of course: Eurythmics are easily the most successful and influential pop duo the UK has ever produced, with 75 million records sold worldwide. From their formation in London in 1981, they played a major part in what would be that decade�s absolute transformation of the pop-cultural landscape. Using iconic, often startling imagery photographically and on stage, and by both embracing and subverting the emergent but normally narcissistic tool of promotional videos, Stewart and Lennox pushed boundaries and challenged expectations with every new release.

But as the retrospective element of this essential new album proves, it is the music itself which speaks most compellingly and conclusively of why Eurythmics remain one of the era�s most critically important but also best-loved acts. Encompassing genres running from synth-pop (Love Is A Stranger) to rock (Missionary Man) to r'n'b (Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves, on which Annie stands shoulder to shoulder with the legendary Aretha Franklin) to gorgeous, creamy pop-soul (There Must Be An Angel...) and more, the Ultimate Collection demonstrates the extraordinary breadth of Stewart and Lennox�s musical skills and visiion. Lyrically and emotionally too, the span is massive, running from bleakness (Who's That Girl?) to celebration (It's Alright), carnality (I Need A Man) to aching tenderness (Miracle Of Love) and back again.

No wonder then that the two have become both a major inspiration and an actual sound resource for a whole new generation of hitmakers... P. Diddy, Marilyn Manson, Utah Saints, Faith Evans, Pink and the Wu Tang Clan�s Redman are just some of the acts to have 'borrowed' from them legitimately to date. But, of course, as is the acknowledged custom within the dance and hip-hop world, all manner of other acts have done so unofficially: just this past summer Ibiza was lit up by several (open italics) huge (close italics) new reworkings of Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), the duo�s first British Top 10 hit back in 1983. And while both Stewart and Lennox continue to pursue successful careers apart from each other, it is a testament to their unique and symbiotic partnership that they can come back together by choice in 2005 and add instant classics like I�ve Got A Life to their already glorious catalogue of songs. An Ultimate Collection indeed.