FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
Part Fifty: Everything But the Girl
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FOR this A Buyer’s Guide…
I am including a duo who I was a big fan of in the 1990s (and am now). With such chemistry and incredible songs, Everything But the Girl are among my favourite acts ever. Here are some more details about them:
“Everything but the Girl (occasionally referred to as EBTG) were an English musical duo, formed in Kingston upon Hull, England in 1982, consisting of lead singer and occasional guitarist Tracey Thorn and guitarist, keyboardist, producer and singer Ben Watt. Everything but the Girl received eight gold and two platinum album BPI Certifications in the UK, and one gold album RIAA Certification in the US. They had four top ten singles and twelve top forty singles in the UK. Their biggest hit song "Missing" charted high in several countries and reached number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1995 and spent over seven months on the UK Singles Chart thanks to an extremely popular remix by Todd Terry which later led to a Brit Award nomination for Best British Single.
The duo have also been nominated for MTV, EMA and Ivor Novello Awards and received an award from the BMI for sales of over 3 million in the UK alone.
Watt and Thorn are also a couple, though they are very private about their relationship and personal life. While their relationship started during their time at university, it was not a publicised fact that they were romantically involved, or that they had subsequently married.
They are currently inactive, and have not performed publicly since 2000. Thorn has said in interviews she dislikes performing live and will no longer sing in front of a live audience. Both Thorn and Watt have released several solo albums, but have expressed that it's unlikely that they'll record again as EBTG”.
If you need some guidance regarding the Everything But the Girl works to own, then I hope that the suggestions below are of use. I love their music, so it is a great pleasure to include a simply fabulous duo…
IN this feature.
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The Four Essential Albums
Eden
Release Date: 4th June, 1984
Label: Blanco y Negro
Producer: Robin Millar
Standout Tracks: Bittersweet/I Must Confess/Soft Touch
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=72503&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/7kDeU3rzFCvV1fVilPRKTu?si=-MdhBCrJQ32VH1IwHIrAHQ
Review:
“The debut effort by multi-instrumentalist Ben Watt and vocalist and songwriter Tracey Thorn took the alterna-pop world by surprise in 1985. And rightfully so. Watt's lush chamber orchestra jazzscapes, full of Brazilian bossa nova structures and airy horn charts, combined with Thorn's throaty alto singing her generation's version of the torch song, was a sure attraction for fans of sophisticated pop and vocal jazz. Featuring 12 tracks, the album has deeply influenced popular song structures since that time; this is evidenced in the work of more R&B-oriented acts such as Swing Out Sister and Tuck and Patti. The set opens with "Each and Everyone," a slow samba-flavored pop song. The song comes from the broken side of love, with Thorn entreating from the heart: "You try to show me heaven but then close the door...Being kind is just a way to keep me under your thumb/And I can cry because that's something we've always done." A trumpet fills her lines and makes them glide above Watt's Latin mix. Elsewhere, the folk bossa of "Fascination" is all the architecture Thorn needs to sink deep into her protagonist's brokenness. Guitars chime and stagger one another, slipping and sliding just above the bassline, and vanish into thin air. On "I Must Confess," a riff similar to "The Girl From Ipanema" locates Thorn next to a deep ringing upright bass and Watt's glissando guitar, played Charlie Byrd-style, before Nigel Nash punctures Thorn's vocal with a velvety tenor solo. Once again, the notion of loss, memory, and the resolve of the left half of a relationship to go on, carrying regret but not remorse, is absolutely breathtaking. Thorn continually meditated on broken relationships here, and that extended tome, which echoes through every song on the record, seems to have resonated with everyone who heard it. The set closes with Watt's vocal on "Soft Touch," a folksy pop song, illustrated with guitars, a fretless bass, and piano, that sounds like something from Supertramp in their better moments -- and no, that's not a bad thing. His voice -- while not nearly as dramatic as Thorn's -- is wonderfully expressive, and his lyrics extend the feeling of Eden to its final whisper. This set proved itself to be an auspicious debut that testified to the beginning of a long and creatively rewarding partnership that has endured” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Each and Every One
Idlewild
Release Date: 29th February, 1988
Labels: Blanco y Negro/Sire
Producer: Ben Watt
Standout Tracks: Love Is Here Where I Live/These Early Days/I Always Was Your Girl
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=72558&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4zhqDQd41cAkGg7EJVezvx?si=NlYCSTAmSOuL4zi6wSgzZA
Review:
“Thorn and Watt made a couple of albums with a cocktail-jazz backup and one with strings before trying a small unit for the intimate songs of their most accessible recording. The setting is perfect for such moving compositions as "Love Is Here Where I Live" and "Apron Strings." Start here, then go on to the rest of this remarkable group's catalog” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: I Don’t Want to Talk About It
Amplified Heart
Release Date: 13th June, 1996
Labels: Atlantic/Blanco y Negro
Producers: Tracey Thorn/Ben Watt/John Coxon
Standout Tracks: Rollercoaster/I Don't Understand Anything/Disenchanted
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=72193&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6ZMxoed3JJVjSzDQ2iVeYN?si=wYcPl1qIQi67QZ24SrLawg
Review:
“The album’s first side is the stronger, with a stellar three-song opening run (“Rollercoaster,” “Troubled Mind,” and “I Don’t Understand Anything”), a charming (if slightly cloying) he-said/she-said duet (“Walking to You”), and, finally, “Get Me,” an understated love song flecked with the faintest trace of house music. But the second half’s few failings—namely the jump from the maudlin “Two Star” to the perky “We Walk the Same Line”—are more than compensated for by “Missing.”
What, 25 years later, is left to say about “Missing”? For a song that has largely been eclipsed by its most famous remix—and Todd Terry’s rework is a masterpiece—the original stands out in part for its quirks. The time-keeping cowbell is louder than you might have remembered it, and at first seems almost out of place; the first few notes of the bassline are dead ringers for the Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me.” Almost immediately, though, Thorn draws you into one of her typically detailed vignettes, as the song’s narrator steps off the train and stands beneath the window of a lover from years ago, long gone, maybe dead. The song’s chorus—“And I miss you/Like the deserts miss the rain”—shouldn’t work; on paper, it’s just a hair too much. But singing it, their voices twinned in close harmony, they sell it. Thorn’s voice, in particular, is the very incarnation of yearning. At regular intervals, an eerie, synthetic siren sound—a key element of the remix that gets its start in the original—drives home the hurt. In the face of such emotion, any corniness in the metaphor falls away. Of course it’s a desert, it had to have been rain—these things are elemental, fundamental, and so is the feeling the song captures” – Pitchfork
Choice Cut: Missing
Walking Wounded
Release Date: 6th May, 1996
Labels: Atlantic/Virgin
Producers: Ben Watt/Spring Heel Jack/Howie B/Todd Terry/Rob Haigh
Standout Tracks: Before Today/Single/Walking Wounded
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=72865&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/459tNoDnuv0bL9ue9pENVz?si=mt7-1iJjRTeQWwpYzVNAlg
Review:
“Expanding on those revolutionary records, Walking Wounded floats Thorn’s wan vocals over a soundscape of sputtering, hissing, and clacking beats. A clutch of eccentric rhythms turn up, from the funk rumblings of ”Single” to the ambient sway of ”Big Deal.” Watt’s sparse and spacious production lets all these sounds sparkle in air, creating a dizzying 3-D effect.
Watt also coaxes an incredible range of textures from his synthesizers — from the trampoline-bounce bass of the title track to the bedspring explosion of drums in ”Good Cop, Bad Cop.” Such sonic gymnastics comprise their own new subgenre in the U.K., called drum ‘n’ bass, a form whose celebrated ace, Spring Heel Jack, collaborated on some tracks here.
To help ground the sound, Watt and Thorn offer an array of gorgeous melodies. All undulate with a sensuality perfectly suited to Thorn’s burgundy voice. In her lilting style, Thorn recalls the sophistication of Dionne Warwick at her peak; she comes across as both haunted and aloof. By juxtaposing her woozy cadences with the brusque clatter of the beats, EBTG create a great counterpoint — the musical equivalent of manic depression
This excited sense of melancholy fleshes out the group’s pining lyrics. Every song follows a ruinous love. ”I’m eating less and drinking more,” moans Thorn in a song that recalls the aftermath of a particularly bad affair. Another love proves painful enough to reduce her to childhood, causing the singer to plaintively ask, ”Is this as grown-up as we ever get?”
Coupled with the probing and pulsing music, these torchy sentiments achieve a psychological resonance, putting EBTG way above the campiness of most neo-lounge acts. In fact, their synthesized whooshes and bleats provide modern pop’s first corollary to the weird sounds cooked up by the early ’60s’ most avant-garde lounge stylists: Esquivel and Martin Denny.
By marrying such musical leaps to their sterling pop sensibilities, Everything But The Girl provide a classic service: They offer an ideal conduit between today’s chic underground and pop fans everywhere” – Entertainment Weekly
Choice Cut: Wrong
The Underrated Gem
Baby, the Stars Shine Bright
Release Date: 25th August, 1986
Label: Blanco y Negro
Producers: Everything But the Girl/Mike Hedges
Standout Tracks: Don't Leave Me Behind/Cross My Heart/Careless
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=72204&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4VZRS2iKvzaBASmIrWl99n?si=Gnv78InIS_ut4_Z4bTYLcQ
Review:
“On their third album, Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, Everything But the Girl tries another departure on their craftsmanlike ballad style, hiring a full orchestra to give a lush backing to songs usually concerned more with sexual than national politics. Their last album, Love Not Money, may have boasted a considerable social agenda, but here Tracey Thorn sings of romantic disappointment and illicit liaisons, only occasionally bowing to such favorite themes as the lure of fame ("Country Mile"), fantasies about American movie stars ("Sugar Finney," which is "for Marilyn Monroe," and has the chorus, "America is free, cheap and easy"), and fears of fascism ("Little Hitler"). Thorn's throbbing voice is well-suited to the emotional concerns of the lyrics, and Ben Watt creates attractive, string- and horn-filled backings for them. So, Everything But the Girl has found yet another way to effectively vary what would have seemed to be a limited musical style” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Come on Home
The Final Album
Temperamental
Release Date: 27th September, 1999
Labels: Atlantic/Virgin
Producers: Ben Watt/Andy Bradfield/Deep Dish/J Majik/Danny Jay
Standout Tracks: Five Fathoms/Blame/The Future of the Future (Stay Gold) (with Deep Dish)
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=72673&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4Geaebqk6nJC78Agw6VXG9?si=id_OLdbiSfeOIfx6M3tsaw
Review:
“Gorgeous sound washes by producer-arranger Ben Watt; self-assured yet vulnerable vocals from Tracey Thorn. House-music purists will call Everything but the Girl’s latest, ”Temperamental,” watered-down, but pop fans will appreciate the way Watt loosens house’s relentless thud. And if EBTG are broadening the appeal of an underground sound — well, that’s how music develops, isn’t it?” – Entertainment Weekly
Choice Cut: Temperamental
The Tracey Thorn Book
Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia
Author: Tracey Thorn
Publication Date: 6th February, 2020
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
Synopsis:
“THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK PRIZE
'Tender, wise and funny' Sunday Express
'Beautifully observed, deadly funny' Max Porter
Before becoming an acclaimed musician and writer, Tracey Thorn was a typical teenager: bored and cynical, despairing of her aspirational parents. Her only comfort came from house parties and the female pop icons who hinted at a new kind of living.
Returning to the scene of her childhood, Thorn takes us beyond the bus shelters, the pub car parks and the weekly discos, to the parents who wanted so much for their children and the children who wanted none of it. With great wit and insight, Thorn reconsiders the Green Belt post-war dream so many artists have mocked, and yet so many artists have come from” – Waterstones
Buy: https://www.waterstones.com/book/another-planet/tracey-thorn/9781786892584