Everything but the Girl.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000053SP6.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

There's an interesting collision here somewhere, but I'm not sure the music always justifies my interest in it.

In my reckoning their discofied music post-Amplified Heart is actually less interesting than the music that came before, even if it is more accomplished. I think I liked them better when their place in the pop universe seemed so uncertain.

breaks my heart every time.
m.

They also released some great non-album singles around that time (Mine, Native Land) but Love Not Money was a bit disappointing,

Baby The Stars Shine Bright seemed to be an exercise in concealing weak songs behind layers of orchestration.

Idlewild was better but the material still seemed to be lacking (one of the two best songs on the album was a cover) and still nothing like as good as the first one.

I stopped buying them after that.

Am I correct in thinking that Ben Watt now does Lazy Dog? If so, much respect.

'Walking Wounded' is great, even 'Temperamental' has its moments - i remember thinking how unlikely it all seemed that this duo who i jhad no time for at all in the 80s had transformed into this uber-hip pop duo after getting into house, jungle and trip-hop.

I don't find myself listening to the Marine Girls as much these days, though there are some good moments. Call me crazy, but I think Unrest's cover of "Love to Know" surpasses the original.

Classic.

To digress from EBTG for a second, I think Jane and Alice Fox are underrated in the Marine Girls' scheme of things - check out the two Grab Grab the Haddock EPs for proof.

not enough here.

i'm really liking much of walking wounded right now--the first half especially.

many of their records sound amazing when i'm listening, but i tend to underestimate them over and over again. why?

f'rexample, they have a certain kind of key change they use for a bridge, it's kind of jazzy and obv ben watt is kind of infatuated with it (for that very reason? he's def. a kind of jazz poseur, which has its definite benefits). it gets kind of tiresome. you can hear it in the bridge of "mirrorball." a song which i otherwise love.

I wanted them to turn into a Blue Nile for the post-rave nineties which they never quite did (although hinted at it in places - certainly their increasing fixation on the city and heartbreak didn't hurt) - Watts' dance-flavoured arrangements never quite let go of the efficient structuredness that I think he thinks is a key component of dance music. I don't think he's necessarily mistaken actually, but there's a lot of the stuff on the last two albums that has a remixer's singlemindedness to it...although in truth it's probably just as much radio-friendly simplicity as it is dance reductionism. Something like "Walking Wounded" the song is a big exception in that regard - much more spacious and open-ended, though it arguably sacrifices some of the duo's signature winsomeness as a result.

I also really love the title track on "Temperamental" though, and I think there's something mysteriously blank about their more recent house tracks that's quite compelling - there's something obscurely extremist about "Five Fathoms" which I can't exactly put my finger on.

LTM seemed to be an attempt to mix the jazzy vibe of Eden with the socialism of the whole Red Wedge thing and Johnny Marr's layered guitar sound. When it worked, as in "When All's Well" or "Ballad of the Times", it was sublime.

For me, Ben Watt's best moment has to be the "Some Things Don't Matter" solo single. And "Patient" was the book I was reading while I was waiting to find out if I had cancer or not a year ago today (so far so good...), and struck me by how bruisingly real but optimistic it was.

You can hear a lovers' dialogue if you separate the tracks by who wrote the lyrics. I'm not saying its necessarily autobiographical, but their words come from distinct perspectives even if Tracey's singing everything. Ben's the dumpee who still wants her but realizes he needs to come to terms with himself first, Tracey's the one who left but is starting to think that she made a mistake. There's a whole level of camoflauged drama on this album that makes it even more rewarding.

because it's sophisticated pop, it can tend to feel a little starbucks in atmosphere. probably why they're a bit underrated.

well that track is a spring heel jack /EBTG collab, so that makes sense.

i dunno. in so many ways that record exhibits so many admirable tendencies of mid-80s "smart" pop (esp. the connecting of the personal and political, the invoking of a native facism). it's of its moment. but i find that moving in itself.

oh yeah and "come on home" is worthwhile not for just being a v. pretty song but as one of the few pop tunes to pick up where "message to martha/michael" and "golden lights" left off.

also yeah the marine girls are amazing.

You're right. And that's kindof scary, now that I think about it.

LTM seemed to be an attempt to mix the jazzy vibe of Eden with the socialism of the whole Red Wedge thing and Johnny Marr's layered guitar sound.

I suppose you mean the second album Love Not Money? I've never heard that Johnny Marr played on that. I'm a Johnny Marr freak so I don't think it's possible to talk of the "Johnny Marr sound" unless you're talking about something he actually did because I think his sound is pretty unmistakeable and not easily copied. I mean, there are things I hear him do that I think "no way could that be anybody else but him".

"Eden" is one of my favourite albums of all time, if we ignore the fact that as an American I don't know it by that title, and the U.S. version had a slightly different tracklisting. Still, all the key songs are there. The second and third albums have their highlights, too, but proved far less memorable. I bought "Walking Wounded" when it came out. I liked a few songs a lot, then sold it. But I think that might have been because of a certain relationship I was in at the time.

I remember liking a lot of 'Temperamental', esp. 'Lullaby of Clubland' and 'Hatfield 1980'. I love the city songs over the minimal focus of the production. nice stuff.

Could never get into 'Idlewild' or 'Baby, the Stars...', which I generally attribute to the busier production. I came to LOVE Tracey's voice on the gorgeously ungussied 'Amplified Heart', and hearing it reverbed, etc. throws me off. The last two albums are different beasts, but there's a close recording of her voice again, which goes a long way.

it's kind of amazing that they manage to turn cap'n beefheart's "my head is my only house unless it rains" into a normal EBTG song, but on the downside the result isn't necessarily much more than a normal EBTG song.

how is their "back to mine" volume?

more please.

a friend used to joke that ben and tracey suffered from opposite maladies: her eyes were too close together and his were too far apart. but they are both so cool i really feel bad making any such comments.

Surely you jest!

Okay, maybe you don't. Here's Andrew in all his finery:

http://www.ultra-pop.org/images/band/som.jpg http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Basement/4286/Eldritch.GIF

Having said that, I do find it a little annoying that they nowadays behave as if their entire pre-"Missing" career is not worthy of any attention. Idlewild is, as noted at the start of the thread, a fab album melodically and lyrically; only its slightly dated and thin-sounding production lets it down. But the band doesn't perform any early tracks in their concerts (not that they've given any in a while), and the more recent remix album (Adapt or Die) should have offered them a chance to revisit and update those early tracks. Instead, all the remixes were of Wounded and Tempermental songs. Frankly I'm hurt.

just pulled this out of my shelf and played it for the first time in a long while

this is a really nice lp (mini-lp?) that time seems to have forgot

in fact i don't think anything ebtg-associated is particularly hip right now, least of all the early stuff

I flirted with them again when Walking Wounded came out.

I wish I could hear Baby The Stars Shine Bright again but I don't have the vinyl with me anymore. :(

Has anyone heard this song by Working Week (having at least one former members of Young Marble Giants) that had Tracey Thorn and Robert Wyatt singing on it called "Venceremos" something like that? Oh my GOD that is great.

i think i am the only person who likes this record

ben watt's lazy dog mix cds are pretty great... haven't heard his more recent mix project, whose name escapes me...

Faux?

His illness?

Not meant judgmentally - more in the sense that I initially assumed "Five Fathoms" was actually produced by Deep Dish but it's Ben Watt saying "I wanna make my own "Future of the Future"."

It was released as 7" and a 12", was included on their first album, Working Nights, the 2LP B/O Pay Day and the CD distillation of that album Pay Check., and yes it is indeed great.

I don't believe any permanent members of Working Week had ever been in YMG 'though, although Simon Booth had worked with Alison Stratton in a post-YMG band called Weekend, which was also where he met Larry Stabbins with whom he subsequently formed Working Week.

Philip Moxham of YMG did play bass for EBTG for a while 'though.

Fwiw Corrine Drewery (later of Swing Out Sister) was WW's vocalist for a while before they recruited Juliet Roberts.

Buzzin' Fly Volume 3 was released last week and like the other two volumes, it is something pretty special. All three volumes heartily recommended.

Does anyone know anything useful (like a tracklisting maybe?) about a "Collector's Edition" of Eden which is apparently coming out in a month's time?

Amazon are listing it as a single disc, with just the same 12 tracks as the original and no indication what would make it so special as to warrant the huge price tag they've put on it; while Play are listing it as a double disc, but not offering a tracklist.

Can't find any details anywhere else - not even a mention of the official EBTG website.

There are plenty of great non-album singles & b-sides available so it could be great: "Night and Day", "Feeling Dizzy", "On My Mind" (although that single was on Cherry Red iirc, so presumably they'd need to licence it?), "English Rose" (recorded for an NME freebie single, so who knows who owns the rights to that one?!), "Laugh You Out the House", "Never Could Have Been Worse", "Mine", "Easy as Sin", "Gun Cupboard Love", "Native Land", "Riverbed Dry", "Don't You Go" (didn't they have a different debut album in the US which ditched half the tracks on Eden in favour of those later singles and some of the B-sides)?

Now THAT'S a slow burn. (The news is kinda buried in the post but it's there.)

Now how about a new EBTG album?

hey, that's kind of sweet, isn't it.

tracey's working on a new solo album so i doubt we'll see new EBTG stuff for a long while (if we ever will).

Tracey Thorn, annoyed mom.

tee-hee.

she's working on a new (solo) album. she's implied that at least in part it's a bit of throwback to her indie-pop years, as opposed to the club/electronic-based stuff she's been up to the last decade.

she's working on a new (solo) album. she's implied that at least in part it's a bit of throwback to her indie-pop years, as opposed to the club/electronic-based stuff she's been up to the last decade.

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist),

Thank God! Enough is enough...

^ Hmm, I don't know, didn't work out so great for Lou (ex-Lamb) Rhodes.

Tracey Thorn, annoyed mom.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, February 8, 2010 11:14 PM (Yesterday)

I love it. This might be the first twitter feed I am actually curious about...

Does anyone know anything useful (like a tracklisting maybe?) about a "Collector's Edition" of Eden which is apparently coming out in a month's time?

Amazon are listing it as a single disc, with just the same 12 tracks as the original and no indication what would make it so special as to warrant the huge price tag they've put on it; while Play are listing it as a double disc, but not offering a tracklist.

Can't find any details anywhere else - not even a mention of the official EBTG website.

There are plenty of great non-album singles & b-sides available so it could be great: "Night and Day", "Feeling Dizzy", "On My Mind" (although that single was on Cherry Red iirc, so presumably they'd need to licence it?), "English Rose" (recorded for an NME freebie single, so who knows who owns the rights to that one?!), "Laugh You Out the House", "Never Could Have Been Worse", "Mine", "Easy as Sin", "Gun Cupboard Love", "Native Land", "Riverbed Dry", "Don't You Go" (didn't they have a different debut album in the US which ditched half the tracks on Eden in favour of those later singles and some of the B-sides)?

― Stewart Osborne, Friday, September 28, 2007

Everytime I turn around there's another EBTG rarity I can't find...I wish they would put out a collection of their singles and comps tracks

They're like the Katie and Peter of Twitter.

So, got inspired to check them out because of Matos' jj review in Paste (which I wandered into while lol'ing at the Sleigh Bells review) -- anyway! This is pretty awesome. I'm listening to Walking Wounded. Super gorgeous, like proto-IDM? Anyway, what else by them should I listen to?

(Maybe proto is the wrong word, actually)

When is the Tracey Thorn album coming out?

It's out, I think.

it's leaked, anyway. it's real good, at first listen not as good as the last maybe?

glad to hear there's been another EBTG convert. the 'like the deserts miss the rain' comp is highly recommended.

We can make amends over our favorite EBTG tracks, am.

Everytime I turn around there's another EBTG rarity I can't find...I wish they would put out a collection of their singles and comps tracks

― iago g., Saturday, March 20, 2010 11:05 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

there's a great comp floating around the internets. whatsitcalled. ah yes, kitchen sink treasures.

I wanted everything for a little while
Why shouldn't I?

So far only a few songs into Eden, but I don't like it as much as Walking Wounded.

Check Temperamental. It's closer to WW but definitely more house beats than you'll find on WW.

Even tho I'm not in love with Eden, I do love that this band clearly moved through a bunch of different sounds throughout their career. It's cool when some kind of trajectory is apparent.

there are a few tracks on the new tracey album that are quite underwhelming. it may be that some of the thinner tunes on her last record (or even the last few ebtg records) were disguised by involving arrangements. but anyway "singles bar" is pretty boring, and one or two others.

SFJ has a review of the new Tracey Thorn album over at the NYorker http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2010/05/17/100517crmu_music_frerejones?currentPage=all

Ben Watt interview at Resident Advisor is long, but worth listening to - didn't know that Language of Life was Stan Getz's last outing, or that Amplified Heart was produced by one of the guys from Spring Heel Jack.

FYI

http://theseconddisc.com/2012/04/11/nothing-but-everything-but-the-girl-u-k-pop-duo-expands-first-four-albums/#more-12730

Buzzin' Fly rather than EBTG but this is very good:

http://soundcloud.com/buzzinfly/towards-green-pathfinding-a

excellent news

cracking piece this http://thequietus.com/articles/09091-everything-but-the-girl-interview

aw:

There are some amazing songs on there. One thing that has surprised me that - apart from occasional bludgeoning of 'Missing' on The Voice - is that hasn't been more covers of your work. I'm sure you wouldn't be averse to someone like Adele or Jessie Ware asking to cover something like 'Come On Home'.

TT: Yeah. I'd love it. I do think it's a shame. We've nagged our publishers over the years saying, 'Isn't it worth sending some of these songs out?' I don't know. I think perhaps people don't dig deep enough when they're looking for covers, so you get the same things covered over and over again and there are ‘go-to' songwriters that people choose. We've slipped through the net a bit I think, and it's a shame. I think there's a lot of songs out there. Come on guys. [laughs]

I do wonder before "Driving" how big their US audience was.

so has anyone else been listening to the new (!!!!) ben watt solo record? seems like it's been royally ignored.

I have been following the developments with the release pretty closely. Soundcloud dj mixes, live radio appearances etc. I think it's a great album but I'm rarely in the mood for that type of music these days. Some of the tracks he performed either solo and with Bernard Butler before the album came out were great.

I follow both he and Tracey on Twitter. Apparently Joe Moss ex-Culture Club is their neighbor and currently hosting jam sessions where they're working on 70s rock standards.

I didn't even know he had a new record. Definitely want to check it out.

it's a very pretty record, lots of obvious (but not remotely annoying) borrowings from john martyn and joni mitchell (one song sounds a lot like hejira)

the lyrics in the one about gun control is a little nagl

this album is beautifully recorded

I keep mentioning this, but Tracey Thorn's column in New Statesman is always such a good read.

did not know this existed. link?

Ben Watt's playing the pin-drop Old Town School of Folk Music, and playing the, like, 50-seat Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis on his July tour. Sounds great if it's not a DJ set.

shit, i'm going to have to miss the chicago date.

oh well, he'll be back in town ca. 2040.

I do like his Deep Folk Mix Tapes.

Thorn book is £1.99 in the Book Store (Banbury but presumably other branches, too).

the ben watt memoir of his parents is really moving and much of it is beautifully written

still think his album is great, but nobody wants to talk bout it here

**shrug**

I'll talk about it. It's a nice album.

Everytime I turn around there's another EBTG rarity I can't find...I wish they would put out a collection of their singles and comps tracks

― iago g., Saturday, March 20, 2010 11:05 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

there's a great comp floating around the internets. whatsitcalled. ah yes, kitchen sink treasures.

― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, May 11, 2010 5:10 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Surprised there's no discussion of the reissues...bonus discs of b-sides, demos. Bought the first 4, haven't listened yet but psyched they finally did this. Now only if they would tour!

they're not going to tour.

i haven't bought those reissues yet, just a lack of funds and the fact that i've heard a lot of the "bonus" stuff already. would love to read a good review though.

too bad, i'd never heard any of these demos, they're excellent. thanks for the reply!

The Ben Watt record is a bit weak on the lyrics but I like it nonetheless. It reminds me in parts of the Beyond The Wizards Sleeve remix of Midlake.

https://soundcloud.com/ben_watt/ben-watt-pearson-park-deep-folk-mixtape-4

I saw you standing at the bar
Don't know your name or who you are
It's packed at 2 a.m
I've got no coat

I still really, really like Walking Wounded, particularly the title track. I remember when they put that out as a single, and of course the remix of 'Missing' was a big hit and I knew about Thorn's work with Massive Attack, but even with all that in mind I couldn't believe it was the same band that put out songs like 'Driving' ... it caught my ear in a way that no Everything But The Girl song had done before.

Ben Watt's latest (Fever Dream) is even better than Hendra. It sounds a lot like Hendra —nice, strummy and modest— but just stronger overall songs. Some of the tunes even bare a strong resemblance to Amplified Heart. 'Women's Company' is a fantastic number. It's been out since the beginning of April, but I'm just now catching up to it.

Pitchfork's Britpop special got me thinking about their historical place. Here's a short appraisal and top ten.

Well, I certainly don't think of Everything But the Girl in terms of that stupid and meaningless word, but I do think of them as being very much part of the pop music landscape in '96 with singles like the remix of 'Missing' and 'Wrong' (although I thought that 'Walking Wounded' was the best track of them all) and I remember thinking how much of a surprise it was, both in the sense that they were now having big hits (I think many considered them to washed-up by the mid '90s), but also in the direction their music had now gone in.

wow that EBTG top 20 couldn't be more different than mine... band contains depths. super underrated

I should have known it would be a mistake to read the R Schreiber 1999 review of "Temperamental":

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/2855-temperamental/

I should have known it would be a mistake to read the R Schreiber [year] review of [album]

every late nineties pitchfork review that mentions hearing certain songs in the context of some public place ("on the dance floor at the local sportsbar") make me feel like these people literally never left their dorms

or his parents' basement

But at the end of 60 straight minutes of this record, you feel like you've just spent half your life in an upscale women's clothing store.

"haha, that'll show them"

might be late to the game, but i just came across Ada's cover of Each And Every One today—still holds up incredibly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAYHbrcHMB8

"Missing" kills me. Revived my interest by finding an old cassette stuck in a player and this track was in the sequence. I know the feeling of this song to a tee, love this track

Alan Sparhawk guests on one of Ben's new tracks. Alan's interview with Ben is insightful: http://floodmagazine.com/70506/ben-watt-shares-new-single-irene-answers-questions-from-lows-alan-sparhawk/

interesting interview, thanks. the new song irene is quite wonderful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch? &v=XS3REGSWyd8

http://www.youtube.com/watch? &v=XS3REGSWyd8

ok then: https://youtu.be/XS3REGSWyd8

New song is nice and worth 3 posts :)

Just heard their "Birds" cover on the St. Giga archive (see ambient recommendations thread) and my God, so beautiful. Studying and stopped me in my tracks.

best ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4vsMf1NQ1Q

"big deal" (1996)

biiiiiiig deeeal

would not be surprised if tracey has been side hustling in mental health the whole time because ... wow that's some insider info you got there, friend

sade also does this pretty well and of course she's easily tracey's equal, so.

this is a great live recording, btw. never heard it before—
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLpqs2i7V84

"before today" live in tokyo, 1997 from the deluxe edition of walking wounded (which i am just now listening to for the first time. the extras are good! the album is forever classic.)

Several videos from this show are up on YT. Forum 1999, "Before Today"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YhnJFwriw8

sade also does this pretty well and of course she's easily tracey's equal, so

If I remember right, Sade was recording Diamond Life in the same studio where they were doing Eden.

...24 years later:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOF2pjm9_IE

Whoops, missed that anticipation is over here:

Everything But The Girl Album Poll

What was this in response to? "would not be surprised if tracey has been side hustling in mental health the whole time because"

Is this (new album) being discussed elsewhere? Strangely, I really like seeing the photos of them draped over each other appearing on my Twitter feed, without not really being into what I've heard of their new recordings (very open to the idea that I'll realise I love the tracks, at some later date).

Everything But The Girl Album Poll

What was this in response to? "would not be surprised if tracey has been side hustling in mental health the whole time because"

― djh, Thursday, April 20, 2023 1:24 PM

hi.

umm, i think i meant her ability to get into hyper-specific narratives that simultaneously could apply to many different scenarios? "big deal" inspired that post and here's the first verse—

You spend four nights a week now looking for your inner child
What you gonna say when you find him?
Suppose you don't like him or he doesn't like you?
Suppose once you wake him up he won't go back to bed and wants to stay up late watching TV?
But you say there must be some reason why you feel this way

i have a lot of mental health problems, so these feel like questions from a therapist. tough, maybe even intentionally provocative, but ultimately coming from a place of compassion. and only posed in the first place to redirect and change unhealthy behavior. especially when she concludes, "big deal, that's the way we all feel." (with the implication that it's okay, she's not mocking you; the world is scary and we're all in it together)

more importantly: it's framed in that song as a relationship conflict ("first you doubt yourself and then you doubt her"), but most of the song is only about what's going on for one side — a biased narrative. if the psychoeducation i've received was worth anything at all, one of the main themes is that folks like me have an inherently biased, unhealthy narrative that needs questioning, needs correction. that she frames it in a seemingly specific relationship context, yet still manages to ask universal questions, is a pretty neat trick and what inspired my post up there. she does this a lot (especially on albums like temperamental love and its opposite). i could get into many other examples, "big deal" was just hitting with some extra heft that day i guess.

“Mirrorball” ftw

Might be of interest (Ben Watt's Private Passions on Radio 3):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001l4jf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NljK-sXaMtk

She says she's over-caffeinated and then next Tracey Thorn tweet says -

Am quite in the mood to form a band and just do Delta Five covers I’LL GO TO SLEEP SOON DONT WORRY 👀👀

— Tracey Thorn (@tracey_thorn) September 19, 2024

I just got around to listening to "Love And Its Opposite" today, and the closing lines from Late in the Afternoon killed me:

"I stand here every night
In fluorescent bathroom light
Every blemish, every scar
You know how they got there and where they are
So don't get bored anytime soon
'Cause it's late, it's late in the afternoon"

appreciate that shout, enoch! big ups to tracey's 2000s albums. she went full altpop and those albums absolutely rule. her voice sounds amazing on those too.

Sound check before their London club show.

Good video on their Instagram page:

"In July 1995, on the cusp of Missing becoming a global smash, we played it live on Segnali di Fumo, an Italian TV music show. It was a unique version. We used just the Todd Terry beat, an acoustic guitar, and two voices. Little did we know the song would explode on radio later that summer"