Tracey Thorn

A national treasure, in my house at least. I'd say her two most recent works are her best, but what say you?

Voted Walking Wounded but Tempermental is a great album too. Her two solo albums are better if put in 1 playlist and shuffled.

Never better than Idlewild in my opinion, so that one.

I think I've heard about 8 of these, out of those it would be between Walking Wounded and Out of The Woods. Eden is really great too.

I love this woman.

Out of the Woods is one of my favorite singer-songwriter albums of the last few years: sharp and merciless. The perfect Thorn sampler would contain the best from AH-WW-Temperamental.

i really like both her solo albums, have never heard any EBTG one though.

Walking Wounded. Recipient of much snotty "coffee table drum'n'bass" jibes at the time, it's really a brilliant singer-songwriter record which gets the most out of the melancholy, afterhours quality of drum'n'bass, deep house and trip hop. No filler whatsoever, and Wrong and the title track (both mixes) are total classics. A lot of good remixes came off the back of it as well, especially Photek's version of Single.

You should get it Lex.

i keep meaning to listen to more EBTG. I guess I was pretty young & impressionable when Walking Wounded came out, and bought in to all of that "coffee table drum'n'bass" sneering without really bothering to listen-- just another band to never get around to. Certainly the few times I've heard EBTG or Tracey Thorn tracks in passing I've been startled by how affecting they were.

i really liked the singles off walking wounded but just never got round to it due to being 13 at the time. not familiar with anything prior to that except the todd terry remix of "missing" which is classic 4eva obv.

i remember the sneering from the time though - the music press was actually pretty shit in the 90s, contra people's romanticism, right? i love her voice - mostly because of her performative strategy, where she sounds precise and somewhat distanced but never detached, this is never at the expense of the song's emotion - it's kind of like, drawing further back in order to make it more affecting.

also i may as well ask here, how does pre-WW EBTG material compare to thorn's solo albums? i should probably investigate them, since i can't imagine her solo career is a quantum leap in quality or anything.

I'm only familiar with the big singles and the Massive Attack collabs - the latter are gorgeous, especially Better Things.

Er, it doesn't follow that the music press was shit in the 90s - dance music has always had, and will always have, genre purists who get bent out of shape by outsiders using their style.

I only have Eden pre-WW, though Amplified Heart and a Distant Shore are meant to be good. Tracey and Ben don't even like the late 80s/early 90s stuff. The Like the Deserts Miss the Rain comp on Spotify is a good place to start - lots of WW-era tracks, incl the Photek remix and the mighty Tracey in My Room, mixed with some early 80s material. It's very much a band selection rather than a label one.

dance music press in the 90s was BANGIN

Amplified Heart and maybe Idlewild are closest to the precision of Thorn's solo work. The early sophisti-pop EBTG albums aren't as sharp as prime Sade.

Er, it doesn't follow that the music press was shit in the 90s - dance music has always had, and will always have, genre purists who get bent out of shape by outsiders using their style.

yeah i never read the dance press in the '90s, as it was before i got into dance music - was more referring to how, at the time, it seemed every time i dipped into nme or select or q or whatever that there was some snide, wrong-headed sneering about the music i was into.

Tracey and Ben don't even like the late 80s/early 90s stuff

ha, i never realised this! i guess i'll go with that comp.

ben's released some great stuff on buzzin' fly - the latest tevo howard single is amazing, really liked the first mlle caro & franck garcia album too (second not so much).

iirc there was snide wrong-headed sneering about all kinds of music, the question was which subset of snide wrong-headed sneerers you aligned yourself to. (also this is still true and has always been true, about everything.)

OTM

lex, this is my favorite late nineties EBTG track; it captures that late night/early morning sadness when you're not sure if you're drunk, horny, lonely, or all three.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrxnbB-FvXc&feature=related

Eden is great, Love and Money less so, after that it's mostly diminishing returns until WW. They're all worth hearing, apart from 'Language of Life' which is a duffer. They sounded lost in a blandly, glossy production which made their drum and bass reinvention post-Missing all the more startling. My favourite, pre WW is this song from 1982 which is wise and smart beyond her years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE2GLsoxOJE

Having said that, 'Acoustic' from 1992 is a lovely album with some fascinating cover choices.

I'd posit Amplified Heart as the comeback.

Artistically it was, but commercially it was a flop. Something Ben said:

We had a meeting with Warners three or four months after Amplified Heart came out and they thought our career was over and they dropped us. And before we left the meeting we said 'Can we just play you a couple of things we’ve been working on?' And we played them Protection and the Todd Terry mix of Missing and Warners still dropped us. They didn’t see a future unfortunately.

Classic major label thinking there.

I used to listen to Eden a lot working in the record department of the local Boots, one of the handful of albums there I could bear to play. Fond memories of that, but EBTG were always one of those groups who drifted in and out of my consciousness without ever firmly lodging there.

And this was a Peel anthem in the mid-80s that I adored, despite it being miles from the idioms I was interested in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHCSMT1Q1OY

The one place you should not go anywhere near, Lex, is Marine Girls. Those records will bring you out in indie-hating hives.

Artistically it was, but commercially it was a flop.

Initially! But when "Missing" took off AH went gold in the US.

Both Kevin Yost mixes of Five Fathoms are phenomenal.

Now that I look, there were three KY mixes of Five Fathoms. The Dub mix is my favorite but they're all good. Shame the dub was never released on CD.

xpost. Sorry, yes, you're right Alfred. But Missing was so tied up with Walking Wounded that I felt the comeback started with the embrace of dance music. And in the UK AH didn't return to the charts after the Missing remix.

The first solo album is really strong. The fact it's just her and the guitar makes it feel so intimate, so when she sings these brutally deep lyrics it's so much more powerful. "A Distant Shore" is a perfect title for the album, because it sounds on the surface so languid and sun-kissed, yet the song-writing suggests so much more than just idyllic strumming.

That said, I voted for "Out Of The Woods" because I feel its consistently under-rated, and it's so good to have her back. The way she sings the last line of "It's All True" makes me go week at the knees, and "Grandy Canyon" is so direct with a performance that makes it feel like a personal address.

Tracey Thorn's twitter is a source of great joy too: http://twitter.com/tracey_thorn. With such talented parents, and such a sense of humour and good taste, I feel far too envious of her children.

Her gardening columns for Caught by the River are great too: http://caughtbytheriver.net/category/to-the-greenhouse/

Ben's North Marine Drive is the greatest of their pre-EBTG work, I'd say.

Tracey Thorn's twitter is a source of great joy too

yes!

i actually think i've been a lot more amenable to her music because of it (not that i wasn't amenable before, just hadn't given it a great deal of thought)

I like to imagine that Tracey and Ben have dinner parties that Grace Dent and Ewan Pearson come over to, and they always end in a drunken mess with the boys going through crates of records in the lounge while the girls sit by the telly laughing at BBC3 documentaries, and that I'm at these parties and it is great fun.

i'd like to imagine that Tracey goes through crates of records too :/

i have listened to eight Everything But The Girl albums, and the two most recent TT solo ones, since i last posted on this thread. they're pretty good! i am leaning in the direction of 'amplified heart' right now.

not just for the songs either - that feels like the perfect mid-point of her voice

Distant Shore

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Walking Wounded was part of my high school soundtrack. That woman's voice is so soulful and sad in its tone. Such a contrast to her twitter feed. I wish she would tour so I can see her live.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_MKsZlisi8

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Clock Opera remix of "You Are a Lover" is goooorgeous!

http://soundcloud.com/buzzinfly/tracey-thorn-you-are-a-lover

Why wasn't her work with Massive Attack in this poll?

if you read the first post you might actually be able to work this out

OK. Missed the poll anyway, would have voted for "Eden", but also love her more dance oriented 90s work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxX1E6IAKnk&feature=related

I think this may be what cements her as "the thinking gay man's Kylie", at least in my eyes

Last year's solo record was so good -- one of the best singer-songwriter things in a while.

I'll recommend that Clock Opera remix again...just because.

Alfred, i give in. I will check out this album asap since you mention it so often ;)

Missed this poll but might vote s/t for "Riverbed Dry" and other side 2 gems on top of "Fascination."

Very curious to hear the Green Gartside song.

http://thequietus.com/articles/09608-tracey-thorn-tinsel-and-lights-christmas-album

That's a good choice for her voice.

Her Twitter feed is hilarious, I kid you not. And she posts ALOT

Tracey Thorn ‏@tracey_thorn
Just had to listen to A Distant Shore, for a thing. God but I loved singing that record! I can hear it in every note - I AM LOVING THIS!

this isn't the first xmas record made by/for depressives, but it is the best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9GLTrmiJDQ

Man, her cover of Low's "Taking Down the Tree" with Green is completely gorgeous.

i forgot that was a low song!

yeah, that's a good one. her dolly parton doesn't really go anywhere, unfortunately, though it's hardly unpleasant.

i'll probably be listening to this one for a few months. it's already getting me in the mood for xmas (which i don't celebrate, but i enjoy the xmas sense-scape).

Ordered the CD off the strength of listening to a few tracks streaming - given that first listen to "Joy" made me choke up like no other song this year the least I could do was actually pay for the album. Have a feeling this will get a lot of play in the A household over the festive season.

"col cold night" is terrific

"joy" and a handful of others greyed out on uk spotify... w.. tf

Really looking forward to buying this and busting it out over Christmas.

I adore this woman.

yeah, this is fantastic. i want to be besties with her.

here you go y'all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VaUO4opTwg

but srsly buy the album.

OK now I am following TT and Ben Watt on Twitter....so awesome! Their tandem x factor tweets are hilarious

the new album is very nice, a cosy christmas album. but what happened to the last two songs? they have the most annoying drum machine on i can imagine. cheap sounding, unbearably loud and mixed to the front. how to kill one of the most gorgeous female voices with shitty "instruments" and production.

one of the most terrific songs i have heard this year. it has this cottonish cocteau twins sound. plus a tune going straight to the heart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxQ7yNtEBbo

she's looked the same for 20-odd years but now she looks bloody great at 50.

new album stream

Really liking her version of "River." Wasn't sure initially if her voice would be right for it but her lower, breathier vox and deliberate phrasing works great.

Temperamental only got a couple of votes in the poll at the start of the tread. I'd be pretty tempted to vote for it.

finally an xmas song i can get behind

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

i wanted to like this but ultimately it felt too "grown-up" in a sort of sunday paper family section way.

that is definitely not the best song on the album!

try hard candy christmas, e.g. what a wonderful xmas song!

i didn't like her cover of hard candy xmas much.

has anyone picked up her autobiography/memoir? bedsit disco queen. i'm curious to read it, but i worry--well i have a hard time imagining a tracey thorn memoir being terribly exciting, as much as i love a lot of her music.

she seems literate and thoughtful in interviews, so who knows?

yeah i'm sure it's thoughtful and smart--she is both of those things, and a good writer too. whether it's interesting is another matter. i'll probably pick it up eventually, but i haven't seen any reviews.

as opposed to, say, Rosanna Cash, whose humorless memoir mirrored the way she abandoned what made her music most vital.

a cursory glance online at a couple of reviews indicates it might be vv good.

as opposed to, say, Rosanna Cash, whose humorless memoir mirrored the way she abandoned what made her music most vital.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, February 14, 2013 8:15 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, she really lost her mojo when she divorced her husband and went all "singer-songwriter" on us. kings record shop 4eva.

has anyone picked up her autobiography/memoir? bedsit disco queen

probably halfway through it now, it's a really interesting read and she has a appealing writing style. i note she thinks calvin johnson started sub pop records

radio 4's book of the week :-D

" i note she thinks calvin johnson started sub pop records"

:(

Pretty simple mistake really. They're both labels started by smelly NW hippies.

Christgau's complimentary review of the memoir. Don't think he's heard their records much.

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/They-Don-t-Want-to-Talk-About-It/ba-p/9981

Just listened to Out of the Woods for the first time in a while. What an album. I think Raise the Roof might be my favourite song she's ever done. The whole album is great though.

Think I'm going to spend the day listening to Everything But the Girl now.

This remix of a remix has been floating about for a few years but I've been coming back to it loads over spring. The backing vocals are by Cortney Tidwell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcTfT40yQOM

Also feeling pretty enthusiastic about her new regular column in New Statesman

http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/04/i-wonder-what-my-younger-self-would-ve-made-house-lords-and-its-hairdryers

She's too good for us. New single/video, "Queen"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVw7fdB8gXM

Album, Record, out on March 2 -- my birthday!

This song is wonderful!

wow, that's great!

I've enjoyed Ewan P's Instagram series this week outlining who participated, where they recorded, what equipment they used etc.

oh fuck yes

like that.
all we need now is for ben to revive buzzin fly ..
(i never was interested in his post electronic acoustic/guitar material)

This is just what I needed today. Out Of The Woods has become one of my favourite albums ever. Hopefully this will be close to that. The single is very promising.

Here's some PR guff

Describing Queen, Tracey says: “It’s a great opener for the album - driven along by Ewan Pearson’s unashamedly glittering electro-pop production, drums and bass from Warpaint’s Stella and Jenny, it features me playing electric guitar for the first time in a while, and singing my heart out.”

As ever the personal has often been political in Tracey Thorn’s work. “Nine feminist bangers,” Tracey Thorn jokes when asked to describe ‘Record.’ If this album is in part about freedom and disenthrallment, new single ‘Queen’ is the opening broadside, all personal fire and desire. Her voice, self-assured and richly-textured, yet confessional and affecting, spits out the lyrics on ‘Record’ with a fresh compelling drive and remains one of the finest female pop voices of the last four decades.

”I think I’ve always written songs which chronicle the milestones of a woman’s life.” she says. “Different ages and stages, different realities, not often discussed in pop lyrics. If 2010’s Love and Its Opposite was my mid-life album - full of divorce and hormones - then ‘Record’ represents that sense of liberation that comes in the aftermath, from embarking on a whole new 'no fucks given' phase of life."

On Record, the synth-driven tracks arrive and leave with a punchy sub-three-minute directness. “I wanted it to be a record you’d listen to in the daytime,” Tracey says. “On your headphones or on the move. Not necessarily in the evening, or in your bedroom.” For all its no-fuss pop brevity, the album rotates around Sister, a dubby nine-minute Compass Point-style disco jam where Tracey is joined again by Warpaint’s rhythm section and glorious backing vocals from Corinne Bailey Rae.

Across four decades Tracey’s songs and writing have offered up a clear-eyed woman’s view of the immediate world around her; from the acerbic teen love songs of her first early-eighties band Marine Girls, through sixteen years as one half of articulate multi-million-selling duo Everything But The Girl to her recent acclaimed memoirs and journalism."

I've now gotten ahold of this record and boy oh boy is it good.

oh fuck yes

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

I've now gotten ahold of this record and boy oh boy is it good.

― Johnny Fever

Yeah, I just heard this for the first time too. It's the first great album I've heard this year.

I... don't know how I feel about this album

I think I just don't like "Guitar"

We thought it was absolutely wonderful, start to stop.

is that the royal we, Ned? are you implying that you are queen?

I think I just don't like "Guitar"

― algorithm is a dancer (katherine),

a Prince cover?

xpost -- 'We' meaning myself and my girlfriend, thank you.

a Prince cover?

if only; instead it's a colorless perky '80s thing

"Sister" is fantastic though

he is also queen, we had a vote and liz is out

Greetings my loyal subjects.

This album rocks. More albums about a woman in late middle age who's social media savvy and still anticipates a few turbulent love affairs.

Check out @tracey_thorn played on #iggyconfidential last Friday. Lady does not disappoint! #iggypop

— Iggy Pop (@IggyPop) March 4, 2018

I'm in love with "Guitar" and "Air."

Love this album. Played it twice in a row yesterday and woke up wanting to hear it again

In love with "Guitar" and "Dancefloor", me.

Loving the album too. I think it's one of the best things she's ever done. My current favourite is Air as it would fit nicely on the Shura album. Dancefloor is such a brilliant closer, I just wish it was a bit longer. Kind of has a Pop Kids vibe to it.

Video for Sister

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A-XyMzTSWc

the beats on the new album are really cheap. and the songs are not very good either. it all sounds pretty much like mainstream. i love tracey thorn but this is very dispensable.

why aren't they very good? "Guitar" and "Babies" present points of view we don't often hear in songs, and their melodies are delectable. I don't treat as a dance record – it's a singer-songwriter record with dance colorings, in the same way Bill Callahan would use strings or John Darnielle a brass section.

it all sounds pretty much like mainstream.

Judging by this comment I'm not sure how much mainstream pop you listen to. This is much better produced than both a lot of mainstream 80s-inflected pop and the sort of shambahla stuff that's popular here. A lesser producer than Ewan Pearson would be tempted to really max out every sound, he allows every sound (especially the voice) the space it needs. He and Tracey are excellent foils for one another

I love this, I love her voice

I love how effortless and shimmery the music is

This sounds like Drake, Cardi B, and Post Malone.

I mean, I can see what they are getting at, particularly "Guitar," the production of which sounds like everything I hated about the Paramore album and parts of the last Carly Rae Jepsen record

this is really great i think

it's funny how the decline of the music biz makes for strange fellows, imagine thinking oh yeah tracey thorn will be on superchunk's label 20 years ago

i don't think it sounds cheap at all, it's very well engineered and mastered

"Go" is just tremendous, cheap-esque drum sounds included

I mean, I can see what they are getting at, particularly "Guitar," the production of which sounds like everything I hated about the Paramore album and parts of the last Carly Rae Jepsen record

― algorithm is a dancer (katherine),

but it's fascinating how both albums were disappointments or outright flops – they were failed crossovers.

Both of those albums are over-compressed to hell in the way that you'd expect from artists gunning for maximum radio play in 2018, that's notably not the case here. I can see how the sound palette and other production choices might be similar (and offputting) but the treatment of them is completely different.

Yes agreed

I will probably always be a total, melty mess for these big, clear, generous alto female voices over 80s inspired synths - Alison Moyet the other obvious example of this

The lyrics and themes in this album are incredible. I don’t gaf if the sounds are cheap. The emotions and depth of thought overwhelm any blandness of the production.

lol do you really think it sounds bland

like i guess i don't associate EBTG or her w/super edgy experimental stuff, more literate well mannered electronic stuff w good songwriting

Its brevity is something my girlfriend and I loved as well -- it does the business quickly but does so in a way that feels like a big scope of a record, perhaps even more so lyrically than musically.

I really love Tracey Thorn, EBTG and solo, I just cannot deal at all, ever, from anyone, with that chintzy canned "Take on Me" sound

take on me is a very good song

it all sounds pretty much like mainstream.

Judging by this comment I'm not sure how much mainstream pop you listen to

‘Computer beats’, Stella Mozgawa will love that.

I just cannot deal at all, ever, from anyone, with that chintzy canned "Take on Me" sound

whathuh?

how do people not hear that in "Guitar" at least?

my favourite thing about this record is her willingness to tackle subject matter that other, younger artists might find a bit banal or naff (3 am baby feeds, sending your kids off to college, stalking your ex's Facebook), but doing so with great levity and humour.

The production sounds a bit thin and dated in some places (not a fan of "Guitar", agree with katherine on this), but there's also "Sister", which is incredibly groovy and lush.

anyway, "what year is it? same old shit."

I don't hear a chintzy, canned "Take On Me" sound in "Guitar" at all, and/but also I love the sound of "Take On Me". There's an '80s (though not 'dated') and sparse (though not 'thin') feel to most of Queen, but to me there's a clear contrast with the, indeed compression-heavy, sound on After Laughter, which I disliked for that reason.

(another example would be Toni Halliday's first solo album -- I want to like it but the '80s production is overwhelming)

it's all very 80's certainly but not in a way that particularly evokes "Take On Me"?

album is great, all excellent songs. i especially like Guitar and the ending of Air. the production doesn't really stand out but i'm a fan of the style and it supports the songs well

On her incredible catalog.

At Electric mastering @tracey_thorn Dancefloor remixes right now. 💃🎉 pic.twitter.com/kOoF7VtkP9

— Ewan Pearson (@ewanpearson) March 22, 2018

Finally picked this up today. The hype sticker made me laugh aloud:
https://i.imgur.com/woutA00.jpg

haha that is awesome

this collaboration with George FitzGerald (whom I also like) is unsurprisingly very good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHQBLwfnqY8

ooh v nice

london you're in my blood
and you've been there for so long
london you're in my blood
but i feel you going wrong

There is the heavy and the light. Damn this is an proper album.

Looking forward to this:

Very happy to tell you that I'll be the guest on Desert Island Discs this coming Sunday! Thanks to @laurenlaverne for wonderful interview 😍 https://t.co/AHOBmggS5o

— Tracey Thorn (@tracey_thorn) November 12, 2018