Everything But The Girl Album Poll

That's right, Scott! "This Love Not For Sale"! I haven't heard this in fucking EONS. Thanks ILM!!!!!!

I bet that song would put goose pimples on Paul Weller's flesh with jealousy.

I voted "Eden," which is slightly different from the S/T american debut. 'easy as sin' on the american version is my favorite song of theirs. love the first two albums in general.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Yay Eden! I didn't know this poll was gonna end tonight, but ended up playing Eden on the bus today anyway. I was trying to come to a conclusion about the songs that got left off the US version and vice versa, and I still think the US version does a magnificent job of culling the most memorable tracks on the UK version, aside from "I Must Confess" & "Bittersweet". My only complaint with the US version is the tacking on "Native Land" & "Riverbed Dry" at the end. Not only are they of a lesser quality than the rest of the songs, but they have a different sound to them and feel incongruous on there. And hell, I didn't realize the lovely "Easy As Sin" didn't make it on the UK version, that's terrible! So basically you have to have both of the damn things or make sure you've downloaded all the tracks!

Temperamental -- mmmm

Baby, The Stars Shine Bright is better than I thought

would have voted 1984 s/t or Love Not Money.
favorite song: Easy As Sin

boy, is Worldwide good! It's gotten flak for its 1991-era production, but the melodies are gorgeous, the songs fully written, and Watt has never sung better on record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1__auymS9OA

1988 Idlewild 0

:|

i turn to walking wounded often, also a GOAT album cover

Br@d, you'd like Worldwide if you love Idlewild: it's a Technicolor representation of that acoustic sound.

EBTG mean so much to me that should anything happen to Thorn or Watt I'd mourn them like I would Madonna or Ferry.

yeah i was gonna say my love of idlewild probably proved that i'm here for ebtg records that've gotten flak for their production, i'll check out worldwide soon

I think we now need a poll for Tracey Thorn’s THREE volumes of memoirs. She’s rivaling Peter Hook at this point

The first one is SO sharp.

i love ebtg, but worldwide is a stinker.

i would've voted idlewild.

worldwide is great. "old friends" is so good

The lack of love for Idlewild is indeed disgraceful, so:

Everything But the Girl - Idlewild (1988)

i love ebtg, but worldwide is a stinker.

i would've voted idlewild.

― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Tuesday, August 18, 2020 11:47 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

worldwide is great. "old friends" is so good

― Vapor waif (uptown churl), Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Heh. I was wrong:

Everything But The Girl Album Poll

1990 The Language of Life 0

:|

I've had "Frozen River" stuck in my head since August 2020.

can we talk about the language of life though???? perfectly recorded sophistipop

"Driving" and its remixes are fabulous. "The Road," "My Baby Don't Love Me," "Get Back Together" (that solo!), and "Imagining America" too. It's got some dull things that remind me of the Najee and Hiroshima-esque stuff my dad foisted on me in the car.

lol i was just about to bring up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzY01LLo3lo

i think this is my favorite EBTG album so far but in another way they're all my favorite. this just kinda nails how crisp and sharp the city looks after you walk out of a smoke-filled lounge at night

ha -- that's what I imagine with Temperamental but with a slight nip in the air

Have you read Thorn's memoir? She sounds bemused years later by the cost of the studio musicians and being slotted into New Adult Contemporary, despite the affection deejays had for "Driving."

i haven't yet, her books have been on my list for ages

omg worldwide

"old friends" is like minimalist adult-contemporary, remarkable

wait till ya get to "Talk to Me Like the Sea."

alfred you already know this is my highest compliment, but wow worldwide is like ebtg's heart in motion

get to "Frozen River" first

i have! it’s so gorgeous

A song that sounds like the album sleeve.

I'm very fond of Idlewild despite the production and the nice-but-not-my-thing Danny Whitten cover. Someone on the other EBTG thread rightly complimented Tracy Thorn for writing lyrics to and for other women -- these small but emphatic gestures of solidarity. "Blue Moon Rose" is in that category. And "Oxford Street" is just lovely.

― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, March 7, 2009 This makes me think of my Top Ten pick Record, which unselfconsciously takes as a given the need to think out loud, to confide, in a way not too navelgazey, self-absorbed (some singer-songwriters cam make me wonder, "Whatta they need me for?"
Will have to check her books, also ETBTG albums, having only heard a few singles, back in the day.

worldwide and language of life are missteps by this band and anyone else who made records like it.

for that sort of big budget overproduced and "schlocky to the point of detriment" thing by this school of bands, aztec camera's dreamland is far superior and still a complete disappointment of an album.

nothing but respect for ben and tracey —i would rate them as an alltime favorite— but ebtg's catalogue began with an immediate slew of highlights, hit a deep and cheesy valley of disappointment, and then careened ever so consistently back up to the heights of their early records (with a completely different vibe, obvs).

i will never be convinced otherwise and i am suspicious of anyone who tries to push a different narrative.

I'm terribly sorry to disappoint you. Keep your suspicions high and your stubbornness reaching for the stars.

btw the albums before TLOF are as uneven, i.e. three or four tuneful or attractively sung non-entities per album

be suspicious of me i don't give a shit. the songcraft fucking sings

Plus, what makes those albums' arrangements "schlock" and the 1984-1988 stuff okay?

nothing but respect for ben and tracey —i would rate them as an alltime favorite—

― the beginning of the end of discourse. (Austin), Tuesday, November 16, 2021 11:42 AM

yeah i know, you're disrespecting us instead lol

i also do not understand singling out language of life which sounds to my ears like a refinement of idlewild

mid period EBTG is my favorite too! it has a nice sort of end-of-history post coldwar anomie that suits the band. 'idlewild' is the best. some clunkers on 'language' and 'worldwide' admittedly

in any event 'tears all over town', 'old friends', 'talk to me ...', 'driving' all slap

hold up, wait a minute, "take me" is a womack & womack song????

the language of life is the best album ever

no disrespect intended. i can be suspicious of someone and still respect what they have to say.

it's just puzzling because idlewild sounds like an actual record that was made by people who cared about what it sounded like, while everything that followed (until amplified heart) sounds like the coked out producer making sure all of his best bud sessions players (who are all amazing musicians, btw) get in on the action. the term "overproduced" was created for that kind of music. it's nightmarish vaporwave twenty years before the fact. deeply unsettling and creepily contrived music.

to bring aztec camera back into the discussion, i feel the same way about his post-knife albums (he also worked briefly with tommy lipuma, who was heavily involved on the language of life). it's very forced music and i just don't buy it.

(despite my militant stance here, i do like songs from this period and i will concede that "driving" is easily one of their best songs and a mini-masterpiece, of sorts. i have to apologize; i have been experiencing more frequent dissociative episodes and sometimes i say things a little more aggressively than the situation calls for while in those moments. sorry if i upset anyone. certainly not my intent. ebtg rules. aztec camera rules. tommy lipuma doesn't, but that's okay too. anyway.)

I happen to love the Dreamland album by Aztec Camera. It's probably my favorite AC album. It's definitely polished and schmaltzy, but i like it.

I’m in the same position as Map. I know the big singles and loved “Nothing More to Lose” but I haven’t heard the albums — and just started exploring. I didn’t love TT’s solo records and that put me off a little. But Tenperamental is fantastic so far.

i can't believe this poll only got 20 votes! bunch of 2009 savages. i'm glad i got my one vote in for Love Not Money. love that album so much.

Curious how the genre changing hits those listening retroactively. Jumped aboard with their first US album, and each shift was an adventure, particularly the Walking Wounded change. Would think going backwards relatively quickly would make the shifts easier to absorb, with less investment and/or wait time between albums.

i still need to spend so much more time with everything pre-‘worldwide’ u_u

as it is i wish i was listening to ‘amplified heart’ every day of my life

the drum fills on “one place” … what a perfect song. insane that isn’t considered a lite FM classic

a very nice revive and more motivation for me to get into the discography, which will all be new to me, aside from the newest album and a few tracey thorn tracks.

― he/him hoo-hah (map), Saturday, November 16, 2024 3:24 PM

oh well get ready to have a new favorite band of all time

― ivy., Saturday, November 16, 2024 3:42 PM

I've also been on a deep dive through their discography, and actually Worldwide was the 1 album where it was just a bit too adult contemporary for me (though i still haven't gotten a copy of Language of Life). Anyway, it's good to see all the Worldwide love here, because this is prompting me to go listen to that album with new ears.

Of the ones I do own, my current ranking is: Love Not Money > Amplified Heart > Baby The Stars Shine Bright > Eden > Fuse > Walking Wounded > Idlewild > Acoustic > Worldwide

I’m like a few of the posters itt. Don’t know their discography very well. Was irritated by the ubiquity of Missing and dismissed them at the time. Until Five Fathoms severely blew my mind. I’ve tried getting into their 80s output since but never managed to. Love the first solo Ben Wats album though

been going back and forth between 'the language of life' & 'worldwide' ... i can clearly see why someone would prefer TLOL and/or why it's generally considered a more "successful" album. the songwriting is tight and punchy -- the first three songs are real pop records, the "take me" cover was a great choice and is well done, FM pop in its pure form. that said, i think for me i prefer the different textures that 'worldwide' provides ... the vocal and instrumental interplay on the outros of "you lift me up" and "frozen river", all of "politics aside." the way "take me" and "one place" are slotted on both albums make them feel a bit like sister songs to me and even there the drum fills on "one place" bring a slightly unexpected feel to that song, it's like some shards of aluminum briefly pass thru the song's perfectly rendered gloss. whereas "take me" really goes for that true radio smoothness the whole time. it's funny thinking about the albums thru the prism of 'worldwide' being one where their creative inspiration was at a low ebb, because to me w/ 'worldwide' i hear a loosening of some of the restraints musicians must impose on themselves when they're writing for a pop audience. and that's not a diss at TLOL because it is a really good album & again i can absolutely understand, even just in general, why someone would prefer the pop album to the more idiosyncratic follow up, but in this case for me it goes the other way

i'm starting with 'amplified heart' and i'm about halfway through. 'i don't understand anything' is my favorite so far. i'm feeling spiritual things lately so i understand if this sounds like a very left-field point of comparison but the open-hearted seeking feeling reminds me of judee sill. maybe the colors in the strings too. what a beautiful string arrangement.

good comparison

what do you think of the strings on "Troubled Mind"? I hear Brazilian music.

“the road” — the final song on ‘the language of life’ — is a really wonderful closer, i love the warmth of the flugelhorn, how relaxed it sounds, yet tinged slightly with mournfulness. it mirrors the song perfectly

there is a sentimentality & optimism to a lot of the songs on this album. “i’ll come driving just as fast as wheels can turn”, “meet me in the morning, i’ll have the motor running,” “i’ll keep a good thought for you,” all of “get back together.” even “my baby don’t love me” is upbeat, it almost sounds like christmas music. it feels to me like they mostly break from this perspective from this moment forward? not that there aren’t optimistic happy songs on their subsequent albums, but they start to delve a lot more into themes of domestic disquiet, what constitutes contentment etc almost conversing with each other at times as albums unfold. ‘worldwide’ feels like a far more personal album to me & then they sort of perfect the whole idea on ‘amplified heart.’ i rate TLOL very highly nonetheless, but i think i really connect with the perspective shift that happens after

i can't believe this poll only got 20 votes! bunch of 2009 savages. i'm glad i got my one vote in for Love Not Money. love that album so much.

― scott seward, Sunday, November 17, 2024 12:58 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Me too, Scott! A guy I had a crush on in college brought it to the newspaper office and I was hooked (I pined after him for years; I'm pretty sure he knew I was alive). I didn't hear their other music for years and was disappointed when I did. Re-trying AH tx to this thread.

announced their first shows since they walked off the stage in switzerland 25 years ago....

Got super excited by the announcement, but I have more chance winning the lottery than getting a ticket. Hopefully it will lead to a full tour down the line.

to quote the mailer

Thorn also says that "If it goes well we hope to do more."

"Full tour to follow in 2050"

just finished reading tracey's memoir and a burst of activity following a long period off wouldn't be that unusual for her/them so i take them at their word that they might actually play more shows. i don't know if they'd ever do more than this sort of acoustic drum machine thing in small clubs tho unless something really changed

The Moth Club shows sound like they were great. Opening with "Night and Day"!

We’re back at the MOTH Club for THREE nights in June. Tickets on sale this Thursday 17 April. Get the upfront ticket link now.

After two instant sell-outs in April, we’re returning to the MOTH Club in Hackney for THREE more intimate shows on SUN JUNE 8, MON JUNE 9 and TUE JUNE 10. We’ll perform again as a part-acoustic part-electronic duo accompanied by Rex Horan (double bass) and Family Stereo’s Blake Watt (guitar, vocals), playing songs from our 40-year careers as both a duo and solo artists.

The evening will consist of two sets and an interval. We will be on stage at 8pm. There is no support. The venue will be mostly seated with some additional standing. Seats allocated on first come first served basis. Doors 7pm.

Tickets (max 2) go on sale at 6pm BST this Thursday 17

really interesting to see which EBTG songs made it onto the set list -- if i went night two and didn't see "i don't understand anything" i would be....

anywho i'm going to be in london in early july so crossing all appendages that this continues

oh god

if I didn't have a wedding during that time I might've flown to London just for the show

I just noticed the distorted guitar in "Run a Red Light."

― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, April 21, 2023 8:22 AM

imagine taking money to write about music when you think of the act of listening as a literal sign of weakness. how much had you missed when you cashed those checks? idk how refunds work in music journalism, but any editors or check writers out there may want to open a work order.

to any readers in the future: YOU ARE IN AN ECHO CHAMBERemergency eject

they posted a setlist on instagram on monday noting that they've added some new old EBTG songs into the mix -- including, quite pointedly!, a new new EBTG song called "young and dumb"

i actually somehow forgot to post that i saw them at the moth club around xmas. the shows follow the billing in feeling like very pointedly (word of the day) not EBTG shows. they lean heavily into the personal and familial nature of what they're doing, performing unreleased or obscure songs by ben about his father & things like that -- i think especially around xmas there was a lot of that kinda context in the room that night. i think the range in tracey's voice is narrower than it used to be & my dream is still for them to kinda drop the shtick and just do a proper EBTG concert, but the fact that they're even back out on stage will certainly have to do. and the fact that they keep playing shows & are now incorporating more EBTG songs into the setlist and teasing new music allows me to dream....

you know what i love is this one (obv not EBTG, but maybe honorarily so)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmev6sP9-K8

When I was scrolling through "These Days" covers the other day, as I do, found this one with Ben Watt singing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuBJFhvS9js