Everything But The Girl Album Poll

The strength of their latest album (and particularly "Nothing Left to Lose") has spurred me to finally take this band seriously, and go on a buying spree into their back catalog.

First to arrive in the mail was "Love Not Money", and wow, this is so much better than I was expecting. I had mentally filed early-period EBTG in the same bucket as Swing Out Sister, not jangle pop with horns.
I'm still not 100% on songs with Ben on vocals, and the lyrics sometimes wander into sixth-form poetry, but it all just works together. This is gonna be fun.

Don't be rude about Swing Out Sister now or there will be a knock at the door (I totally know what you mean about underestimating/misrepresenting early EBTG, though).

The first SOS album is better than the first couple EBTG albums -- and EBTG are the better artists.

Actually I was imagining early EBTG sounding more like Kalima (bossa jazz pastiche, incongruously released on Factory records), but I thought that reference was too obscure.
(there can't be any Kalima defenders around here, can there?)

i find that people think there is a line that jazz-pop or sophistipop crossed where it becomes as unbearably cheesy as smooth jazz or whatever but ime this line is so subjective as to be practically imaginary.
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson)

I just tried the first SOS album, and it's over my line.
Maybe if I work my way up through Language of Life and Worldwide first, i'll be more open to a redrawing of the borders.

I like the Swamp Child album! Not actually made it as far as Kalima yet.

Swamp Children, ffs.

If you have trouble with SOS, prepare yourself for The Language of Life and Worldwide.

Not sure I ever checked out Kalima, but Antena also fits that description

i thought it was sad that only one person picked love not money and then i see that it was....me. good going 14 years ago scott.

the fairest of them all
mirror mirrorball

Hmmmmmm

EBTG At Maida Vale EP out tomorrow ❤️ https://t.co/aEUngPThM0

— Tracey Thorn (@tracey_thorn) August 8, 2023

Sounds good, if you like them stripped down:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErI-YfGmj8g

had never really listened to ebtg til this year, but they've kind of taken over my life.

― ludicrously capacious bag (voodoo chili)

I've going on a deep dive, chronologically.

So starting with Eden:

If I had heard Eden first, it would sound like they just came out fully formed. But they had a few tracks on the Pillow and Prayers compilation from 2 years earlier, and they didn't quite have the songwriting worked out yet in 1982.

"Each and Every One" - The first time i heard this song, i figured that little horn tag on the front must be a sample. But I guess it's just Ben Watt establishing his jazz bona fides up front.

"Tender Blue" - Is there a thread for songs where it starts with a lesser vocalist, then the lead singer swoops in to take over vocal duties and kickstart the track? It's such an effective trick, and there are definitely some fun examples out there ("Coffee and TV", "We Still Need More", U2 "Numb")

"The Spice of Life" - if the album was just a bunch of stripped-down indie guitar songs like this, I'd probably still have it on repeat.

"Crabwalk" -- this is the part of their portfolio where they're like "we can also go full Horace Silver Quintet on you." Is this considered "cod jazz"? I love it. It's a bit pretentious and also entirely necessary. the album definitely needed this intermission.

And then "Even So" has castanets!

"Frost and Flowers" - this feels like early EBTG at their broodiest. I wonder if they were tempted to add some 12-string rickenbacker to this and try to appeal to the Echo and the Bunnymen fans.

"Soft Touch" - I feel like Ben Watt on lead vocals might be an acquired taste...

BTW, it's like the indie labels in the mid-eighties were trying to cut manufacturing costs to stave off the inevitable death of vinyl... my copy of Eden (looks like a French pressing) must be in the flimsiest record sleeve in my collection.

Or maybe this is just a European thing? (another flimsy sleeve in my collection is a German pressing of Movement)

i took myself out to dinner tonight and it was in the middle of my second glass of wine when “before today” played out of nowhere and i was briefly swept up into another life when i was in love and the need for that person pressed inside of me as if someone were flooring a pedal

❤️‍🔥

No votes for Idlewild is wtf.

It's probably because it's the one I imprinted on but the answer is Baby, the Stars Shine Bright.

Same here! “Sugar Finney”, “Don’t Leave Me Behind”, such a fine album. Idlewild is my runner-up.

I’m still team Temperamental.

All-time jam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0daABTFctDg

I'd not heard the demo version of this before. Ah christ, it's all too much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4luK3QGa6k4

amplified heart gets played in our house so much. that is one of those albums like baduizm for me that i return to often because there is a sorta zen like quality to the music, like 90% of the time i want to listen to music in general i'm looking for what amplified heart gives me. of course it's also one of the great albums about domestic disquiet, romantic anxiety etc "get me" is prob my fav song by them

shower me with affection and i'll return in kind
i have no hidden motive, i am blind
i'm a stone inside a box
i'm a spring inside a clock
you can wear me on your wrist
and i'll tell you things ten thousand times

but do you ever get me...

<3<3<3

we listen to 'home movies' (pre-amplified greatest hits album) a lot too, one of our go to tapes. i have an appreciation for the early music but i don't love it the way i do the stuff that came after. i think about mid 90s music on a macro level & just feel like these two people were born to shine in that time period

They benefited from scarcity. After Worldwide bombed, failing to capitalize on The Language of Life, they were reduced to playing and programming the parts themselves. Then Watt had his illness. The songwriting just toughened.

Love that Meet Me demo. The minimal instrumentation allows Tracy’s voice to shine

For now at last I'm down on the street
With the engine running

every time i return to it i'm like... wow amplified heart is perfect

And people say that we're so close
How can there be something that I don't know
Oh but even though I share your bed
Baby, I don't get inside your head
This feeling of some mystery
Do you feel that too?
Do you know what I mean?

And if I should start to cry
And I can't begin to tell you why
And I stumble when I begin
It's cause I don't understand anything

Yes

feeling this:

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

omg I love this song so much

interesting to read the discussion about 'worldwide' in this thread. i think it's another astonishing album of theirs.

some of the lyrics are so earnest and direct that many of the songs would be mawkish in the hands of many. but you just see their taste level and overall mastery of their music really shine through. something like "lift me up" relies a lot on the arrangement and tracey's vocal performance to deliver the emotional punch and prevent the song from being too lovey dovey. and so of course the production is just pitch perfect, all foggy atmospherics and rippling guitars, with tracey's harmonies coasting off that. the churchiness of it reminds me of prefab's "i remember that," tho paddy takes it in a more gospel direction. i feel like he sorta works off tracey & ben's blueprint

"one place" is as expert a stewart matthewman tribute as you'll ever see, that song could be on 'love deluxe' or 'urban hang suite' ... i love how they're kinda talking across each other on "talk to me like the sea" and "one place" about what they want out of life. ben daydreams about putting roots down in some isolated coastal town whereas tracey writes a paean to the life of a touring musician. the way "one place" unfolds, with tracey considering the pleasures of stable family life leading into the almost fake-out chorus and into essentially the rejection of the premise of the song, all set against a supremely lush and ultimately forgiving arrangement, is really beautiful.

the layering of instruments and vocals and the interplay between those two elements really stands out across this album. the way tracey's vocals dance w/ the keyboards on "old friends"; how "politics aside" blossoms into a textural masterpiece; the misty sophistipop perfection of alfred's beloved "frozen river" building to tracey & ben's vocals darting playfully around each other. the second half of the album is really incredible honestly

btw listen to the first 20 seconds of "talk to me like the sea" in the context of "birds of a feather" ... pretty funny

:)

there is a disturbing lack of live recordings of these songs online

i'm not sure how accurate some of these setlist/tour archive sites are, but it looks like they didn't tour much at all in 1992 or 1993, only playing a handful of shows in certain markets. i guess this was when ben was seriously ill ... i'm reading that they planned to do an acoustic tour of the US in 92 but had to cancel it. by 94 they are back out on the road consistently, it looks like they were doing acoustic shows in certain cities while out on a full amplified heart tour. looking at the some of the (alleged) setlists, it looks like "one place" is the only song from 'worldwide' that got consistently played. "talk to me like the sea" pops up a bit. but this era is really poorly documented so it's hard to say ... there's many more setlists from the acoustic shows they were playing.

there are a bunch of live recordings attached to the 'amplified heart' remaster/reissue (at least on streaming) but none w/ the 'worldwide' remaster/reissue, which only gets remixes, instrumentals and demos. i guess this aligns w/ the album just being maligned overall even by the band ... i really need to read tracey's memoir but it seems like even she somewhat disowns it? a misunderstood classic! i need to hear a live recording of "one place" at some point in my life!!!

“troubled mind,” “get me,” and “25th december” made it onto the walking wounded setlist but ‘worldwide’ was banished

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.

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

Rereading Austin's comments upthread, I'm struck by his repeated use of "overproduced" as a pejorative. Where are The Language of Life and Worldwide overproduced? The latter in particular sounds like a series of recorded demos. "Old Friends," "Talk to Me Like the Sea," "Understanding" -- some keyboards, guitar embellishments, drum programs, that's it.

"Overproduced" often means "I don't like '80s keyboard presets." Fair! I'd rather one just said it. But the word reminds me of "dated," a word never used about a particular Rickenbacker guitar sound from the mid '60s or, well, Ben Watt's jungle choices in those late '90s EBTG records we revere.

Doesn't Tracey mention in one of her books that Worldwide felt "been there, done that" to them, just going through the motions of making a new record?

map, don't miss the collaborations (https://traceythorn.com/collaborations/). "Hotwire the Ferris Wheel" is particularly nice.

She does, and she has guarded appreciation for the professionalism of TLOL while acknowledging the sound was Not For Them.

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

― ivy., Saturday, November 16, 2024 8:42 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

:)

I have big love for TLOL due to listening to Julia Fordham at that time. Mellow albums, such singing talent.

Doesn't Tracey mention in one of her books that Worldwide felt "been there, done that" to them, just going through the motions of making a new record?

what's fascinating to me about the album is that you really can catch a whiff of boredom from some of the songwriting, if you position yourself a certain way. for instance "twin cities" is about how "we are the twin cities, we are the river" and then the next song is "frozen river" which concludes with them repeating "you're like a frozen river." i'm not even sure the metaphoric thru line of "frozen river," in which various concepts and people are compared to frozen rivers, even totally makes sense. but the chorus is this wonderful interplay between ben & tracey's vocals, culminating w/ a meditative outro where where tracey is nailing all these emotive vocal runs atop ben's harmonies -- her gliding gracefully across his glassy ice -- and it just feels completely undeniable to me from a songcraft perspective. so i'm like, ok they were just going thru the motions while... tapping directly into the bleeding heart of sophistipop... predicting neo-soul... cool

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.