Everything but the Girl.

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i wasn't clear enough. i meant to say the arrangements sort of illustrate the seductiveness of Fame (copyright 1953 MGM) which the lyrics try to parse more critically.

amateur!!!st (amateurist), Monday, 30 August 2004 05:44 (nineteen years ago) link

ok well it has as much to do with the langer/winstanley costello records as with imperial bedroom--but i think they are def. taking many cues from costello.

also yeah the marine girls are amazing.

amateur!!!st (amateurist), Monday, 30 August 2004 05:46 (nineteen years ago) link

dido strikes me as EBTG watered down for the masses

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.

Bimble (bimble), Monday, 30 August 2004 06:49 (nineteen years ago) link

Or should I say a relationship I was NO LONGER in at the time! ;)

Bimble (bimble), Monday, 30 August 2004 06:50 (nineteen years ago) link

They seem to have retired since putting out an official greatest hits last year. Ben's quit Lazy Dog, too; is this the end of the road?

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.

derrick (derrick), Monday, 30 August 2004 07:43 (nineteen years ago) link

I mentioned Johnny Marr mainly as even though he didn't actually appear on Love Not Money, he guested on the strangely omitted preceding single "Native Land" and his influence can be heard throughout the whole album. Bearing in mind this was 1985, it's arguably the most high-profile contemporary Smiths soundalike album !

darren (darren), Monday, 30 August 2004 17:23 (nineteen years ago) link

Not much to add here, except that I loved Marine Girls, and continue to love EBTG, with an unseemly gushiness. Favorite: Idlewild.

briania (briania), Monday, 30 August 2004 18:15 (nineteen years ago) link

My favorite EBTG moment is "Tracey In My Room"

Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 30 August 2004 18:17 (nineteen years ago) link

i think i've probably spent more time thinking about baby, the stars shine bright than anyone else on earth. which is not really a good thing.

amateur!!st, Monday, 30 August 2004 18:26 (nineteen years ago) link

one month passes...
i got their newer bestof this week and listened to it on the plane. there are maybe 1 1/2 songs that are a bit too melodically static/lyrically treacly for me, but otherwise it's pretty awesome (it's even ok that there's nothing from "idlewild", since i own that record anyway). some of the assorted (non-album) stuff is killer: "tracey in my house," the photek remix of "single," the cover of "almost blue."

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.

amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 22 October 2004 19:37 (nineteen years ago) link

this record sort of reasserts the awesomeness of tracey's voice, if nothing else. she even gets the "ão"s on "corcovado" right!!!!

amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 22 October 2004 19:39 (nineteen years ago) link

I like that song she did with Adam F

Riot Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 22 October 2004 19:44 (nineteen years ago) link

their version of "corcovado" is gorgeous.

jed_ (jed), Friday, 22 October 2004 19:59 (nineteen years ago) link

Trayce OTM upthread - EBTG are great to sing along to.

jed_ (jed), Friday, 22 October 2004 20:24 (nineteen years ago) link

really? i wouldn't dare, all those delicately flattened notes etc

amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 22 October 2004 20:28 (nineteen years ago) link

my voice sounds great (to me!).

jed_ (jed), Friday, 22 October 2004 20:34 (nineteen years ago) link

i plan to listen to a lot more ebtg in the near future

how is their "back to mine" volume?

amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:23 (nineteen years ago) link

Agreed about "Corcovado" -- that's like the only EBTG track I own on CD (it's on Red Hot + Rio), and it's gone on a few mixes I've made.

jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:33 (nineteen years ago) link

omg jaymc you need more. it gets so much better than that

amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:34 (nineteen years ago) link

come to think of it, i can burn you some stuff

amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:35 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh I know I need more!

jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:36 (nineteen years ago) link

ebtg's "back to mine" is nice enough - nothing mindblowing. though it was the first time i heard ananda project's "cascades of colour", so it was good for something. pleasant to hear mary margaret o'hara in there too.

jon dale, Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:37 (nineteen years ago) link

actually in response to some comments above... some of the relationship lyrics stuff i find a little antiseptic, sort of like jackson browne in that she delineates these emotional states with admirable precision but it seems a bit for show.... my favorite songs by them are pretty stripped-down, lyrically, if not opaque.

amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:39 (nineteen years ago) link

extra comma in there

amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 24 October 2004 05:39 (nineteen years ago) link

one of the most boring groups of all time.

karl76 (karl76), Sunday, 24 October 2004 13:52 (nineteen years ago) link

five months pass...
one of the most boring comments of all time.

more please.

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 9 April 2005 15:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Andrew Eldritch called them the ugliest band of all time. Like he should talk.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 9 April 2005 15:34 (nineteen years ago) link

who is andrew eldritch?

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.

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 9 April 2005 15:50 (nineteen years ago) link

who is andrew eldritch?

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

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 9 April 2005 15:55 (nineteen years ago) link

Tracey has a lisp that I'd never noticed until I saw a video of theirs.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 9 April 2005 15:56 (nineteen years ago) link

three months pass...
Like the Deserts Miss the Rain is one of the more essential comps that I own.

gear (gear), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 07:54 (eighteen years ago) link

It's well put together. Instead of sticking all the singles on, or the hits, the "personal selection" nature of the comp allows them to recontextualize some tracks. So "Rollercoaster" on this album sounds much more bossa-novaesque, and then it logially flows into the updated sounds of "Corcovado."

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.

brittle-lemon (brittle-lemon), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 09:09 (eighteen years ago) link

ten months pass...
re. tracey thorn's "a distant shore"

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

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 16 June 2006 07:11 (seventeen years ago) link

"A Distant Shore" and the Cherry Red comp "Pillows & Prayers" soundtracked my first hike around Europe so will always hold a special place.

peter d (peter dee), Friday, 16 June 2006 12:51 (seventeen years ago) link

No love for Temperamental? The beats are rather stale, but the songwriting is about as strong as Walking Wounded's.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 16 June 2006 14:18 (seventeen years ago) link

I like the production on Temperamental! At least the faux deep house tracks. The two singles were stellar.

Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 16 June 2006 14:40 (seventeen years ago) link

has there yet been no discussion about ben watt's collaborative ep with robert wyatt? i haven't heard everything from it but i remember being impressed and mildly infatuated with the songs i did hear. the marine girls were an everso-slight disappointment. strangely, despite having sought out their solo work fairly diligently, i'm pretty sure i have yet to hear an entire everything but the girl song.

Adolescence Mokushiroku! (gendo ikari), Friday, 16 June 2006 15:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Tempermental's "No Difference" may be their best track ever. I love the album in general, although it probably lacked the killer single that would have convinced people to pay more attention to the album.

brittle-lemon (brittle-lemon), Friday, 16 June 2006 16:22 (seventeen years ago) link

i own and very much enjoy the compilation 'like the deserts miss the rain'.

gear (gear), Friday, 16 June 2006 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link

"Lullaby of Clubland" is so lovely it hurts.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 16 June 2006 16:48 (seventeen years ago) link

"Can you know the mighty ocean? Can you lasso a star from the sky? Can you say to a rainbow... 'Hey, stop being a rainbow for a second'? No! Such is Mango!"

timmy tannin (pompous), Friday, 16 June 2006 16:54 (seventeen years ago) link

seconding brittle's enthusiasm for no difference. it's so good.

Wookie Rookie (Wookie Rookie), Friday, 16 June 2006 17:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Is the new track that Thorn cut with Tiefschwarz a one-off, or is there more on the horizon? She sounds just as smooth as ever.

Erick H (Erick H), Friday, 16 June 2006 17:35 (seventeen years ago) link

She is apparently working on a solo album, with producers like Ewan Pearson, Charles Webster, and Cagedbaby.

brittle-lemon (brittle-lemon), Friday, 16 June 2006 17:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Anyone read Ben Watt's book about his illness, entitled Patient? A friend lent it to me and I quite enjoyed it.

Fryin' Berry, Buck Cherry (Bimble...), Friday, 16 June 2006 19:17 (seventeen years ago) link

i have occasionally wondered if watt plays-out tiefschwarz's damage?

dh (djh), Friday, 16 June 2006 20:37 (seventeen years ago) link

My fave EBTG is still their first album. I wasn't too impressed with Marine Girls or the Ben Watt solo album of the early 80's.

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.

Fryin' Berry, Buck Cherry (Bimble...), Saturday, 17 June 2006 02:36 (seventeen years ago) link

Easy As Sin is my favorite song, and I love the first two albums, which are the only ones I own. Why I never bought any more, I'll never know. Fantastic for late night romancing of a girl or a bottle of booze.

nicky lo-fi (nicky lo-fi), Saturday, 17 June 2006 04:44 (seventeen years ago) link

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

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...

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 17 June 2006 07:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Buzzin' Fly?

Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 17 June 2006 10:33 (seventeen years ago) link

“Mirrorball” ftw

calstars, Sunday, 30 April 2023 21:08 (eleven months ago) link

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

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

djh, Sunday, 7 May 2023 20:12 (eleven months ago) link

three months pass...

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

MaresNest, Tuesday, 29 August 2023 21:38 (seven months ago) link


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