Everything But The Girl Album Poll

i picked love not money. because it is my favorite everything but the girl album. plus, it's the only everything but the girl album that i know all the words to. which means there are REALLY scary singalong sessions at my house. unless you find the idea of a probably drunk 6 foot tall 220 pound dirtbag from the woods of connecticut singing along to everything but the girl alone and at the top of his lungs somehow endearing.

after that though: (cheating cuz i would pick thorn cherry red ep next) then eden and then baby the stars shine tonight and then idlewild and then the acoustic thing.

There ain't a damn thing here better than the first album. Never will be ever.

A lot of nice things to say about the new style on "Walking Wounded", but "Eden" is too great not to vote for. They never really managed to follow it up though, so a change in style may have been a wise move anyway.

I've never heard Eden! I guess I should.

It occurs to me Eden has a sortof Smiths-ish sound to it. I always had the U.S. version though where they swapped a few tracks with the UK version, which in hindsight is really irritating.

walking wounded or temperamental, innit?

It occurs to me Eden has a sortof Smiths-ish sound to it.

To me, it sounds much like early Aztec Camera, only with a slight jazz element added.

Eden, easily. There were so many good British jazz/pop records in 83/84 (Carmel, early Style Council, etc.) before 80s-style production and synths took over. I listened to Eden and Idlewild back-to-back not too long ago, and the later was painful in its production (except for the fantastic "Apron Strings" at the ened).

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.

I did like Walking Wounded when it came out, but just got bored of it quickly or something. It was indeed a nice new direction for them.

I mean, I say that, but what really happened was Walking Wounded was the first one I bought of them since Baby The Stars Shine Bright (not sure why it's mistitled in this poll). I heard someone rep for Amplified Heart some years ago, though. God I'd love to hear some of Baby The Stars Shine Bright again. "Don't Leave Me Behind"!!! WOW I forgot about this stuff. I need to hear "Kid" again, too. Shit I've got my work cut out for me.

Amplified Heart has sharp songs.

Oh! Also I ended up reading that Ben Watt book because some friend I had a couple years ago happened to lend it to me. I wasn't really jonesing to read it, but it was a very cool book, I was surprised.

What do you mean by sharp songs?

I am voting for Amplified Heart, though it and Walking Wounded are the only ones I know. I joined the bandwagon with "Missing" (and "Protection"). "25th December" is terrific; Richard Thompson's guitar puts chills up my spine. And "We Walk the Same Line" is excellent too.

Also I didn't mean to discount the jazzy nature of Eden when I said the album was "Smithsian". But I'm a sucker for early Style Council & Sade, so... Hell, I really wish there had been MORE of that kind of stuff going on back then.

amplified heart is close to perfect, from the songs and mood right down to each production element.

"Amplified Heart" is also up there. That is, for me "Eden" is in a league of its own, but the last three were all rather strong.

I have yet to hear #s 2 and 3 though. I would guess they might be good stuff when I love the debut.

There's one album kind of missing here, the self-titled U.S. release, with half the same songs as Eden and half different ones:
http://cover6.cduniverse.com/MuzeAudioArt/100/100702.jpg

I know damnit! Don't I know it! ARRRRGH I pulled it out on LP today but still haven't downloaded the damn Eden original UK LP yet. I used to have it on cassette but never could seem to warm to the tracks on that that were missing from the U.S. release. Also I think it's worth noting that I had this U.S. version on both cassette and LP. In fact, I think I've owned the LP twice now. Just incase anyone were handing out bonus points for stuff like that.

"I have yet to hear #s 2 and 3 though. I would guess they might be good stuff when I love the debut."

wait, you've never heard love not money?????? one of the greatest albums of the 80's, geir!

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

My copy of this came today ^^^.

My Rock'n'Roll Friend, her book on her friendship with Go-Betweens drummer Lindy Morrison, is also worth reading. Guardian review here.

I'm reading Tracey Thorn's autobiography and making my way through the records as I go. I've been a casual fun up until now, with no real sense of the depth of their discography. It's been a trip and I've finally hit my sweet spot around *Baby, the Stars Shine Bright* and *The Language of Life*, both of which I'd not heard before. Both gorgeous records and available for a pittance as well.

I don't know if there is a thread for this, or if it's just me, but I never simply *trust* my taste, or never trust it alone. Maybe that's revealing too much, or, simultaneously overthinking it. Anyway, a bit of context does wonders for me; anchoring the listening in place and time seems to open up the music for me. What a band.

I don't know if that was very well explained. There are people (plenty here, for instance) who seem to know their taste so *well* and don't second-guess it, or doubt it. I admire that kind of certainty, if admire is the right word. Envy, perhaps. I'm sure people will think I'm dubious for even bringing it up.

(a) I appreciate this assumes the existence of taste as an aesthetic marker. But it seems such a given that it might as well be. b) I don't know if any of that needs to be existential but taste is one of those things, for better or worse, that seems so defining of self that see a).)

That all makes perfect sense to me.

There’s maybe two things we’re trying to capture when we talk about our taste in music, the first being what we perceive in the music and then the second being how we value it. And the two are interrelated: the more you value certain aspects of music the more readily and easily you will perceive music adopting a framework that pushes those aspects (or their lack) to the fore.

Context - things like an autobiography, or a great interview or great critical writing - can act to change both, most commonly by encouraging us to attach greater value to different things going on in the music, and occasionally by allowing us even to perceive qualities, dynamics or relationships that wouldn’t have occurred to us otherwise.

If you were to ask me “what is great music writing?” and only allow a one line answer, I would say “writing that does that persuasively and well.”

Conversely I get very sceptical of people whose assessments of music seem too pat in their certainty - to the point where even a positive assessment can end up seeming dismissive: “X has *this* value” can quickly elide into “X has (only) this value (and no other).”

Thanks for those thoughts Tim F. A lot of this was triggered by something you'd written on the 2022 tracks rollout, which articulated a bunch of stuff I've been thinking about, far better than I could. Excuse the navel gazing!

I finished the book. Thanks for the recommendation, Alfred. She's such great company and it's unlocked a whole bunch of the records for me. Jeez, this band.

Nothing Left To Lose (Four Tet Remix)

oh that's well and good, yes. quite fine. good show, kieran.

the bigger announcement today is that the extended club is back for more. oh, how i love a classic 12" mix!

https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/everything-but-the-girl-fuse/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpc2Lf9sFRQ

album's gonna be great

so good, love the repeated words at the end of each verse

omigod my favorite song yet

Predictably the album is great. They nailed it.

i'm not blown away but it's very good

waiting to listen to the latest jam until i can hear the whole album in the morning.

amplified heart and idlewild didn't blow me away initially, so that sounds about right ufo☺

first listen and i'm immediately reminded of the slowdive comeback lp in the sense that it has shades of everything i love about them, but isn't strictly reminiscent of any of their old material. redundancy: and yet, it is still undeniably them. and a lot like that slowdive, this album feels like a loving gift to people like me; a sort of "hey, thanks for sticking around."

(that said, some of this material is absolutely brutal, jfc)

agree with the anti-wow factor / not being "BLOWN AWAY" — quite comforting, in fact. right now, my highlights would be one of the singles (probably "caution to the wind" and "nothing left to lose"), but that may be because of familiarity bias. i certainly didn't expect it to be as morose as it is (and don't worry, i'm not using that word as a negative critique). they certainly came through and captured the climate of contemporary culture, once again synthesizing era-specific customs into contemporary sounds. comforting that they're just as good as ever.

also the track sequence is really good.

some of the slower burning tracks on this shook me to my core - "when you mess up," "karaoke"

yeah, in that respect "lost" can sorta fuck off.

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

so good, love the repeated words at the end of each verse

― fleeting art that floats! (geoffreyess)

the only way you can get away with "fiat cinquecento" is to repeat it over and over again imo.

it's a delicious thing to sing

being tracy thorn also helps

ngl i'm addicted to this song

i love the synth chords at the end of the chorus

fiat cinquecento
fiat cinquecento
his fiat cinquecento
fiat cinquecento
fiat cinquecento
fiat cinquecento
fiat cinquecento
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fiat cinquecento
fiat cinquecento
fiat cinquecento
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fiat cinquecento
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fiat cinquecento
fiat cinquecento
fiat cinquecento
his fiat cinquecento

need an Inhuman League-style remix

Tim’s Listening Party happening now with many Ben/Tracey tweets.

okay, I'm pretty fusin' blown away

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

when they hit, they hit hard and become an integral part of life. so much depth.

can't really begin to answer the question in the poll. temperamental was my initial fav but idlewild and amplified heart both snuck up on me.

hadn't heard one of their albums before this year, but i'm impressed with how natural of a next step 'fuse' feels despite the big gap.

I've had pretty much the same experience as voodoo chili: barely listened to them, verging on ignorantly avoiding them, and now am astonished by the variety and emotional depth. At the moment, I love the mid-period from *Baby, the Stars Shine Bright* to *The Language of Life*. Been too busy to listen to the new one.

https://forumrecords.bandcamp.com/music - two live EBtG collections, no source/provenance given. The 13-track Walking Wounded set is more varied, catalog-wise. Name Your Price is a bonus.

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)