Everything but the Girl Album: “Everything But the Girl”

This was the album that started it all for me. I had read about EBTG in a magazine and I knew I had to get my hands on their album. When I finally got the cassette of this, it never left my player. I took it everywhere. This was the kind of music I wanted to hear all the time. since then I've explored Style Council's many albums, early albums from Ben Watt and everything from Brazilian Bossa Nova to Lounge music looking for the feeling that this album gave me some 20 years ago. Most people know EBTG from Driving or the big dance hit Missing, but if you haven't heard this album you don't know what ETBG is. Enjoy.

The first time I heard this record, I was immediately impressed by the style (smokey jazz) and the songs. Although the lyrics can get a bit depressing at times, each song evokes a mood and strikes an emotional chord. The marriage of words and music on this record is near-perfect. Ironic (to me at least), since most of the material deals with relationships that have gone stale or awry.

Tender Blue is a gut-wrenching song, and I can always picture the couple involved in this loveless marriage, with a child neither one wanted. Crabwalk is a nice little jazz combo piece, that, had I had the songbook years before, would have become a staple w/ my jazz combo days in college.

For me, this is the ETBG that I'll always remember and cherish. I had purchased others, including Walking Wounded, but, I guess I'm too old fashioned. I do, however, applaud them for continually moving forward and for finding new sounds.

I thought I'd rectify the 4 1/2 star situation with a 5 star rating. I also own "Walking Wounded" and "Language of Life" and find this one to be the best of the three.

I've read that this album was the blueprint for Paul Weller's band the Style Council. Well, EBTG circa 1984 was certainly on to something. This record is packed solid with great, soulful tunes and deserves recognition as a great contribution to the genre of "lounge."

While I enjoy all of the five EBTG disks I own, this less known release is easily Ben & Tacy's best work. It shows great variety and emotion and is SUPERB technically. Great dynamics and imaging if your audio setup is capable. Still kicking myself for not getting tickets to their one show in Manhattan during the summer of 1996.

On Everything But the Girl's 1984 self-titled debut, the British duo of Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn offers up a seemingly light, breezy set of jazz-inflected pop tunes that makes no qualms about evoking the bossa nova boom of the '60s. What makes these songs stand out from other acts in the lounge set, however, are Thorn's nuanced vocals and Watt's literate, melancholy lyrics and smart, subtle arrangements. The lilting single "Each and Every One" proved to be a hit in EBTG's native U.K. (where this album was released, with a somewhat different track list, as EDEN), while other tracks, including the dreamy, droning "Frost and Fire" and the slightly New Wave-ish "Never Could Have Been Worse," opted for mood over melody. Although Watt and Thorn would have to wait until the mid-'90s for their U.S. breakthrough (the surging dance remix of "Missing"), this record firmly establishes the core of the EBTG sound, allowing for the fascinating stylistic experimentation on subsequent releases.