EBTG Unplugged.

Everything But the Girl: Acoustic 

This is one of the most pleasant albums to listen to from start to finish. The tracks are all live performances and one can hear audible applause at various points. Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn prove two things here: their merit as performers, their talent as songwriters.


The covers are all lovely and more importantly imprinted as Everything but the Girl songs. The Idol franchise always hammered in the concept of making the songs your own, but here EBTG. Of the five covers of this album, one stands out for me in particular. Time after Time, one of the most relentlessly covered pop standards of all time, is simply magical here. Ben and Tracy sound amazing together and it shows that they've been singing together for most of their lives. Come on Home sways with warmth and sensuality.

The stripped down version of  Driving is the only one I listen to anymore, it's that perfect. Apron Strings also benefits from being simplified. The acoustic version is more crystalline and the addition of a harmony renders the song magical. Fascination gets the most applause before silencing its audience with Tracey's intimate vocals. It is an incredible closer for an album that displays such emotional range for a quiet acoustic album.

There's just something about the acoustic set. Video sharing sites are full of them. Established stars and emerging artists alike use them to showcase their talents. They offer recording artists a chance to prove their mettle away from the cocoon of the studio. With this 1992 release, Everything but the Girl showed off their considerable skills and left us with something truly special.

"Is That What You Wanted to See?"

Everything 

But the Girl:

Amplified Heart 

This album is known for one thing more than anything else and I'll get to that thing in good time but I have to start this review with a pet peeve of mine. It annoys me to no end when recording artists put out records that amount to singles and filler. It's insulting when I put more thought into my bedtime playlist than a singer or band's team puts into their album. While I understand that this sort of thing is generally a result of the creativity vs. business cage-match,  it still sucks.

Which brings me to Amplified Heart. Everything but the Girl are every inch the album artist. Their records are truly coherent bodies of work that hold together nicely.  A mostly acoustic album, Amplified Heart features some of the best songwriting I've ever come across in my life. It is, of course, the album which yielded the duo's biggest hit. But that signature song is often remembered in isolation from the LP it was born into. I find that there is much more to it when considered alongside its siblings.

Rollercoaster opens the album with a languid and very British take on bossa-nova. The 'other' single from Amplified Heart, it's one of my favourite songs from EBTG. It sets the tone for the rest of the album with its combination of wistfulness and  longing. Troubled Mind is a jaunty mid-tempo ballad with some jazz guitar popping in towards the end. It speaks about the inscrutability of other people. This desire to get inside the head of another and the anguish at not being able to recurs throughout Amplified Heart.

I Don't Understand Anything  carries us into EBTG's trademark melancholy. Much slower and more deliberate than the previous two tracks, the song delivers a great deal of pathos. Walking to You  is a duet with Ben and Tracy singing either side of a bittersweet reunion between two exes. Get Me wonders aloud about ever being understood, its mercurial lyrics going nicely with a brooding cello.

Missing is the song that EBTG are known for. In terms of commercial success, it eclipses everything else that they have done. One can speculate why "Missing" blew up the way it did, or why it was this song and not, say, "Driving". But I, personally, am not qualified to know what made it happen. I will say that it's the acoustic, album version of the track that I fell in love with and listened to endlessly through high school. The complicated guitar riffs, the dramatic strings and the ever so slight bounce of the bass guitar all adding up to a plaintive account of loss and longing. "Missing" fits perfectly at the centre of Amplified Heart.

Two Star gives us one of the more complex entries on this record. It narrates someone who can't resist commenting on another person's relationship. It's a wince-inducing character-study brimming with resentment and bitterness. We Walk the Same Line is a more rootsy song about adversity and difficulty. It takes the perspective of one person reassuring another that they are not alone in going through tough times. The lyrics are especially resonant for me given some  of the things I've been through since the first time I listened to this song. 25th of December sees Ben Watt takes lead vocals on a simply arranged number with a haunting refrain.  Disenchanted is a quietly low-key closer which seems to sum up the experience of Amplified Heart. Tracy Thorn's intimate vocals deliver contemplative lyrics in the second person. A saxophone takes on the role of a duet partner adding a level of sophistication and wistfulness to the track.

Amplified Heart to me represents Everything but the Girl at their apex. Obviously the Todd Terry Remix of "Missing" took over the world for a year and a half but the real triumph in my view, is the creative accomplishment represented by Amplified Heart. It is no less than one of the most beautiful  albums I have ever listened to. Pop music that is truly mature is hard to come by. These songs touched me deeply when I was young and they still work for me to this day. 

"Some days I think I could go insane..."

Everything But

The Girl:

Walking Wounded

If one record defines my adolescence, it's this one. Walking Wounded is one of my essential albums and literally chronicles my life in the mid-90's. Released a the year after their hit Missing took over the world, Walking Wounded signalled a shift in the duo's sound from the mostly acoustic Amplified Heart to a more electronic sensibility.  What did not change was their affinity for intelligent, perceptive pop music with depth.

I was sixteen when I listened to this album and it was a big part of the playlist for my young adulthood. It was my first experience of strongly identifying with a collection of songs. Connecting to this LP, I finally understood what people older than me meant when they talked about an album defining a period of time in their lives.

Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn cover a wide range with Walking wounded. The title track was the first single off the album and a brave choice at the time. Liquid drum'n bass propels a haunting refrain by Tracey's plaintive voice. This song was my introduction to the concept of left-field pop music and the possibilities thereof. The album closes with a fresh, crystalline remix by experimental musician Omni Trio.

"Wrong", the second single, is a classic house track lamenting one's own mistakes and begging for absolution. When you hurt someone badly enough, you're connected to them forever. Todd Terry is brought back to remix this giving it a fuller sound and a similar beat to his immortal rework of "Missing". Notably, this is the only song on the album where Ben Watt contributes any vocals.

"Single" puts the 'down' in down-tempo. Quite possibly one of my most consistently favoured songs throughout my life, I may very well keep listening to it forever. The percussion sounds like an off-kilter heartbeat. A morose saxophone sample pops in and out just to remind us that this is, indeed, meant to be as gloomy as it sounds. The organ and strings set the standard for 'atmospheric' as far as I'm concerned. "Good Cop/Bad Cop" is my personal anthem; so much so, that I hesitate to review it. Suffice it to say that it's really, really good. A nice mid-tempo track reeling with angst and despair, it's the song I most identify with n the world. As with "Single", the strings are a strong element, this time emotive rather than oneric.


"Before Today" gives us some more drum and bass. But  instead of the drama and angst of "Walking Wounded", we get a cheeky ultimatum to an uncooperative lover. While not exactly happy, it offers a more cheerful interruption to the more depressive entries on the album. "Big Deal" is an unforgiving break-beat driven song chastising someone for wallowing in their problems. Tracey Thorn's delicately intimate vocals take on a bit of a sting here and one can't help but feel a little defensive."Flipside" gives us a drowsy bit of hip-hop with daydreamy lyrics.

"Mirrorball" is a nicely layered narrative song that reads like the diary of a crazy person. The acoustic guitar and Rhodes piano ground the electronic elements of the song. "Heart Remains a Child" has a similar vibe to "Mirrorball" but treads more relationship-y ground. It's a song whose point of view has lost all dignity to infatuation.

Revisiting this album is always a treat for me. While it's true that Everything but the Girl tend to make melancholy music, I find their sad songs comforting.  While most of the world might know them through the Todd Terry Remix of "Missing", I highly recommend looking at its immediate aftermath. Walking Wounded is a great snapshot of what was great about left-of-centre pop in the 90s.