Today sees a lot of people return back to work after the festive break. I'm lucky enough to have one more day of lounging around - although in my defence I should point out that my break was interrupted by the need to pay an emergency visit to my office as the ceiling had collapsed in following flooding from the upstairs properties.I thought I'd do my bit to put everyone in a relaxed and chilled mood (no bad weather pun intended) with one of the bits of vinyl I picked up in recent weeks, namely the 1982 debut single from Everything But The Girl.
mp3 : Everything But The Girl - Night And Day
mp3 : Everything But The Girl - Feeling Dizzy
mp3 : Everything But The Girl - On My Mind
Those of you who only know the duo from the mid 90s dance-orientated output might be surprised with the sounds coming out of the speakers from your download. Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt began life as an acoustic duo with a jazz bent, making sounds that were very much an influence on Paul Weller and his then new band The Style Council (indeed acknowledgement was given to Thorn and Watt with their guest appearance on Cafe Bleu, the TSC debut LP released in 1984).
Night And Day is a cover of an old Cole Porter song, but the two tracks on the b-side are originals, with Feeling Dizzy being a Ben Watt composition, while On My Mind flowed from the pen of Tracey Thorn.
This debut effort failed to trouble the charts, either on its initial release in June 1982 or the subsequent re-release some 15 months later. But follow-up single Each And Every One did hit the Top 30 in late 1984, although not many more of the acoustic- style singles cracked the charts over the next decade.
Happy Listening.
PS
Just a late addition......a track I, ahem, borrowed from the wonderfully generous Nolan Micron at Castles In Space. It's a fabulous cover version that continues the Weller connection:-
mp3 : Everything But The Girl - English Rose
Lovely stuff I'm sure you'll agree.
6 comments:
they proved that the early stuff is always the best. Sadly EBTG just disappeared up a pseudo acoustic arsehole for much of the rest of the decade. Give me Ben Watt and 'Some things don't matter' or a bit of Marine Girls and I'll be happy. This was a superb EBTG release though, I still cherish my copy bought at some Glasgow record fair many years ago.
Sliding into 2010 in some comfy slippers. Nice.
I agree that this Tracey thorn's first solo album and Ben Watt's album are the best done by the duo (although I have a soft spot for Baby the Stars Shine Bright)
I used to put on the first EBTG album to convince college girls I was 'sensitive'. It worked, sometimes. Their version of 'English Rose' is beautiful.
If you are an EBTG fan and were lucky to see them perform all the way through the late 90's English Rose was a staple of their concerts and a crowd favorite. BTW they also liked to throw in a Smiths cover every once and a while. English Rose with Tracey singing is so very uplifting. Can't wait for her latest effort as it is supposed to be more acoustic in nature.
Tracey Thorns solo lp this year got the mix right between their later dancey stuff and the earlier mellow stuff
looks like I'm in the minority in that i like pretty much everything they've done
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