Having released 2CD deluxe casebound issues of their first seven albums over recent years, Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn, aka Everything But The Girl, finish the job with their final two albums, Walking Wounded and Temperamental.
Originally released in May 1996, Walking Wounded was something of a watershed album for the duo, on which they fully embraced the dance sound that could hardly be further from the acoustic jazziness of their first album Eden, which came some 12 years earlier. However, far from being a calculated move to boost their popularity, the change in sound was a gradual and organic process, that began the previous year with Tracey’s highly successful appearance on Massive Attack’s ‘Protection’, on which the Bristol band rightly suspected that her ‘desolate’ vocals would perfectly suit their wonderfully weathered electronic sound. They were right.
The real ‘dance revelation’ though came with Todd Terry’s remix of Everything But The Girl’s ‘Missing’ single, which became a massive worldwide hit a few months later, having undeservedly stalled at No.69 when released in its original incarnation. So against this backdrop of events, it is perhaps not as surprising that the band produced a full-on electronic dance album like Walking Wounded. Anyone hearing the album for the first time would possibly be astonished to discover that the band were not always this way, so natural is the sound.
Beginning with a trio of hits, Walking Wounded is by far the most immediate of the two reissued albums. ‘Before Today’ sets the mood with its drum and bass stylings, giving way to Top 10 hit ‘Wrong’, which also appears here in three remixed versions and a live version, the Todd Terry mix again being a hugely successful collaboration. ‘Single’, another subtly chart-friendly track, makes up this opening salvo.
The real highlight though remains the title track; the lead single and the first EBTG single since the ubiquitous ‘Missing’, it no doubt found itself under pressure to perform in the charts and I am sure it would have been a relief to the duo when it flew at No.6 just ahead of its parent album’s release. The song is perfection, with minimal but dramatic synth lines combining perfectly with the drum and bass beat and Tracey’s wonderful vocals, which further demonstrate her extraordinarily versatile style. ‘Walking Wounded’ is represented here with additional remixes from Omni Trio and Dave Wallace; both are good but neither approaches the majesty of the original.
Elsewhere on the album, ‘Mirrorball’ was, according to the sleeve notes, the first song written for the album before the electronic epiphany occured, and it was going to follow the ‘folk-breakbeat’ sound of previous album Amplified Heart. Along with ‘The Heart Remains A Child’, (which appears earlier on the album), it is one of two songs that could feasibly be ‘old EBTG’, with Ben’s sparkling acoustic guitar the main focus of both.
Live versions of hits ‘Before Today’, ‘Single’ and ‘Wrong’, recorded in an adoring Tokyo, (I seem to remember from Tracey’s excellent Bedsit Disco Queen memoir that she and Ben used to be routinely mobbed in Japan!), appear at the end of Disc 1, plus a rarity in the band’s last ever (until now at least) recording, ‘Corcovado’, which featured on an AIDS benefit album and came out as a stand-alone single in 2002.
Disc 2 features a clutch of remixes of the hits, of which the Nellee Hooper remix of ‘Before Today’ will no doubt be of most interest to fans, as it is previously unreleased, and also the pick of the bunch for quality. Completists will also be interested in the four unreleased demos, of which two are actually songs which have never seen the light of day in any version: ‘Above The Law’, which would have fitted on the album proper seamlessly even in its demo form, and moody instrumental ‘Speeding Car Side On’.
[Rating:4.5]
1999’s Temperamental, was, according to Ben’s sleeve notes, a sequel of sorts to its predecessor, with the success of Walking Wounded implanting the duo firmly into the electronic scene and a (partly) new audience to match. Ben also launched the Deep House club night Lazy Dog (along with Jay Hannan) and a few years later he launched the Buzzin’ Fly independent record label, concentrating mainly on electronic music.
Temperamental is a much denser listen than Walking Wounded, but is a natural step forward. What it lacked in chart-friendly singles, it made up by revealing itself as a really inspired record with each further listen. It didn’t match the chart success of its older brother, sticking around in the album charts for 4 weeks compared to 32 weeks, but it has aged gracefully and the reissue will give it chance for a re-evaluation.
‘Five Fathoms’ was the lead single and also the first track on the album, and is certainly not an obvious choice of single, albeit a brave one which did represent the album well, with its subtle texture and construction. When the album originally appeared, ‘Hatfield 1980’ was perhaps the track that was mentioned most, a melancholy and affecting take on Tracey’s childhood hometown, if I am reading it correctly.
It was a bonus to find ‘The Future Of The Future (Stay Gold)’ on the album, as it was a collaboration with Deep Dish which had been issued as a single before Temperamental. It is another mighty collaboration and the 7 mins 35 seconds version here is actually an edit, the version on the Deep Dish album passing the 10 minute mark!
Disc 1’s bonus tracks include ‘Five Fathoms’ B-side ‘Firewall’ plus an ‘unfinished album out-take’ in ‘Come In’ – it is a really interesting track that doesn’t sound unfinished at all and would have at least made a decent B-side. A live version of the title track (which was also a single) rounds off the first half of proceedings.
Disc 2 is made up entirely of remixes that appeared on the album’s singles, so isn’t as interesting to completists as the Walking Wounded bonus disc, but is still a nice round-up of the very listenable mixes. A whopping Wamdue Project remix of Temperamental which clocks in just five seconds shy of a quarter of an hour is a surprisingly accessible listen.
No-one except Ben and Tracey know whether Everything But The Girl will ever release anything else, and indeed both have had successful solo releases since these two albums, (and before EBTG too!), but these two lovingly put together sets will at least fill the EBTG-shaped hole for now.
[Rating:4]
