Friday 21 April 2023

EBTG is back after 34Y!

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Fuse (Buzzin’ Fly/Virgin) just came OUT! Cannot imagine how difficult have been spending on a musical hiatus all of this years. Married couple formed by Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt shut up as Everything But the Girl (EBTG) and three children later they 

Although many of their musical heirs have often combined shuffly beats and plaintive vocals to numbingly polite effect, there remains something intriguingly individual about EBTG’s sleek, ache-filled offering. On lead single Nothing Left to Lose, Thorn’s voice is instantly recognisable, as though no time had passed, while Watt’s production puts the duo’s downtempo beat appeal front and centre. With a promo single released last winter: Nothing Left To Lose

The couple in the 90s

Furthermore, Thorn’s voice turns more lived-in and husky which, coupled with unexpected incursions of pitch-shift and Auto-Tune, suggest a pugnacious desire not to remain preserved in amber. Standouts such as Run a Red Light and No One Knows We’re Dancing provide clubland demimonde vignettes, while a number of expansive, impressionistic sound-beds allow for more matter-of-fact lyrics about loss (Lost) and cutting oneself some slack (When You Mess Up). Less memorable are the songs – like Caution to the Wind - where the two coast pellucidly along. No One Knows We're Dancing is a ballad, produced directly with an eye on stadium-chant in mind


Among all the list my personal podium is topped bywell-written, evocative lyrs Lost, followed by warm female lead voice chorus part driven by syncopated pads-in Time And Time Again