Everything But the Girl

Over the course of their two-decades-long career, U.K. duo Everything but the Girl has evolved from stylized, loungey pop to dance-driven futurist pop. By the time of EBTG's self-titled American debut, Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt had already begun moving away from the cafe pop that had aligned their U.K. debut, Eden (which came out earlier the same year), with mannered faux-jazz Brits such as the Style Council. Everything but the Girl retreads six of Eden's 12 tracks, and those songs -- including "Each and Every One," with its bossa-nova beat and muted trumpet, and "Frost and Fire," with its bongos and organ stabs -- define the record's blue, lovelorn mood. But the six tracks not drawn from Eden, presumably newer material, lean more toward the literate Northern soul/Brit-pop of contemporaries such as the Smiths and Lloyd Cole, all full of guitar jangle and strum, and less concerned with romance than with issues of feminism and racism. Its followup, Love Not Money, continues in this direction, with intricate, melodic guitar lines and punchy beats ("Any Town," "Ballad of the Times") taking precedence over the jazz noir ("This Love [Not for Sale]") and Phil Spector beats ("Heaven Help Me").

Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, with its lush string and choir orchestrations, is a wrong turn that nevertheless offers some worthwhile sights. Arrangements for "Come On Home," "Careless," and "Come Hell or High Water," in particular, are so billowy and grand, they revisit a lost era of easy listening that's quaint and evocative in a way that the group's later excursions toward Muzak would not be. Idlewild marks the duo's transition into an unfortunate -- though probably inevitable -- middle period. As if Baby never happened, the album alternates Love Not Money's soulful British pop ("Those Early Days," "The Night I Heard Caruso Sing") with the overly slick R&B lite ("Love Is Here Where I Live," "Tears All Over Town") that would populate subsequent records.

The Language of Life serves as EBTG's career low point, not only because its smooth-jazz veneer strips away the group's more classic jazz and soul touches, but also because it's quite often a downer. Along with other odes to discontentment and failure, "Me and Bobby D" takes Dylan and Kerouac to task for being male-chauvinist weaklings. Is nothing sacred?

Worldwide is almost as slick, but the lite jazz gives way to a far more digestible soul/pop sound, as well as a brighter mood. Tracks like "Understanding," with its backing track closely resembling Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing," or "You Lift Me Up," a slow jam with gospel shadings, bring EBTG about as close as they'd get to commercial R&B. With its title less a reference to internationalism than to the actual act of traveling, Worldwide stands as Watt and Thorn's testament to being a band on the road.

No doubt, anyone who believed the twosome's pursuit of studio polish needed tempering welcomed Acoustic, EBTG's 180-degree turnaround. The mix of well-chosen covers (Elvis Costello's "Alison," Tom Waits' "Downtown Train") with originals ("Me and Bobby D," "Driving") featured stripped-down and imaginatively reconfigured arrangements -- quite a novelty in the years before MTV Unplugged. Acoustic also served to revive the duo's faith in acoustic instruments. Not that they were prepared to abandon studio gloss entirely -- the followup, Amplified Heart, in fact, pushes the group further toward dance and commercial pop than it had ever gone to that point, earning a Top 10 hit with the house-influenced "Missing." But by incorporating organic elements, EBTG's music regains a sense of weight and balance.

With the group emboldened by the success of "Missing" and by Thorn's appearance on trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack's "Protection" single, Walking Wounded sees EBTG fully embracing modern electronica. Pairing the cool-blue croon of early records with intricately cut beats -- the skittering drum and bass of "Before Today," the house throb of "Wrong," the scratching of "Flipside" -- the duo found a wonderful new niche for itself at the forefront of pop currents. A late-career highpoint. With somewhat less success, Temperamental continues the path of Walking Wounded, exploring various beats and textures while pairing them with soul/pop melodies.

After releasing three anthologies available only on import, the group finally put out a domestic best-of set. Anyone looking to the 20-track Like the Deserts Miss the Rain for a definitive hits collection, however, will be disappointed. Instead, Watt and Thorn culled together their personal favorites, mixing most of their best-known material with an appealing selection of album tracks, side projects, rarities, and remixes. (RONI SARIG)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide