All about this artist
Biography:
Tracey Thorn (born 26 September 1962, Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire, England) and Ben Watt (b. 6 December 1962, Barnes, London, England) first began performing together when they were students at Hull University, taking their unusual name from a slogan used by a local furniture shop.
Thorn was a member of the Marine Girls, and released the acoustic mini-album A Distant Shore, which was a strong seller in the UK independent charts during 1982. Watt released the critically acclaimed North Marine Drive the following year, by which time the duo had made their recording debut as Everything But The Girl with a gentle and simply produced version of Cole Porter's "Night And Day".
The duo subsequently left Cherry Red Records and signed to the major-distributed Blanco y Negro label. In 1984, they made the national Top 30 with "Each And Everyone", which preceded the superb Eden. This jazz-flavoured pop collection hallmarked the duo's understated compositional skills, displaying a great leap from the comparative naïveté of their previous offerings.
Subsequent albums revealed a much more gradual growth in songwriting, though many of their older fans contend they have never surpassed that debut. Their biggest single breakthrough, meanwhile, came when a cover version of Danny Whitten's "I Don't Want To Talk About It" reached UK number 3 in 1988.
The attendant Idlewild enjoyed critical and commercial success. The Language Of Life, a collection more firmly fixated with jazz stylings, found further critical acclaim; one track, "The Road", featured Stan Getz on saxophone.
However, a more pop-orientated follow-up, World-wide, was released to mediocre reviews in 1991. Watt's increasingly busy DJing schedule and Thorn's vocal contributions to trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack's 1994 opus, Protection, demonstrated their increasing interest in the UK's dance music scene.
This was reflected in the textures of Amplified Heart, which featured contributions from Danny Thompson, Dave Mattacks, Richard Thompson and arranger Harry Robinson.
The album was recorded following Watt's recovery from a life-threatening illness (chronicled in the quirky Patient: The History Of A Rare Illness). Todd Terry's remix of the track "Missing" provided their big breakthrough, becoming a huge club hit and reaching the UK and US Top 5 in 1995.
The duo's new approach was confirmed on Walking Wounded, their Virgin Records debut, which embellished their acoustic songs with drum 'n' bass and trip-hop rhythms to stunning effect. The title track and "Wrong" both reached the UK Top 10.
Watt's involvement in the club scene meant that Everything But The Girl's new album did not appear until 1999. Temperamental retained some of the low-key charm of Walking Wounded, although three years on the duo's work sounded less groundbreaking.
