Everything But The Girl - New Album 2023

Admittedly When You Mess Up wouldn't have been top of my list for an alternative versions EP but this is wonderful:

 

Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn to play live together next month​

Ben and Tracey will play two shows at London’s 200-capacity MOTH club in Hackney next month on Sunday April 6 and Monday April 7.

They will perform as a part-acoustic part-electronic duo accompanied by Rex Horan on double bass, drawing on songs from their 40-year careers as both solo artists and a duo. The events are billed simply as Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn. The venue will be mostly seated with some additional standing. Seats allocated on a first come first served basis.

“We loved making Fuse together in 2022, and we wanted to do something else,” says Ben. “And that slowly turned into a conversation about playing live again.”

“When we pictured how, we realised we didn’t want to play the club bangers or fill a huge arena,” continues Tracey. “We just wanted to play a few songs - some we’d never done before - in a small club. Front room, friends and family vibe. If it goes well we hope to do more."
It must have been decades since they last performed live - I'm not sure Tracey even did anything for her solo material in between the last two EBTG albums, so quite big news!

Seems like they're open to doing a larger-scale tour as well...
 
Good news. Tracey has freely admitted that stage fright and anxiety have stopped her performing live so I reckon this set up is a way she’s found that she feels relatively comfortable with to trick the mind into breaking herself back in.
 
OMG. That's 3 days before I land in London as well. What a bastard. But hopefully some content/footage will come out of it...
 
It's a really strong compilation. They've done two already - one a quick label cash in with the hitz in the 90s, one a very well put together collection with a mix of classics and fan fave deep cuts in the early 00s. This kind of does both, but they could have made it a double album in that sense. I wonder if they'll do a double deluxe version. Surprised for instance to not see "Mirrorball" or "Mine", and while I applaud the inclusion of "No Difference" (also on the last comp and part of their recent live set, clearly a fave) it's the only track from Temperamental :(

Personally, I would have liked to see "I Didn't Know I Was Looking For Love" and "Five Fathoms" or "Temperamental", but other than that they've included pretty much all my faves. So I can't really complain!
 
It’s a strong tracklist for sure but yeah, if they’re keeping it to 16 songs there’s plenty of room to think of other stuff that should have been on instead of others. Surprised Wrong isn’t there as it was one of their bigger moments but I guess Missing is ticking that box.

I guess a compilation is a bit refundant these days anyway, you can make your own perfect one.
 
Also "Run A Red Light" came on my Spotify again the other day and I was reminded what a monumental song it is. The highlight from an exceptional album.

 
It’s a strong tracklist for sure but yeah, if they’re keeping it to 16 songs there’s plenty of room to think of other stuff that should have been on instead of others. Surprised Wrong isn’t there as it was one of their bigger moments but I guess Missing is ticking that box.

Well moreso I think "Tracey In My Room" is ticking that box given it's basically the Wrong remix! But I much prefer the TIMR version - I have unbelievably special memories of that being out during the deep house boom when I first moved to London and hearing it at Lazy Dog club nights, and is one of my favourite songs of all time. So I'm happy. It also made Ben a lot of money in his DJing days and gave them their last Top 40 single, so I think they they have a love for it also.
 
^ oh yeah of course, I was thinking more of Missing being the bigger of the two Todd Terry remixed big hits.
 
Amazing news. Still holding out hope that R TRACE doesn't go down a Roisin route. I suspect she's too smart for that.
 

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