615. Everything But The Girl - Idlewild (1988)
















Track Listing

1. I Don't Want to Talk About It
2. Love Is Here Where I Live
3. These Early Days
4. I Always Was Your Girl
5. Oxford Street
6. Night I Heard Caruso Sing
7. Goodbye Sunday
8. Shadow on a Harvest Moon
9. Blue Moon Rose
10. Tears All over Town
11. Lonesome for a Place I Know
12. Apron Strings


Review

This album, earlyish in EBTG's career, before they discovered electronica, is a good piece of easy listening soft-pop, soft-jazz stuff... meaning it's not that good. Still, they manage to raise their heads above the crappy medium they are making music in on a couple of songs.

It is never exciting music, but it can seem very nice at times, even if it feels like a late 80's dinner party record, the Dido of its time, which is not necessarily good. That said Tracey Thorn has a great voice, which has been put to better use earlier in Style Council's Cafe Bleu's Paris Match or later in Massive Attack's Protection.

So the album is worth listening to for a couple of pretty well written tracks, but mostly due to Tracey Thorn's voice. It is good to see that the Lord in his infinite wisdom may let a woman hit all the branches on the ugly tree before she hits the earth, but then gives her a great voice. Also a warning for all you adult chat lines addicts.

Track Highlights

1. I Don't Want To Talk About It
2. These Early Days
3. Apron Strings
4. The Night I Heard Caruso Sing

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

They formed a duo and took their unusual name "Everything but the Girl" from the slogan of well-known Hull shop, 'Turners' Furniture', on Beverley Road (left). Earlier, this was a line from the 1937 film "Daughter of Shanghai", in reference to a bungled murder and theft of evidence: 'Did you get it?' 'Everything.' 'Everything but the girl!'

I Don't Want To Talk About It: