Everything but the bossa.

Everything but the girl, is a band which most people remember for their mid nineties track “missing “ but the band started out very differently indeed. The band Tracy Thorn (vocals) and Ben Watt (music) met at Hull University in the early eighties and both were in groups signed to the independent label Cherry Red, Thorn especially was in the quite well known group “Marine Girls”. In 1984 Everything But The Girl which had formed two years earlier released their first record “Eden” on Blanco Y Negro records. Eden must be one of the strangest most touching records of the eighties, an often acoustic record with a strong bossa nova feel, it goes very much against the fashion for synthesizers prominent in the early eighties. Thorn sings finely structured bossa tracks with a very distinctive voice and strong English accent, which makes one feel almost that Britain not Brazil is in fact the spiritual home of bossa. The songs which are never over produced, talk of life and love in normal working class households of the time and the lyrics are a match for even the greatest eighties lyricist Lloyd Cole. On the whole due to its delicate nature and underproduction, “Eden” is still as fresh as the day it was made and cannot be be easily placed in time, like many of its other contemporaries. For your enjoyment here are two tracks “Each And Every One” the first track on the album which was a number 28 hit for the band and “Another Bridge” an beautiful heartfelt tune about realizing somebody was wrong for you.

Enjoy!
O.S.