No One Gets Off Without Paying The Ride

A very happy birthday to Tracey Thorn, born 26th September 1962.

It's impossible to describe how much Tracey's voice, words and music have had over the years. Her body of work with husband Ben Watt as Everything But The Girl is immense and, as this year's Fuse album proved, unsullied by time.

Tracey's five solo albums are little treasures in their own right, each one offering something new and unique to that release, from 1982's A Distant Shore to 2018's Record.

Tracey's also been a superlative collaborator and interpreter of others' songs. This selection includes both, from John Grant and Massive Attack to covers of Pet Shop Boys, The Marvelettes and Kate Bush, the last seemingly untouchable and yet Tracey completely inhabits the song.

I'd been thinking about this post and had started pulling together a potential selection. On Sunday, Swiss Adam posted a frankly brilliant 40-minute mix of Tracey Thorn songs at Bagging Area that included quite a few overlaps with mine. Necessity being the mother of invention and all that, I started again from scratch and came up with a 30-minute selection that I hope acts as a decent companion piece to Adam's and taken together shines a light on Tracey's magnificence. 

And I haven't even mentioned Tracey's books. Buy them, read them, love them.

 

1) By Piccadilly Station I Sat Down And Wept: Tracey Thorn (2007)

2) King's Cross (Hot Chip Remix) (Cover of Pet Shop Boys): Tracey Thorn (2007)

3) Disappointing: John Grant ft. Tracey Thorn (2015)

4) Oh, The Divorces!: Tracey Thorn (2010)

5) The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game (Cover of The Marvelettes): Massive Attack ft. Tracey Thorn (1995)

6) Run A Red Light (Album Version): Everything But The Girl (2023)

7) Under The Ivy (Cover of Kate Bush): Tracey Thorn (2014)

8) Guitar (Album Version): Tracey Thorn (2018)

1995: Batman Forever OST: 5

2007: King's Cross EP: 2

2007: Out Of The Woods: 1

2010: Love And Its Opposite: 4

2015: Grey Tickles, Black Pressure: 3

2015: Solo: Songs And Collaborations 1982-2015: 7 

2018: Record: 8

2023: Fuse: 6

No One Gets Off Without Paying The Ride (30:18) (KF) (Mega)

Forget The Morning

On Tuesday, Everything But The Girl released another single and video from their upcoming album, Fuse. Both are, quite frankly, stunning.

The skittering beats and oscillating bass of opening track Nothing Left To Lose are followed (literally) by the second song on the album, Run A Red Light. It's a complete volte-face, musically speaking, a downtempo tune built upon minimal piano chords and soaring backing vocals and synth lines. Sonically, it provides a neat juxtaposition to what has gone before, a bold move so early into the album.

Lyrically, it's a perfect follow on and a theme begins to emerge. Nothing Left To Lose's narrator reflects that they "need a thicker skin [as] this pain keeps getting in" and resignedly asks "Tell me what to do / Cause nothing works without you". 

 

In Run A Red Light, the character is more assertive, urging the person they're with to

"Forget the losers, forget the morning 

Put a tune on, and put your feet up 

It was my idea, I hope you know that 

We’re gonna have this, I’m the one now"

 

The third song on Fuse, Caution To The Window, is available as a lyric video and completes the thematic trilogy, the voice of the song "Coming home to be with you / Coming home to be near you", imploring "Let me in, let me in, let me in", a note that all is not as it seems.

The beauty of Tracey Thorn's lyrics and her skill as a writer is in creating narratives and characters that are open to multiple, layered interpretations which inevitably means that the songs appeal to and resonate with a much wider audience.

Ben Watt is a perfect foil for this, providing a musical environment that is both sympathetic to the words and vocals but also transports them to an unexpected and interesting place. 

If this is what the first three songs on Fuse are like, then the full album will be very, very special indeed.

 

1) Nothing Left To Lose

2) Run A Red Light

3) Caution To The Wind

4) When You Mess Up

5) Time And Time Again

6) No One Know We're Dancing

7) Lost

8) Forever

9) Interior Space

10) Karaoke

 

Fuse is available to pre-order now, ahead of a full release on 21st April.

Do You Want Me Back? Am I Coming Back?

Which, when applied to Everything But The Girl, can only result in a resounding Yes! and YES!!

 

I was over the moon when Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt announced on Twitter last November that they had made a new EBTG album, their first together in 24 years. Fuse will be out in April and the first single was teased yesterday.

 

Nothing Left To Lose is a spectacular comeback, a familiar fusion of heartache and hard beats. When Tracey comes in with the opening lines "I need a thicker skin / The pain keeps getting in", it's like meeting an old friend for the first time in a long while but feeling the hurt in that separation, as well as the joy of reuniting.

The video, directed by Charlie di Placido and choreographed by Miranda Chambers, is spectacular on an intimate level. No cameos from Tracey or Ben, but the five dancers in a cafe in the depth of night brilliantly captures the essence of the song.

I cannot wait to hear what the rest of Fuse sounds like. This promises to be no nostalgia trip but exactly how Everything But The Girl could and should sound in 2023. 

Today's selection is a nostalgia trip, however, taking you back to the late 1990s and when Tracey and Ben were deeply immersed in club culture. I've avoided the obvious Todd Terry remix of Missing (Chris & James do the honours there) and gone for his rework of Wrong. You also get a healthy dose of BPMs courtesy of Darren Emerson and Peter Rauhofer as well as some pre- and post-club remixes from Brad Wood and Trevor Jackson.

The closing track is an older song, Everything But The Girl's cover of I Don't Want To Talk About It, which they released as a single in 1988, spending 9 weeks in the UK chart and reaching #3. Housemeister 69 put out a bootleg remix of the song in 2005, the same year that Virgin released the Adapt Or Die: Ten Years Of Remixes compilation. At that point, Tracey and Ben were doing their own thing - brilliantly, it has to be said - and six years on from the last EBTG album, even then the prospect of new music seemed remote.

 

It turns out the wait would be four times that but, if Nothing Left To Lose is anything to go by, boy is it worth it.

 

1) Single (Brad Wood Memphis Remix) (1996)

2) Missing (Chris & James Full On Club Mix) (1994)

3) Before Today (Darren Emerson Underwater Remix 2) (Full Length) (1997)

4) Five Fathoms (Club 69 Future Club Mix By Peter Rauhofer) (Full Length) (1999)

5) Wrong (Todd Terry Remix) (Full Length) (1996)

6) Driving (The Underdog Mix By Trevor Jackson) (1996)

7) I Don't Want To Talk About It (Housemeister 69 Mix) (Cover of Crazy Horse) (2005)

 

Coming Back (47:55) (Box) (Mega)

Still Be Real

Happy birthday, Beth Orton. 

 

Beth and I were born three days and roughly two hundred miles apart. Beth released her eighth studio solo album, Weather Alive, in September 2022. My attempts at singing have mercifully remained unrecorded and unreleased.

It was almost certainly Water From A Vine Leaf by William Orbit that introduced me to Beth's voice and from there her own work, albeit exclusively via singles and remixes. I'm pretty sure third album Central Reservation was the first album I bought, though I've since gone back to the previous two and have intermittently picked up subsequent releases. I haven't yet heard Weather Alive in full, but it is represented here with a song featured on Mojo magazine's recent Best Of 2022 sampler CD.

 

Today's selection goes from Beth's most recent album all the way back to her solo debut, Superpinkymandy, produced by William Orbit and released nearly 30 years ago. Some truly wonderful moments from an impressive body of work.

 

Have a good one, Beth.

1) Central Reservation (William Orbit Remix) (1999)

2) Pedestal (Single Version By Brian O'Shaughnessy) (1997)

3) Thinking About Tomorrow (Ben Watt Radio Mix ft. The Wrecking Crew Orchestra) (2003)

4) I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine (Album Version By Andrew Weatherall & Keith Tenniswood) (1996)

5) Stolen Car (Radio Edit By Victor Van Vugt & Mark 'Spike' Stent) (1999)

6) Friday Night (Album Version By Beth Orton & Craig Silvey) (2022)

7) Roll The Dice (Album Version By William Orbit) (1993)

8) That Summer Feeling (Cover of Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers) (2012)

9) Concrete Sky (Album Version By Victor Van Vugt & Ben Watt) (2002)

10) Someone's Daughter (Single Version By Ian Grimble) (1997)

1993: Superpinkymandy: 7

1996: Trailer Park: 4

1997: Someone's Daughter EP: 10

1997: Touch Me With Your Love EP: 2

1999: Central Reservation EP: 1

1999: Stolen Car EP: 5 

2002: Daybreaker: 9

2003: Thinking About Tomorrow EP: 3

2012: Sugaring Season: 8

2022: Weather Alive: 6

Still Be Real (45:40) (Box) (Mega)

Far Too Much Trouble And Not Enough Time!

Side 1 of a mixtape, originally compiled 8th February 1997 and liberated during lockdown in 2021.

 

As mentioned when I posted Side 2 in July last year, this is possibly the closest I got to a "Now That's What I Call Dance Music" hits compilation, with all of the songs (bar two songs) enjoying success in the UK singles chart.

 

Insomnia by Faithless has troubled the charts multiple times: #27 in December 1995, it's highest placing of #3 in October 1996 and a return at #17 in September 2005. Further remixes and reissues, including a trademark rework by Avicii in 2015, have been less successful commercially speaking, but nothing detracts from the sheer majesty of the song. The album version is essentially a re-edit of the Moody Mix. To get around the cross-fade from the previous track and to align the running time with Side 2's duration, I've spliced the introduction from the single version of the Moody Mix, so you get a slightly extended take on the original mixtape opener.

 

Tori Amos had dabbled with remixes before - I've previously enthused about the epic remix of 1994 single God by The Joy - but it was another radical remix that finally got her to the UK #1 spot in January 1997, this time courtesy of Armand Van Helden. The garage overhaul of Professional Widow actually appeared first as a double A-side with the more characteristic Hey Jupiter, managing a first week peak of #20 in August 1996, before drifting down the charts. However, the growing popularity of the Van Helden remix was enough to convince label EastWest to re-release it in its own right, with additional (good, but not as good) remixes by Mr. Roy. History was made.

Likewise, Common People was the song that broke Pulp, perhaps in more ways than one. Smashing into the singles chart in June 1995, it spent the first 2 weeks at #2 and 10 weeks in the Top 40. Follow up double A-single, Mis-shapes/Sorted For E's & Wizz, achieved a similar first 2 weeks at #2 in October 1995, no doubt bolstered by the controversy surrounding the latter track and "drug wrap instructions" sleeve. By "controversy", I mean the Daily Mirror getting into a ill-informed media frenzy, but that's for another post. This follow up single also included a couple of remixes of Common People for good measure, including the Motiv8 Club Mix featured here. An odd one, in that it didn't seem particularly loved by my indie- or club-centred friends, who preferred the original version if at all. It sounds dated now, but I still like it.

 

Like Going South by The Wolfgang Press on Side 2, Lazarus by The Boo Radleys really should have been their breakthrough hit. Creation obviously believed so too, as they tried twice, first in 1992 and again in June 1994 with a slew of remixes from the likes of Saint Etienne, Secret Knowledge and Augustus Pablo. The record-buying public disagreed: it entered the UK chart at #54 and 3 weeks later dropped out of the Top 100 altogether, never to return. Lazarus is frequently my favourite Boo Radleys song and a key part of the stunning Giant Steps album. I saw them live in Derby around this time and they just couldn't do the song justice. I like all of the remixes, even the Augustus Pablo take. Martin Carr allegedly thought Pablo was taking the piss (& the money) by simply laying some reverb and echo over the original 12" version, but nevertheless it works. Even better is the remix by Ultramarine. I was big fan of theirs and this version did not disappoint. 

Ultramarine also provided an excellent remix of Missing by Everything But The Girl, albeit on the initial "flop" single release in August 1994, which scraped in at #69. Just over a year later, it was a completely different story, as Todd Terry's remix took off and the re-released single got to #3, spending a phenomenal 14 weeks in the Top 10. Great though it is, I prefer the original remixes, especially this one by Ben Watt.

Adored And Explored was the lead single from Marc Almond's 1996 album Fantastic Star. Not one of his better albums, though I've come to appreciate it more in recent years. I tended to buy the singles less for the lead track and more for the generous helpings of B-sides, session versions and remixes. Adored And Explored (#25 in May 1995) remains a Marc Almond highlight, however, and I enjoyed the remixes by Messiah, Beatmasters and X-Press 2. Andy Meecham, fresh from Bizarre Inc and a bright future with Chicken Lips and as The Emperor Machine ahead of him, delivers a brace of excellent remixes. This is my favourite of the two, with a beautiful clash of guitars and beats and an irreverent approach to Marc Almond's vocals, chopping them up and slowing them down. This song also supplies the mixtape's title.

 

Today's photo is another snapshot of my nostalgic wander around Bristol on Tuesday. I used to go to Lakota a lot back in the day, though I pretty sure that I would never have heard any of the songs on this mixtape played there. The club itself had been under threat many times over the years and there was national coverage in April 2020 of plans to close the club and convert it and the surrounding space into offices and flats. As at March 2022, the threatened demolition and further gentrification doesn't appear to have happened, but Lakota itself looks very much dead and gone. As ever, revisiting the past elicits mixed emotions.

1) Insomnia (Moody Mix By Rollo & Sister Bliss) (Album Version w/ Extended Intro): Faithless (1995)

2) Professional Widow (Armand's Star Trunk Funkin' Mix By Armand Van Helden): Tori Amos (1996)

3) Common People (Motiv8 Club Mix By Steve Rodway): Pulp (1995)

4) Lazarus (Ultramarine Mix): The Boo Radleys (1994)

5) Missing (Little Joey Remix By Ben Watt): Everything But The Girl (1994)

6) Adored And Explored (Andy Meecham's Slow Fat Dub): Marc Almond (1995)

Side One (46:32)

Side Two here

I Don't Get Where You're Coming From

Everything But The Girl released their final album, Temperamental, in September 1999 and the title track was the fourth (of five) singles, in February 2000. The album managed #16 in the UK but, at 4 weeks, a fraction of the chart time of it's predecessor, Walking Wounded. The single bounced in at #72 for one week and promptly dropped out. It deserved better.

Tracey Thorn's excellent autobiography, Bedsit Disco Queen, describes how motherhood - she'd given birth to twins not long before work on the album started - significantly impacted on her contribution, literally and lyrically. Personally, I love the juxtaposition of the hedonistic, going-out-clubbing music with the detached and introspective in-character lyrics, mirroring the different experiences of Thorn and partner Ben Watt at the time. 

I'd not seen the video for Temperamental until recently. It's directed by Mike Mills (no, not that one), whose videos for Sexy Boy and Kelly Watch The Stars by Air and Party Hard by Pulp I'd greatly enjoyed. Admittedly, none of these particularly visualise the narrative of the song and go off on their own track but the video for Temperamental seems to be completely at odds with the song, jarring rather than juxtaposing.

I'd recommend sticking with a live performance of Temperamental in London, originally live streamed in November 1999. 

This temperamental side,
The one you say that you can't hide.
Do you ever see yourself,
The way it looks to someone else?
This temperamental trick,
The one you say you can't predict.
You're like an empty cup.
Forgive me if I don't wait up.
I don't get where you're coming from,
What is real and what's put on,
What has stayed and what has gone.
How long will this thing go on and on?

I don't want you to love me.
I don't want you to love me.

You're like an empty cup,
But I can't fill you up.
What planet are you on?
Not the same one I am from.
Do I just waste my time?
You pour your heart on mine.
You say it screws you up.
Forgive me if I don't wait up.
I don't get what you're trying to say,
What is wrong and what's okay.
You beat yourself up one more time.
You trample on this fierce heart of mine.

I don't want you to love me.
I don't want you to love me.

I don't know what you want from me.
All this endless sympathy.
You beat yourself up one more time.
You trample on this fierce heart of mine.

I don't want you to love me.
I don't want you to love me.

Temperamental (Official Video): Everything But The Girl (2000)

Temperamental (Live @ The Kentish Town Forum, London, 18th November 1999): Everything But The Girl (1999)

Been Tryin' Hard Not To Get Into Trouble

Listening to 4 Hero's remix of Nuyorican Soul sidestepped me into Photek's remix of 4 Hero and so to today's selection. Rupert Parkes began releasing music under numerous aliases in the early 1990s, Photek emerging in 1994 and being the most enduring of these, still in use today. Part of the hideously named genre, intelligent drum and bass, like his contemporaries Roni Size, LTJ Bukem and Goldie, what really appealed to me was the complex rhythms and jazz inflections. As a nod to the latter, a track on Photek's debut album, KJZ, was an acronym for Kirk's Jazz. By the start of the 21st Century, Photek's sound had taken a turn into house and techno, though as this selection highlights, there is an identity and character linking all of Photek's music. I've lost track in the last few years, and I have read that Parkes has subsequently produced music for films, TV and games, his last album release being the soundtrack to EA Games' Need For Speed in 2016.

 

For this selection, I've focused solely on Photek's remixes for other artists. It's great to listen to these in one go, personal favourites being Loose by Therapy?, Destiny by Zero 7, I Miss You by Björk and the one that started this all, Star Chasers by 4 Hero. The remix of Paul Simon was a welcome return in 2018 and one of the few redeeming tracks on the otherwise questionable Graceland: The Remixes album. I hadn't heard Photek's remix of The Faint in 5 years and it struck how well it would sit in a mixtape next to songs from John Grant's latest album, Boy From Michigan, particularly The Rusty Bull or Your Portfolio. And how else to end but with Single by Everything But The Girl? The original version is sublime; Photek's remix provides a similar shiver down the spine. Twenty five years old and still sounding like it could be out right now.

1) The Lonely Night (Photek Remix): Moby ft. Mark Lanegan & Mindy Jones (2013)

2) Destiny (Photek Remix): Zero 7 ft. Sia & Sophie Barker (2001)

3) Alien (Photek Remix): Lamb (1999)

4) Total Job (Remixed By Photek): The Faint (2003)

5) Loose (Photek Remix): Therapy? (1995)

6) Ride (Photek B21 Edit): Lana Del Rey (2012)

7) Lie Down In Darkness (Photek Remix): Moby (2011)

8) All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints (Photek Remix): Paul Simon (2018)

9) I Miss You (Photek Mix): Björk (1996)

10) Star Chasers (Photek Remix): 4 Hero (1998)

11) Single (Photek Remix): Everything But The Girl (1996)

Been Tryin' Hard Not To Get Into Trouble (57:51)