Everything But the Girl debuted in 1982 with a samba interpretation of Cole Porter's "Night and Day," which was a success on the U.K. independent charts. Tracey Thorn recorded a solo EP, A Distant Shore, while Ben Watt checked in with the full-length North Marine Drive in 1983. EBTG recorded a cover of the Jam's "English Rose" for an NME sampler. The track so impressed former Jam frontman Paul Weller that he invited the duo to contribute to the 1984 LP Cafe Bleu, the debut from his project the Style Council.
Everything But the Girl's own beguiling 1984 debut, Eden, followed on the heels of the single "Each and Every One," a U.K. Top 40 hit. The jazz-pop confections of the group's early work gave way to shimmering jangle rock by the time of 1985's Love Not Money, while a subtle country influence crept into the mix for 1986's lush, orchestral Baby, The Stars Shine Bright. The beautifully spare Idlewild followed in 1988, spawning the single "I Don't Want to Talk About It," a poignant cover of a song by the late Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten which became EBTG's biggest hit of their first decade, landing at the number three spot on the British charts.
In 1994, Thorn guested on the title track to trip-hop originators Massive Attack's LP Protection, and appeared in the song's groundbreaking music video. The cinematic Massive Attack sound clearly informed Everything But the Girl's own 1994 effort, Amplified Heart, another strong outing featuring an appearance by guitar great Richard Thompson and co-production by Spring Heel Jack's John Coxon. The soulful single "Missing" was innovatively remixed by Todd Terry, and after first becoming a club sensation the track blossomed as a major international hit, reaching the number two position on the U.S. pop charts. More importantly, Terry's remix, combined with the lessons of the Massive Attack sessions, launched the duo into an entirely new -- and equally satisfying -- musical direction: with 1996's brilliant Walking Wounded, Everything But the Girl dove headfirst into electronica, crafting sophisticated, assured excursions into trip-hop and drum'n'bass. The album earned enthusiastic reviews and was certified platinum in the U.K. The duo continued in a similar direction with 1999's Temperamental, another success which featured several chart-topping club hits, including the Deep Dish collaboration "The Future of the Future (Stay Gold)."
The duo felt pressured by their growing fame, however, and turned down the opportunity to tour as U2's opening act. They performed a final EBTG concert at the 2000 Montreaux Jazz Festival, and stopped recording music together.
About the new release, Atwood online's David Buyze has to say: “Fuse is a stunning and unlikely return of a group, an album, and a musical vision in its buoyancy and acute levels of reflection — timeless as Walking Wounded remains ’til this day, and Idlewild is not far behind. Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt as Everything But The Girl literally pick up where they off nearly a quarter of a century year later in Fuse, as if not a day has passed us by. Yet, this is also an album that is deepened through the knowledge of years in the experience of life in how they analyze particular dimensions of existence and human behavior. While such a track as “No One Knows We’re Dancing” is a reflection on Ben Watt’s time as a DJ at Lazy Dog in Notting Hill on Sundays in the late ’90s which began every Sunday at 5pm, it’s also a very captivating song in thinking about the realities of lived intimate experiences that are shielded from the public world.”
