Everything But The Girl – Temperamental – Half Speed Master (180g 2LP) Vinyl Record

Description

180g Vinyl 2LP Reissue Half-Speed Mastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios

Everything But The Girl’sninth and final studio albumTemperamentalwas first released in September 1999, and is reissued here on180g vinyl 2LPcomplete withhalf-speed mastering by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. The album debuted at No. 16 on the UK Album Chart and peaked at No. 3 in Australia and No. 65 on the US Billboard 200, and went on to sell over 500,000 copies worldwide. Often seen as a companion piece to its million-selling predecessorWalking Wounded, it once again skillfully merged worlds contemporary electronic dance music and smart singer-songwriting, but was not without its production difficulties.

Working from the same template as before, the album was largely recorded at home byBen WattandTracey Thornin the summer of 1998 in familiar surroundings – synths, samplers, simple computer software, a microphone – with two tracks ending up as production collaborations: “Blame,” made with drum ‘n’ bass DJ-producerJamie Spratling(J Majik) at his home studio in Hertfordshire; and “The Future of the Future,” which began life as an instrumental by Washington DC deep house producers,Deep Dishbefore Ben wrote a melody and lyrics for Tracey to sing.

Yet if the propulsive beats are undercut by a melancholy edge to the lyrics and sounds, it perhaps reflects the circumstances behind the album’s evolution. “It was on reflection, a difficult album to make,” says Watt. “With the recent birth of our twin girls in 1998, I found myself constructing much of the album in isolation, with Tracey inevitably more pre-occupied with family life. It was much less collaborative than it should have been. I guess we were just moving in different mental spaces a lot of the time.”

In spite of the strained recording process and a lukewarm reaction from a rock press tiring of electronica, the album was acclaimed in many quarters on its release. “Triumphant after-hours club pop,” saidSpinin an effusive full-page 9/10 lead review. “Entirely natural, wholly wonderful,” said theSunday Times. “The definitive dance album steeped in all things pop. Sublime and essential,” commentedBillboard, whileTime Outoffered, “If EBTG discovered nightlife late, it is one of their greatest strengths. Wide-eyed and wondrous.”

Offering a longer view in 2019 – in a lengthy 20th year anniversary retrospective feature inThe Quietus– Michael White said, “After 20 years it has aged very well … I’ve explored the length and breadth of dance music as if it were my job, and I can’t point to another album of its kind that so effectively bridges the divide between the deeply communal sound of the dance floor and the deeply private vocabulary of a mind in trouble.”

LP1

1. Five Fathoms
2. Low Tide of the Night
3. Blame
4. Hatfield 1980
5. Temperamental

LP2

1. Compression
2. Downhill Racer
3. Lullaby of Clubland
4. No Difference
5. The Future of the Future (with Deep Dish)