release date: Apr. 1985
format: vinyl (BYN 3) / cd (1995 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,24]
producer: Robin Millar
label: Blanco y Negro - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: A) 1. "When All's Well" (5 / 5) - 3. "Shoot Me Down" (4 / 5) - 4. "Are You Trying to Be Funny?" (4 / 5) - - B) 1. "Ballad of the Times" (4 / 5) - 3. "This Love (Not for Sale)" - 4. "Trouble and Strife" (4 / 5) - 5. "Angel" (4 / 5)
2nd studio album by Everything but the Girl. The album introduces a change of style to their most jangle pop sounding album. As much as I liked the slow and gentle jazz pop of the earliest takes, I really prefer Tracey and Ben when they're more up-tempo as here. It's still sophisti-pop with sax and violins and in that close to a more pop soul-style embodied by Sade. The album reached number #10 on the UK albums chart list. I had listened shortly to Eden (1984), and initially found that of little interest (and first saw the debut as fine and delicate some 10-15 years later), but this was the first album I purchased with EBTG and it remains one of my top 3 favourites by the band.
The front cover features a B/W photo by British photographer John Humphrey Spender titled "Bolton Wasteland for Mass Observation", 1937.
Highly recommendable.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]
