release date: May 28, 1996
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]
producer: Ben Watt
label: Virgin Records - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: 1. "Before Today" (4 / 5) - 2. "Wrong" - 3. "Single" - 4. "The Heart Remains a Child" - 5. "Walking Wounded" (4 / 5) - 6. "Flipside" - 7. "Big Deal" - 8. "Mirrorball" - 9. "Good Cop Bad Cop" - 10. "Wrong (Todd Terry Remix)" - 11. "Walking Wounded (Omni Trio Remix)"
9th studio album by Everything but the Girl. Despite being released two years since the duo's last album, it's a fine continued style from Amplified Heart (1994). That album was mostly sophisti-pop but the bonus track "Missing (Todd Terry Club Mix)", and it's house- and drum and bass-version of the album track, gave them their international breakthrough. Here, Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt have taken a move away from their jazz pop and sophisti-pop influences and based the music on the house-style that brought them fame and combined that with downtempo and elements from trip hop. As with reissues of the '94 album, this has one of the original tracks remixed by Todd Terry: "Wrong (Todd Terry Remix)".
The first two and the title track are the best songs here, but the remainders never bore. I don't find it on the same top-level as their great '94 album, but it's more than just fine, and it proves how this capable duo have found their shelf combining their unique melancholic sophisti-pop with styles taken from electronic music as they now seem to be making the best music of their career.
The album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]
