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After the harsh critique of the two Aiazzone clerks, for the first "magnificat," it seems right to start again with another duo, more or less from the same era. Someone even explicitly asked me, aho facce capi che te piace(va). So Everything but the girl it is. My approach with the Hull duo wasn’t spontaneous at all, but was due to base utilitarian purposes and starting from diametrically opposite tastes.
Due to anthropological research needs, in the mid-80s I found myself mingling with a certain aristocratic youth and sharing their musical preferences and vaguely Mod clichés. Since it was an aristocracy of moderately progressive tendencies and composed tastes, I met convinced listeners of Style Council, among whom was a young Countess with eyes like the sky after a Maestrale gale.
With Countess, I messed up the approach. Blame it on the foolishness of being barely twenty, I tell myself. Instead of stamping bold metal on her face, I turned chameleon, delighted my eardrums with the refined compositions of Weller and Talbot, drifting onto Working Week and Matt Bianco, without disdaining detours into acid jazz, also bordering Weather Report. And so, "Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit."
I admit that it wasn't a sacrifice to dig the grooves of Café Bleu, and it didn't take long for me to be bewitched by a torch song like The Paris Match, particularly by the wonder of Tracey Thorn's voice. To please the Countess, I convincingly purchased the newly released Eden by Everything but the girl. Two copies, one for me and one for her. A Sandersonian gesture, I admit.
My above-mentioned utilitarian intentions were thwarted and swept away by the sound suggestions spreading from the vinyl, by that unexpected melange of jazz, bossa nova, and guitar beats. The magnetism of Tracey's voice contributed significantly to my disorientation.
An album like a two-faced medal: one side is Tracey Thorn's voice, the other is Ben Watt's music. Neither prevails, as they seem harmoniously fused, as rarely happens. I wasn't and still am not an expert in bel canto, I don't know how to technically frame that voice. It perhaps didn't have the power of other great performers of that era, I mention Annie Lennox and Alison Moyet above all, but it had such an austere softness and rigid sweetness that made it unique. The voice of a lover softly whispering to you in the post-orgasmic serenity.
In every piece of Eden, the interpretation is never over the top, few concessions to virtuosity, which she could afford, as in the case of "Frost and Fire" where sudden pitch spikes emerge, or in "Fascination" where it becomes more imperious.
All the compositions maintain an undercurrent of mellowness, whether it's the percussions and guitars riding the bossa nova of "Each and everyone", or the undulating "Bittersweet" or the plucked "Dustbowl" or the acid jazz raiding, with trumpet interventions à la Chet Baker, in "Crabwalk" as in "I must confess".
A limitation of this album? Well, perhaps it's too perfect, never a slip, never a dissonant fall. It's also a demonstration that talent, when present, emerges early, as when it was released in 1984, they were 22 years old.
And what I appreciated about EBTG, like Style Council, was the desire to break away from the British canon, rough, beer and rock 'n' roll, betrayed with sounds foreign to that tradition, like Latin and Caribbean rhythms, persuasive yet not sugary melodies, up to the French fascinations emerging in Café Bleu.
EBTG also had an ironic streak, starting with the chosen name, inspired by a furniture exhibition (not Aiazzone, I suppose), where for a room everything necessary was promised. Except the girl.
After the pop/jazz mellowness of their debut, Tracey and Ben probably sensed they were on a path where they could only worsen and deviated into other paths. Guitar pop, country, orchestral pop. I almost always missed them, except for Tracey's participation in Massive Attack's second album, Protection.
The sounds of Eden are associated by many with melancholic autumn days, but if I were a replicant from Blade Runner, they should implant in my hard drive the memory of a bright September day in Liguria, on the terrace of Countess’s house. Still them on the record player, Countess irremediably beside me, more frost than fire, her bob lightened by summer waving to Tracey’s voice, and to not hear her speak of friendship, I pretend to distract myself watching a sloop setting sail, at a time when the idea that no path is blocked is still allowed.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Each and Every One (02:49)
If you ever feel the time to drop me a loving line
maybe you should just think twice
I don't wait around on your advice
You tell me I can go this far, but no more
Try to show me heaven and then slam the door
You offer shelter at a price much too dear
And your kind of love's the kind that soon disappears
So don't brag how you have changed
And everything's been rearranged
I thought all that was over and done
But I still get the same from Each and Everyone
Being kind is just a way to keep me under your thumb
and I can't cry because that's something we've always done
you tell me I'm free of the past now and all those lies
then offer me the same thing in a different guise
02 Bittersweet (02:49)
don't talk to me in that familiar way
when the keys are in my hand
don't say that everything is here to stay
and I must try to understand
when I'm trying not to look into your eyes
trying not to listen to your lies
trying just to keep hold of myself
oh but it's hard when you leave me on the shelf
you say that I set a path for you to follow
and I've already given in
but I only meant for you to taste not swallow
where I end is where you must begibn
so try not to look into their eyes
try not to listen to their lies
try just to keep hold of yourself
oh I know it's hard when they leave you on their shelf
she's such a sweet girl
free of the taints of this world
think that's a compliment
don't be so full of sentiment
why you worship sweetness
what virtue's there in weakness
being pushed about is nothing much to shout about I know
03 Tender Blue (03:05)
and still he lies awake at night
restless while every silence screams
and still she sleep turned to the wall
he fears the onslaught of his dream
touches her back but she doesn't stir
then round her hand his finger close
feeling the ring that cost more than the car
all of those questions that never arose
and still she lies awake at night
silently stares at the bedroom wall
feeling his hand dare to touch her back
it's been a month since ha started to paint the hall
and brightly burns the landing light
the baby's screaming down the hall
she shuts her eyes and she shuts her ears
she's had up to here because it's not his baby after all
04 Another Bridge (02:12)
Your words stung me to the heart
I hadn't even noticed how far we had drifted apart
can I still count you as a friend
or have I done to much now to ever make amends
cause I once needed just an open mind
well that's no reason why I now should leave you behind
A word from out of the blue
reminds me how much I once needed you
oh but that's all in the past now
so much that I can scarcely remember how
I once needed just a hand to hold
cause now the few times we meet
all I sense is a love grown cold
you can't hold on to everything
and I've forgotten what we talked about a long time since
can't recall days with regret
tomorrow remember today
and all the rest forget
cause time's gone by and all the things we did
are now so much water under another bridge
08 Even So (02:32)
if I say I'll always stay by your side
stupid things say some night
can you tell me I am wrong till I cry
tell me do you have the right
if I say that seas could never sweep me
overboard and far away
do you still say you wouldn't try to keep me
if I lost the will to stay
you won't promise this will last much longer
than the time it takes to stay
you excuse is that my heart's much stronger
and some of you love has been drained away
I can't bear it when the tears fill your eyes
And I've said too much once more
don't be angry now you must realise
my only fear's of losing something I adore
10 Fascination (03:19)
I won't try to stop you
When you speak of the past
Doubt is over now
And I can join in when you laugh
Facination makes us ask for more
Than we'd like to know
I needn't explain
I think you know
Reaassure me when my hearts
Not bold enough to bear her name
If you were in my shoes
And scared I would do the same
And though I may ask
There's no need for past details
Although I may laugh alone
My courage fails
Did you know
See how I've changed now
My heads so clear
Still there are some things
That I don't want to hear
There must be so much I know
That you cannot forget
And I mustn't wish your life began
The day we met
They say as we go remind you
Of when you were here before
So you talk and tell me
You don't think about it anymore
There is something I know
Hasn't quite been left behind
So I'll ask you once again
To prove that I don't mind
To prove that I don't mind
11 I Must Confess (03:11)
You kissed my head as you stood in the door
And then you said: "don't want to see you no more"
All I could say as you walked out on me
Was how I hoped you'd remembered your key
Took one last look
Took the phone of the hook
I must confess I agree
All o those days when I went through a phase
Of missing the love that you bore
In retrospect there's something I can't neglect
I was missing a love but not yours
The love that you bore that thing that I once adored
Was no gift that you gave me each time
Thinking again, what a fool I was then
It was a trophy of yours and a burden of mine
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Other reviews
By GustavoTanz
"Eden is probably the place Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt imagined themselves to be while recording this album."
"These 33 minutes are unforgettable and important, marking the beginning of an evolutionary journey for Tracey and Ben."
