WORTH A LOOK?: ****

TRACKLIST: Nothing Left To Lose; Run A Red Light; Caution To The Wind; When You Mess Up; Time And Time Again; No One Knows We’re Dancing; Lost; Forever; Interior Space; Karaoke

Rewind 24 years to 1999 and Tony Blair’s Labour government was 2 years into power, the year before the UK had hosted its 1st Eurovision in 15 years and duo Everything But The Girl released album Temperamental.

• Read on for reasons including how we’d love to see both Tracey and Ben tour this 1st album in 24 years

We didn’t know it then but they wouldn’t follow it up until this week’s Fuse – although it was a 24-year period which did include 7 solo albums, 3 children, 5 memoirs and 3 record labels.

1st single Nothing Left To Lose set us alight and was a song of the month for us in January when we called it: ‘A sparse dance track over bleak beats culminating with Thorn observing grimly on repeat: ‘Kiss me while the world decays, kiss me while the music plays.’

Our favourite track here is the celebratory Caution To The Wind which is a catchy slice of gorgeous Italo disco while the joyous No One Knows We’re Dancing reminisces about 90s Sunday club Lazy Dog which Ben Watt ran with Jay Hannon from lunchtimes until midnight.

Thorn’s voice is deeper than we remember but still hugely charismatic and impactful. Run A Red Light speaks to the quiet desperation of the ‘lock in’ and moves from delicate piano to the abandon of its title.

Elsewhere there’s experimentation with voice effects on Thorn’s vocal giving a distorting and unsettling feeling which if anything shows the band are unafraid to push the musical boundaries they have been expanding since the release of their 1st album, the jazz-influenced Eden, in 1984.

We last met the band at a record store signing and soundcheck at the old HMV in London’s Oxford Street in the 80s before playing the Royal Albert Hall and we’d love to see them live again.

What marks them apart is how different their albums have been – our favourite being the 60s orchestral pop of the Baby The Stars Shine Bright era – but it’s all credit to Tracey and Ben that Fuse doesn’t sound retro or nostalgic in 2023 but utterly of this time.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Everything But The Girl Tickets
• Have you heard any other Everything But The Girl songs or seen any of their shows? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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