Walking Wounded

Perfect for when you want to feel what it was like to try on jeans at the Gap or Banana Republic in the late '90's.

Everything but the fucking will to live after listening to this God awful piece of shit. I don't understand how they're on this list twice...at least. I recognised track 2, so good for them. If this was a footballer, itd be Emiliano Sala.

Back when I was in college, there was this dude who would come into the bar I worked at on a Friday night and play fucking 10 Neil Young songs in a row. He would also hit on girls by doing magic tricks. I remember how angry I got every time he made me listen to an hour of Neil Young because I was just trying to have a good time, and he fucking made me listen to this sad, soppy fuck who writes nothing but songs that sound indistinguishable from each other and never seemed to enjoy a happy moment in his entire like. Fuck that guy, and fuck Neil Young. 2/5

Tracey Thorn's career is so varied and rich. I was surprised by the subtle, minimal electronica but it works really well. It's a satisfying contrast to her haunting vocals and leaves me feeling some kind of way. I'm really impressed with how such a drastic shift in instrumentation doesn't feel like a lark, but a fully realized vision that's also alive with a sense of discovery. I can hear how this record bridges singer-songwriter and British house music in a way that has influenced a lot of millenial pop music that followed. Favourite song: Before Today

90s chillhouse? Fuck yeah

How lucky am I to have the opportunity to listen to all of this great music and appreciate artists that I may or may not have gotten to know if it was not for this 1001 list. The only number I think that I have heard from this duo is Missing - The Todd Terry remix, which is a classic dance hit in my mind. I like this album and it is very relaxing and for lovers of artists such as Air, Groove Armada or Massive Attack kind of music. If I was playing at Stella Polaris I would definitely play this.

Never heard it before this but what a great glimpse into a special time in British music. Drum and bass mixed with trip hop and ethereal vocals. Immediately connects bands that I was listening to at the time such as Faithless (Dido's voice is very similar), Portishead, Tricky with this crossover album.

not a fan of 'easy listening' type music, I want my music to challenge me, hurt me, surprise me on a walk with a shank in the back etc. what's the point otherwise

This is why I love this random album generator-I had never heard this all the way through. Tracey’s voice is beautiful, and the music is perfect. Definitely now a favorite album of mine.

This week’s main theme has been flawed records with strong female vocalists. Everything But The Girl present the beigewave entry, maybe on a par with Sade, but not as good as Chic. There’s a better fey record hiding in here, I reckon. I’ll save my lecture about the gentrification of jungle’s breakbeat innovations for an album I know is coming up, but leave here my prototype conclusion on that record: this takes one of the most energetic forms of the nineties and turns it into jogging music. Including remixes of tracks already on the album seems weak - “maybe you’ll like this version” - and at a stretch I’d say maybe Neil Young’s bookending “Tonight’s the Night” versions could count as exceptions. The different versions of “Wrong” and “Walking Wounded” on here are not.

Surprise album that I really enjoyed

This opens with a stunner, and stays highly engaging. That's something of a surprise given the DnB bones. Perhaps I'm biased against looking at anything from the genre as masterful, because this comes close. I get a lot of the same feelings I got from Jessie Ware's latest (and in that case I 100% have a positive disco bias). There's a gentle ebb and flow, but Thorn's vocals carry the record. Can't say, however, that they would sound as nice over any old beat. The third-act introduction of acoustic instruments is extra poignant: It reinforces the tone of the preceding songs while demonstrating the collaborative nature of the duo's sound. Lingering on that sound instead of turning to remixes would have been it for me.

Ok, so a few pages back I said "I also rate EBTG. None of their albums are a total smash, but there's always something interesting happening that I can enjoy". I retract my statement, because upon revisiting, this one is their smash. Within a few years, they'd got from folk, to jazz-pop, to indie rock, to synthpop. Now they slide effortlessly into the downtempo/trip-hop craze. Tracey Thorn had featured on Massive Attack's second album with great results. Cynical people might say they were just changing their sound to chase whatever seemed popular. But the results don't lie, and this album has a great carefully managed electronic palette that doesn't sound cheap and dated like the work of many other "pop turned synth" artists. Thorn's vocals gel so well with that sound. "Mirrorball" is a weak link, and the two remixes included on the original album are doing nothing for me.

Amazing record. Massively influential. It’s a proper night time-driving album.

EBTG basically pioneered the English downtempo drum and bass sound and everyone but EBTG were influenced by their lounging in the coffee shop style. Although this doesn't have anything as good as their big hit Missing you, the first three songs set the mood nicely. However I found my attention lagging for the rest of the album as the drum and bass in every song started to meld together.

“Walking Wounded” by Everything But the Girl (1996) Electronic jazz/pop, chiefly interesting for its innovative and highly contrasting sound textures, but limited by the underwhelming melodies, with their restricted tonal range and and performed with an airy reverb-enhanced voice to match. Heavy emphasis on synthetic drums and bass lines, dynamically stark. Lyrics show moments of cleverness, but seem detached from the music, as if musical compositions and lyrics on each song were two separate projects This is done to an even comic extent on “Good Cop Bad Cop”—really funny, with Thorn lazily complaining about her bad feelings while Watt is making little fart sounds on his gizmo, assisted by his favorite speedy snare roll thing. I laughed my butt off. Some electronic sounds are used rather frequently, as if Watt needs a bigger bag of tricks. Not unpleasant to listen to, but nothing profound here. I bet it sold well in Japan. 2/5

Well, you've managed to surprise me once again with how terrible this band is. I had almost forgotten. I have no idea how they managed to get on this list, let alone twice. I feel like we're all being punk'd. Please, for the love of god, do not let them be on here a third time.

I think above average in general. Some of it reminded me of ape escape for some reason, which is never a bad thing.

Coffee table drum & bass with smooth female vocals over the top - what's not to like? I only really know that "Missing" song from EBTG, so this was surprisingly trip-hoppy. I really enjoyed it! Fave track - the title track I think. "Single" was also great.

A very elegant album. I had their first (US) release from ’84 and while I liked the acoustic & jazzy feel, I think they were smart to move to this down-tempo, D&B sound which as all the rage in 95. The singles are good, the lyrics are bleak and I like the cover. It fades a bit after Walking Wounded and after two listens, I would have given 3 stars, but somehow, I managed to listen to the opening 6 tracks a third time.

Wow, this was a really nice change of pace! Very cool ‘90s music, the vocals reminded me a bit of Natalie Merchant, the overall sound reminded me of Massive Attack. Really dug this, very chill all the way through. Favorite tracks: Before Today, Single, Walking Wounded, Flipside, Mirror Ball. Album art: The picture is pretty simple, but the text elevates it significantly, especially the Japanese characters. I was expecting some kind of vaporwave type project based on the cover, and honestly it’s not too far off. 4/5

29/10/2020 Listened in block room - talking to Jake Really enjoyed this album, way more than I thought I would. Early DnB influences mixed with vocals. Song repeatedly singing "are you happy being single?" attacked me personally. Almost a 5 but not quite.

Listenable 90s English techno with a nice vocal. Simple arrangements, lovely chord progressions, beats very much of that era. Tracey Thorn's voice here is as rich and lovely as ever. I don't think this phase of EBTG's career really touches the more jazz-pop stuff they made back in the 80s, which now seems a lot less dated than the techno. This album was pleasant enough to listen to, but overall unremarkable. Fave Songs: Wrong, Before Today, Walking Wounded

Impatiently Waiting For Your Mom To Finish Shopping At Boscov’s In 1999: The Soundtrack

You can date this almost to the minute by the omnipresent mild drum'n'bass backing. Very pleasant, with all the negative connotations that invokes. Tracey Thorn rarely gets the material she deserves, although she does usually write some of it so is hardly blameless..

90s UK trip hop is poor

This was fine "easy listening chill out" music, but I was just really bored. Someone else's review said that now they know what it was like to try on jeans at banana republic or gap in the 90s and that's TOTALLY the vibe. Not my cup of tea and the first song I really enjoyed was the one that autoplayed AFTER the album was over. Not a good sign.

Sounded like very generic and bland electronica. It was fine as background but as soon as I paid attention to the music I was extrememly bored. The biggest question I'm left with is, how do these guys have two albums on the list!?

I can't tell the first four songs apart - everything here blends into a hell march of mid-tempo sludge with random blips and bleeps supporting vocals from the over-earnest folkie girl at an open mic night. Moody is fine. Atmospheric is fine. Painfully dull and indistinguishable is not.

I really gelled with this. I thought this was really trancey and ethereal without being overly produced.

Love this band. Been a fan from the off. Musically crisp and sophisticated. The vocals are superb. Just love the sound they produce. Brilliant

Really enjoyable

incredible

29 years late to the party 🥳 Straight through listen great record, beautiful vocals, one of the few times (outside of Radiohead) that a drum machine has brought anything to the 🎉 Polymath

Desert island album for me, so emotional and so raw

When you hear an album you've heard BUT NEVER KNEW WHO IT WAS BY!? It's so influential, I've heard this sound in so many things, unsurprising they are British lol. Downtempo vibes with that early DnB seasoning, Tracey's voice is so gorgeous. Loved the different melodies, the songwriting and the mixing. Ugh, this is just such a groovy, chill vibe. I imagine myself dressed in white in a 'creatives' house somrwhere in Notting Hill at the tail end of the 20th century. I'm very happy this graced me :) FAVES: Before Today Wrong (this is the song I heard!) Single Flipside Big Deal Good Cop Bad Cop (and this!)

Fun! It leans into background music territory, as it doesn't seem to make any statement that I could pick up, but this stuff is right up my alley. No particular favorites, but I'm looking forward to revisiting and exploring more from them!

This made my little 90s heart so happy.

Fantastic EBTG

It's so strange to me that "Missing" is, well, missing from this list. Now, I understand all of the angles for why the song and the album isn't here. I doubt any album here is included for a single song and nothing else, for one. Then there's how I've heard from a fan that the album it's on (AMPLIFIED HEARTS) isn't very good (and I don't feel like fact checking)... And both of those are ignoring the fact that the version of "Missing" that got famous isn't even on that album to begin with. I suppose all of this is just the curse of Everything But The Girl being a one hit wonder in my eyes... But just as well, when it comes to this album, I don't think "Missing" being (different word) absent is nothing. After all, if I wasn't aware of the arc of their career, I absolutely would not have been able to recognize this as being by the same duo who recorded IDLEWILD. Jeez, you get one fluke hit from one of your songs getting a dance remix... Right? Although the thing is, while I might chuckle a little at this sudden swerve in sound — from high-class sophisti-pop to breakbeats and string synths — I'm not actually against it? In fact, I'm all for it, 'coz I like this **way** better than I did IDLEWILD. I mean, I didn't think it was bad, but that album felt way too high class for me. The only people I could really picture enjoying it, full 5 outta 5, were snobs with stuck-up tastes. Meanwhile, with this album... Well, it's just as I predicted: I did need a dance beat to keep myself engaged. Tracey's voice is just so perfect over these instrumentals. It's like... I don't wanna keep referring back to IDLEWILD, 'coz I'd wanna consider this album on its own, but dang it, IDLEWILD was way too chill for its own good, and Tracey's voice couldn't do much of anything to elevate the material. Compare it with what's going on here, where they work so well in tandem that it'd honestly surprise me to find out they weren't always an electronic duo if I didn't already know. Like, "What do you mean this is their **ninth** album? It really took them **that long**? And this was their **second to last** before going on a decades-long hiatus?" Gawd, it's a shame they didn't do more of this, I swear... And I'll say this, too: this is infinitely better than MAXINQUAYE. Like, I'm not 100% how applicable bringing up that album is since I literally cannot remember how it sounds, but in regards to the trip hop led by female vocals I've heard, this clears whatever the hell Tricky was doing and then some. Goodness, I like this a hell of a lot more than basically every other trip hop and drum n' bass album we've gotten (including maybe even DUMMY). Gawd, all the shout outs to Ben Watts and the other producers. Good, good shit. Y'know, despite how I ended up feeling about this album, I actually had my doubts about it. With my past experience with trip hop, drum n' bass, and Everything But The Girl, I was expecting an excruciating forty-some minutes. At best, it'd maybe be something I could talk up to a 3 like I did IDLEWILD... But no, no. Screw it. This is a 5. I liked it that much. In fact, I'll prove it to you by saying this: I was considering listening to the two remixes stapled on to the end. And that's something I don't do for any album other than, like, The Flaming Lips' THE SOFT BULLETIN. Believe me, that's an endorsement coming from my fingertips. And if you don't believe me, well... I'unno what to tell you. I've said basically everything I can — everything but the convincing part, anyway, I guess.

divine, riveting, my new obsession

Surprisingly good. Really enjoyed the vibe to this one and would happily listen to it again! Wrong is a great song!

🫨🫨🫨

Dreamy, blissed-out trip hop from Hull in the 90s. A genuinely beautiful album that I'll definitely be returning to!

Really relaxing and mellow album. The vocals are great, and so is the production of this album.

Gorgeous. The downtempo beats and her sultry voice perfectly capture a vibe. I'm honestly kicking myself for not listening to them more already.

Stunning album. Their most perfect after Temperamental

Then went on a massive ‘let’s listen to everything by Everything but the Girl’ trip. Very interesting discography.

Easily dismissed as shopping music, but really is very good music in a style that got overdone quickly. EBTG is not so easily dismissed as the acts that fit into similar categories, and that's true for the whole breadth of their career, as their sound evolved and changed. Better than most coffee shop drum 'n' bass and quite a good album. In my opinion, the best one of theirs I've heard.

Really enjoyable - a band sometimes maybe thought of for one track, but there's more to discover here.

Devastatingly smooth. Achingly longing, but oh so exquisitely beautiful. Such a pristine work of art.

It was so fucking good. I thought it would feel old and all but it felt so modern. And it was so excellent and Nice to listen to

Great album

This is a great, atmospheric album. The superb vocals runs smoothly and pleasantly like a river and are complemented by the minimalistic snappy electronic accompaniment. Yes it's very same-ish but in a good way - you could almost see this as one very long, great song. So it works great as a genuine "album" and I'll happily listen to this many times again. I like the smooth trip-hop sound.

Beautifully put together. Maybe my nostalgia is giving this five stars rather than its actual musical merit.

Really great album - production, composition, vocals, and lyrics are all very well done. I've heard this album a bunch of times already, it seemed like everyone had this CD at one point, but I still enjoy the whole thing. 5/5

I think liking this album brought me closer to my dad, 5 stars

AWESOME!

best make-out album in the list so far!

I feel every second of this album. Mesmerizing!

Стильно

WALKING WOUNDED EVERYTHING BY THE GIRL This was the Ear Candy of the 1990s. Sounds as direct, moving and sensually erotic as it was then. Do Listen to their earlier stuff to understand how this is amped up and repackaging of the earlier ‘acoustic’ and raw recording style. Earlier EBTG remains, for me, some of the sexiest sumptuous music there was. Sunday morning music that would make you grab your lover and gently sway and dance them back to bed. Her gorgeous vulnerable, wonderfully pure, and soothing voice and their original feeling lounge-but-not-lounge bossa-nova infused vibes are the thing. And this techno version of the is just a pop-translation that got chart success. I'm not judging... I liked it too.. Back then, all up-to-date people of good taste had the (previous) “Amplified Heart” album. The cultivated chill out set. “Missing” was the name of the sexiest and most propulsive track - it was all about YEARNING. Some fortunate and hard working genius bastard hit the magic formula with a remix of MISSING and the result is massive chart success and this album.... As they confess in the final collection of remixes, it was time to “adapt or die”..maybe they were told. I don't know the story. I do see how their acoustic sound risked slipping to oblivion after having a minor moment, after working at it for decades. But I remember for a few wonderful years, this music was at all the summertime parties and we felt good, and groovy and sexy when we heard it. So happy to rediscover them here. So yeah, I'm so grateful and happy they're here to represent in this list all that was right and bright from that era - a shining musical moment in the world. It was ear candy. And great love making music. True. And the success of on acoustic pair who did beautiful art together. Go listen to their early stuff. In pairs. OMG YES. sigh.

Very beautiful. The instrument combination, production and mixing is expert and entrancing.

I've never heard of this band or album before, but I'm very intrigued based on the description of the album. Oh, I really like this first song, "Before Today." What a great, chill sound. I love the beats, and those vocals are fantastic. "Wrong" is really great too, for all the same reasons. That voice sounds familiar though. This reminds me of The XX, maybe that's it? No, I've heard this voice before. Oh wait, do these people sing that 'I miss you, like the deserts miss the rain' song? Oh wow, I had no idea that was them. I haven't heard that in a long time. I always thought it was kind of boring when it first came out, but I dig it now. Who did I think sang that? Some sort of Paula Cole or Sophie B. Hawkins type? I digress... I a had great time listening to this album. The overall sound is really enjoyable, and in addition to the overall sound, there are plenty of wonderful little details too take in as well. There's definitely a mood that permeates the whole album, but I never felt like things were repetitive or boring. The musical arrangements were fantastic, and I loved how EBtG put their own stamp on the trip hop sound. The vocals were great as well, and Tracey Thorn will now be on my mind when I think of vocalists that I really like. This was a great discovery, and another reminder of how much fun it is to go through all of these albums.

chill vocals over a the mid-90s precursor of break beats, liquid dnb, and house elements with glitch elements mixed in make this an easy listening album and perfect vibe for the workday.

After weeks upon weeks of banal and trite classic rock per usual, and the occasional "one-hit-wonder's arbitrarily chosen album" on this list, this album was such a breath of fresh air. Every song on here feels richly produced, wonderfully sung and performed, and feels like an early precursor of the future deeper house and darker electronic music to come since this album's release. Thoroughly enjoyed every song here and I'm glad I did. I was so tired of giving out scores of "1" and "2' on this site week after week that I was getting close to abandoning this list entirely. Glad to see there are some good, lesser-played albums hiding on here instead of the typical "Beatles / Radiohead / (Insert classic rock band here)" which have already been praised to death

This is so my thing and I liked it a lot!

High-end dance club music, very sultry.

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

One of the best albums so far

Was already somewhat familiar with this dudes from a song on Eden (I Must Confess) which appeared on my discover weekly at least 5 or 6 years ago and ended up in my Jangle playlist. Had no idea that album was all the way from 1984. Anyway, I'm glad I had that point of comparison because this album that came 10 years later demonstrates some serious range and ability to adapt - Walking Wounded sounds so so different but equally as good. This is like a full on triphop masterclass. Beautiful production, heartfelt writing. Very tidy stuff.

Loving it right off the bat... great beat, her voice is butter....I'm totally in Love ❤️ and, I still am at the end, I'm so excited I found them !

A fave

9/10 I can’t decide if I like this more or less than Idlewild they’re both so great but in really different ways

I DID NOT EXPECT THIS TO BE SO GOOD???

Yes! This was the first Everything But The Girl album I ever listened to and I still absolutely love it through and through. I don't even recall why I chose to play it in the back at work back in my HMV days, but on a whim I did and I've been glad ever since. Extra nice to have this one come up now as their latest single was by far my most listened-to song of January, and I still can't get enough. The opening trio of songs wins me over and draws me right in. "Wrong" and "Single" are probably my two favourite songs on the album. The only stumble for me is "The Heart Remains a Child" - I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. Makes the album more of a 4.5 for me than an outright 5.

Aw hell yeah. I love Everything But The Girl and just a few months ago they announced a new album (maybe tour??). I love trip hop and EBTG is one of the first bands that introduced me to the genre.

Smoooth

I enjoy this quite a bit, I could really imagine vibing to this on a rainy drive.

Love it!

super chill easy listening

Need this for next break up

contains everything but what was advertised, subpar shit tbh. 10/10

Suena noventero y supermoderno a la vez. Avantpop y trip hop revolucionado, casi house en ocasiones. Para volver a él en cualquier momento, pega con todo y da muy buen rollo siempre.

Great trip-hop album.

Comprei esse CD em Curitiba aleatoriamente porque tinha gostado da capa. Coloquei no Backlog e prometi que ia ouvi-lo eventualmente. Bem, pelo jeito, esse dia é hoje! Muito bom, gostei. A palheta eletronica downbeat meio triphop com um pouco de jungle... Chill house... Executado com um otimo gusto. Os vocais aveludados, as letras agridoces. Esse CD certamente ficara no carro para ouvir dirigindo em noites solitarias. Analogo a um encontro de olhares com um desconhecido atraente. Dou preferencia as faixas mais animadas como Before Today e Wrong. As mais lentas, como The Heart Remains a Child nao me prenderam 100% 4.5/5

Very interesting never heard it before.

Solid album. Nice electronic beats and cool female vocals. Real smooth album with a little bite to it. Nothing blow me away here but I don’t think they were going for that. It’s a step up above lo-fi. Dare I say mid-vibe. Either way it’s definitely a vibe

a hell of a lot better than i was expecting

Enjoyable

Super decent pop sound. I dig it.

This is better than I was expecting. I came in thinking ugh. Early 90's British electronica at its most pastiche. And sure it's that, but it it also seems to be the best of that era. I really liked hanging out in clubs where this type of music played in the background. Music to drink fancy cocktails too.

I don't look at the album tracks, so I kept expecting Missing to come up.

“I think the heart remains a child. Why don’t you love me?” Homegirl went through the worst breakup of her life and said, “take me to the studio. I have some things I need to get off my chest.” I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Very real, genuine emotions and things we’ve all been through. “Do you like being single, do you want me back? Do I like being single? Am I coming back?”

This is kind of like if that one Beth Orton remix song was a whole album. Some trip hop stuff and also some garage and early IDM stuff. I really like the drums in pretty much every song - this was when ‘dance’ music wasn’t terrible and commercial. Singing is also great and there are some indie elements like guitars which I think also work quite well. Favourite songs: before today, wrong, walking wounded, flipside, big deal, mirrorball, good cop bad cop Overall around 7/10

Real easy listening, great vibes from the artist. Little melancholic but that's cool

Lamb-lite.

A good album to eat salad to.

This kind of downtempo & chill electronica really hits all the right notes for me. I'd abandoned this genre for some time and I loved re-engaging with it. I enjoyed this from beginning to end.

Definitely my kind of music. Really chill but not boring, faves were Wrong and Single.