Everything But The Girl: Walking Wounded [BUZZIN' FLY RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

This Buzzin' Fly reissue is a 180g pressing half-speed mastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road, with a lyric insert. The album reached No. 4 in the UK and both "Walking Wounded" and "Wrong" were top ten singles.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Half-speed master
• Lyric and credits insert

About the album

Some duos reinvent themselves with a haircut. Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt did it with a sampler. Coming off a surprise club smash from their previous album, they moved headlong into the sounds of mid-90s London, drum and bass, trip hop and house, and found that Thorn's soft, steady voice sat beautifully against hard, urban beats.

They also changed how they wrote. Watt built the tracks first at their home studio, Little Joey's, and Thorn wrote her lyrics after hearing them. "Walking Wounded" rides a skittering drum and bass pattern, "Wrong" is pure house euphoria, and "Single" sets her vocal against breakbeats, organ and strings, sampling Tim Buckley's Song to the Siren and Stan Tracey's Starless and Bible Black. "Before Today" opens the album with a quiet ache, and "Mirrorball" and "Flipside" keep the night going.

Thorn later called it their pop triumph, and Pitchfork's Ruth Saxelby noted that even Bristol's Roni Size gave it the thumbs up. It sold over 1.3 million copies and made the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die book. In other words, the sampler was money well spent.

Also at Kops: more Everything But The Girl on vinyl · browse Electronic

Tracklist

Listen

On Buzzin' Fly Records (cat# EBTG010V), a reissue of the 1996 album.