Everything But The Girl

Everything But the Girl began during the early '80s in the Northeastern English city of Hull (known also for indie-pop band the Housemartins, and the poet Philip Larkin) as a jazz-lite/sophistipop project, but the years since have confirmed the duo as a heavyweight addition to that sublime, trippy, ethereal space where pop, dance, and electronica intertwine. Based around the pairing of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt — creative partners who also happen to be married to each other — EBTG has produced everything from heartbreaking covers ("I Don't Want to Talk About It") to chilled club classics (the remixed version of "Missing").

Experience more of EBTG's sonic accents and moods in Next Steps.

Few bands come close to matching the scope, attention to detail, and versatility of EBTG: Here, we span the gap between doleful acoustic ballad "Fascination" (from 1984 debut album Eden) and "Mirrorball," a highlight on the 1996 album Walking Wounded, which found them exploring the exotic shores of electronica, inspired by the remix possibilities of club music. In between, we were treated to "Don't Leave Me Behind" from 1986's Baby, the Stars Shine Bright (an album of original tunes recorded with full orchestral backing), and the gorgeous "I Always Was Your Girl" from Idlewild (1988).

Check out some of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt's earliest recordings, in Deep Cuts.

Here, we supply the bread for EBTG's endlessly nourishing musical sub — some of the work they put out before their debut album, and after the band's 1999 hiatus. Marine Girls showcased Thorn's vocal skills in the early phase of her career (as you'll hear on "A Different Light"), while Watt tested pop's waters with North Marine Drive ("On Box Hill"). Impressed by EBTG's cover of the Jam track "English Rose," Paul Weller invited the pair to collaborate with him on his Style Council album Café Bleu, and you'll realize exactly why once you've heard Thorn's sublime, smoky vocal on "The Paris Match." More recently, there's "Why Does the Wind?" from her third solo album, Love and Its Opposite (2010).

Under the name Everything But the Girl (borrowed, incidentally, from a furniture store that claimed, "For your bedroom needs we sell everything but the girl"), Ben Watt and golden-voiced Tracey Thorn have established a back-catalog of stunning imagination and variety: a collection of styles, collaborations, and moods drawn from original and borrowed material that has marked them out as masters of superbly crafted pop. By turns orchestral, minimal, acoustic, rockin', ambient, trippy, funky, clubby, and jazzy, the couple always wear the stamp of quality: these Essentials represent a cherry-picked overview of their kaleidoscopic output, up to final EBTG album Temperamental (1999) and beyond, into various side and solo projects.