Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Tracey Thorn

Producer: Robin Millar

[Verse 1]
Something has come between me and the world that I knew
What I thought would last is falling apart
In the face of something new
How can I explain that I had no choice
The sound of the waves fills her ears and drowns out
Drowns out my voice
And I'm just too far away
For her to believe what I say
And she couldn't hear me, she wouldn't listen anyway

[Verse 2]
How can I write a letter the post is so slow
And if I'm to disappoint her that's something she ought to know
And I can just hear her voice fall as I wait here alone
How can so much harm be done by just two minutes
Spent on the phone?
You say that things will get better
But she would hate me if I let her
And she reads so much in every word that I say

[Verse 3]
And I thought that being apart would just bring us some variety
But after some time it seems clear that she's changed
In a different way from me
And I would like to shout at someone but no one's to blame
It's just her, it's just me and everything that is
Just not the same
Sometimes I would turn back the clock
Recapture all that we've lost
But I couldn't give up all that we have today

Originating at the turn of the 1980s as a leader of the lite-jazz movement, Everything but the Girl became an unlikely success story more than a decade later, emerging at the vanguard of the fusion between pop and electronica.

Founded in 1982 by Hull University students Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, the duo took their name from a sign placed in the window of a local furniture shop, which claimed “for your bedroom needs, we sell everything but the girl.” At the time of their formation, both vocalist Thorn and songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Watt were already signed independently to the Cherry Red label; Thorn was a member of the sublime Marine Girls, while Watt had issued several solo singles and also collaborated with Robert Wyatt.

Everything but the Girl debuted in 1982 with a samba interpretation of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day”; the single was a success on the U.K. independent charts, but the duo nonetheless went on hiatus as Thorn recorded a solo EP, A Distant Shore, while Watt checked in with the full-length North Marine Drive in 1983. EBTG soon reunited to record a cover of the Jam’s “English Rose” for an NME sampler; the track so impressed former Jam frontman Paul Weller that he invited the duo to contribute to the 1984 LP Cafe Bleu, the debut from his new project, the Style Council.

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Eden

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Eden (1984)

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Eden