As one half of the alt-acoustic-turned-alt-electronic duo Everything but the Girl, Tracey Thorn enthralled critics and fans alike with her expressive, supple vocals and her knack for writing melodies that were as subtle as they were unforgettable. Even so, it often seemed that Thorn’s contributions to EBTG were overshadowed by husband-bandmate Ben Watt’s technical wizardry in the studio. Thorn’s solo effort—her first since 1982’s A Distant Shore—should correct this unfortunate occurrence. Returning to recording following a too-long absence of five years (she walked away from music to raise three children with Watt), Thorn hooked up with producer/remixer/DJ wunderkind Ewan Pearson (Goldfrapp, Pet Shop Boys, Nelly Furtado, The Chemical Brothers, et al.) and a few others to lay down 11 tracks that re-establish her as one of contemporary music’s most exciting voices—and one of dance music’s most sophisticated artists. First single “It’s All True” is a perfect mix of EBTG’s early forays into jazzy acoustica (there’s nothing like a little sax to pep up a disco tune) and their more recent excursions into clubland, demonstrating Thorn’s ability to seamlessly incorporate elements from a wide variety of genres into a one cohesive sound. Elsewhere, Thorn tackles the effects of adolescent cruelty on the haunting “A-Z,” encourages a friend to extricate herself from a dead-end relationship on “Falling off a Log,” and welcomes an old friend back into the fold on the stunning “Grand Canyon.” Thorn also fuses a handful of lovely ballads that tackle domesticity and adulthood (of which “By Piccadilly Station I Sat Down and Wept” is a standout) with the same electronic blips and beeps. The result is a sublime record that never panders to formula. Some might find Thorn’s mid-tempo musings a bit too low-key for the dance floor, but by humanizing the often-cold genre of electronic with such lyrical attention to detail, Thorn has once again helped to raise the bar for quality.
~ Ken Knox
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