The Best Of Everything But The Girl [2× Vinyl LP]

Everything But The Girl – The Best Of Everything But The Girl [2× Vinyl LP]

Details

• Format: 2× Vinyl LP, Compilation, Gatefold, Stereo
• Catalogue Number: EBTG018V
• Barcode: 840401714898
• Genre: Indie Pop / Sophisti-Pop / Electronic / Trip-Hop
• Label: Buzzin' Fly Records
• Released: 14 November 2025
• Condition: New & Sealed

Description

The Best Of Everything But The Girl is the definitive career retrospective from Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn — the Hull-born duo who began as one of the most distinctive voices in British indie jazz-folk in the early 1980s and ended up, via a decade of transformation, as architects of the late-1990s trip-hop and electronic pop sound. Released in November 2025 on their own Buzzin' Fly Records label — their first such compilation since the 1996 edition of the same name — it extends the story by nearly 30 years, spanning from their 1982 debut single "Night and Day" through to the acclaimed 2023 comeback album Fuse, which reached the UK Top 3 after a 24-year recording hiatus. It is the first compilation to incorporate material from Temperamental (1999), the 2002 remix single "Tracey in My Room" (Lazy Dog Bootleg Vocal Mix), their haunting cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Corcovado" (originally recorded for the Red Hot + Rio charity compilation in 1996), and three tracks from Fuse.

The tracklist traces one of the most quietly remarkable stylistic evolutions in British music: from the breezy guitar-pop of "Each and Every One" (1984) and the affecting folk-jazz of "I Don't Want to Talk About It" and "Night and Day", through the transitional "Driving" and "The Only Living Boy in New York" (their tender Paul Simon cover), into the seismic mid-career pivot of "Missing" — co-produced by Thorn and Watt with Todd Terry, whose 1995 remix became a global dancefloor phenomenon, reaching number three in the UK and number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, and spending a record-breaking 55 weeks on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. The album then moves into the deep-focus electronica of "Walking Wounded", "Single", and "Before Today", and closes with the restrained, emotionally lucid pop of Fuse: "Nothing Left to Lose", "Run a Red Light", and "Cross My Heart" — songs that demonstrated, emphatically, that the decade of silence had not diminished them.

The audio for this vinyl edition was newly mastered at Abbey Road Studios by Miles Showell, cut at half-speed in Room 30 — a technique Showell has applied to acclaimed reissues by Paul McCartney, Elton John, Roxy Music, and others, producing demonstrably wider stereo imaging, improved transient detail, and reduced high-frequency distortion compared to standard-speed cutting. The matrix confirms the process: "MILES. ABBEY ROAD. ROOM30" is etched into all four sides. The pressing is presented in a gatefold sleeve and accompanied by a booklet containing full lyrics and comprehensive credits — a generous physical package that does justice to the breadth and quality of the music it collects.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Missing (Todd Terry Remix)
2. Nothing Left to Lose
3. Tracey in My Room (Lazy Dog Bootleg Vocal Mix)
4. Walking Wounded
5. Single
6. Corcovado

Side B

1. Before Today
2. No Difference
3. Driving
4. Each and Every One
5. Rollercoaster

Side C

1. I Don't Want to Talk About It
2. The Only Living Boy in New York
3. Cross My Heart
4. Run a Red Light

Side D

1. Night and Day

Credits

• Tracey Thorn – Vocals
• Ben Watt – Guitar, Keyboards, Production
• Todd Terry – Remix Production (Missing)
• Lazy Dog – Remix Production (Tracey in My Room)
• Miles Showell – Mastering & Half-Speed Cutting, Abbey Road Studios Room 30
• Label – Buzzin' Fly Records