Tracey Thorn - Out of the Woods (OMM review mentions PSB)
Posted: Sun 18 Feb 2007, 4:07 pm
The first solo set in decades by the Everything But the Girl star may be the pinnacle of ther career, believes Paul Lynn
Wow. In a 25-year pop lifespan, Everything But the Girl's mild-mannered and almost unmarketable singer has remained untouched by fashion. Initially, then, her new, cool little solo record, her first apart from husband Ben Watt since 1982's A Distant Shore, has a slightly destabilising effect on the listener. No matter; Out of the Woods could well be the record of Thorn's quietly unsung career. Imagine the last Madonna and/or Pet Shop Boys records if they'd been made on primarily soulful, rather than commercial, pretexts, and you're halfway there.
Tracey's voice - forever one of British pop's better instruments - is rich in texture and meaning, slightly sad but with a base note of joyous redemption. It's put to exemplary use here. The backbone of the set is voguish club music. The spare and glittery electro grooves of single 'It's All True', borrowed with affection from shrink-wrapped old Sleeping Bag 12-inch singles, is a neat bridge into the warm, languid funk of her reinterpretation of Arthur Russell's 'Get Around to It' and the spare house of 'Grand Canyon' and 'Falling off a Log'.
When she cuts her vocals loose, on the gentler moments, though, she truly soars. On 'A-Z' she takes a touching tale of a bullied kid leaving home for the metropolis and sets it against a spine-tinglingly spare electronic motif. It's like 'Vienna' without the pompous self-importance or 'Smalltown Boy' for the civil partnership generation. The magical bookends to the suite - the pastoral, Beatle-y opener 'Here it Comes Again' and glowing rub-a-dub finale 'Raise the Roof' - lend the album a concept feel of the beginning and the end of an awesome house party, before the door opens and when the last, glassy-eyed reveller is still dancing at four in the morning. There isn't a duff or thoughtless moment between them.
****
Download: 'A-Z'; 'Here it Comes Again'
Wow. In a 25-year pop lifespan, Everything But the Girl's mild-mannered and almost unmarketable singer has remained untouched by fashion. Initially, then, her new, cool little solo record, her first apart from husband Ben Watt since 1982's A Distant Shore, has a slightly destabilising effect on the listener. No matter; Out of the Woods could well be the record of Thorn's quietly unsung career. Imagine the last Madonna and/or Pet Shop Boys records if they'd been made on primarily soulful, rather than commercial, pretexts, and you're halfway there.
Tracey's voice - forever one of British pop's better instruments - is rich in texture and meaning, slightly sad but with a base note of joyous redemption. It's put to exemplary use here. The backbone of the set is voguish club music. The spare and glittery electro grooves of single 'It's All True', borrowed with affection from shrink-wrapped old Sleeping Bag 12-inch singles, is a neat bridge into the warm, languid funk of her reinterpretation of Arthur Russell's 'Get Around to It' and the spare house of 'Grand Canyon' and 'Falling off a Log'.
When she cuts her vocals loose, on the gentler moments, though, she truly soars. On 'A-Z' she takes a touching tale of a bullied kid leaving home for the metropolis and sets it against a spine-tinglingly spare electronic motif. It's like 'Vienna' without the pompous self-importance or 'Smalltown Boy' for the civil partnership generation. The magical bookends to the suite - the pastoral, Beatle-y opener 'Here it Comes Again' and glowing rub-a-dub finale 'Raise the Roof' - lend the album a concept feel of the beginning and the end of an awesome house party, before the door opens and when the last, glassy-eyed reveller is still dancing at four in the morning. There isn't a duff or thoughtless moment between them.
****
Download: 'A-Z'; 'Here it Comes Again'
I really like It's All True, it's classy and from the review it sounds like the rest of the album is too! 
