| · Career-spanning compilation, personally selected by group principals Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt.
A full decade before their conversion to dance music recast them as the melancholy undertow of nightclub hedonism, Everything But The Girl were critically maligned and commercially neglected practitioners of an inherently adult model of pop. Although at times as faultlessly tasteful as Sade – who arguably exploited their early blueprint for greater rewards – Tracey Thorn’s resignedly sad voice and pathos-soaked lyrics have always given the duo’s music a weight that their peers rarely match. If you belong to the sizeable cult for whom that fusion appeals, their best records are incomparably moving and beautiful.
Like The Deserts Miss The Rain proves that Everything But The Girl have remained fundamentally the same throughout their two-decade career – only their rhythms have changed. Whether it’s 1984’s samba-inflected "Each And Every One," the floor-filling house staple "Tracey In My Room," or Thorn’s collaboration with Massive Attack, "Protection," their eternal discontent is music’s gain.
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