Everything But The Girl ‎– Walking Wounded

Launched into the spotlight with thier mammouth cross-over hit "Missing" (Thanks to a genius re-work by legendery Todd Terry), Everything But The Girl became somewhat reclusive with thier subsequent albums following "Amplified Heart". With this relase, one that didn't obtain nearly as much commercial success as it desserved, they bring perfection to thier previously often flawed 'Emotive Electro' style. As always, Tracey Thorn's vocals are perfect. At a time when gushing diva-esque vocalists with a range larger than Mariah Carey's were all the rage in dance music, Thorne's vocals provided (and still provide) a breath of fresh air. It's her stunning tone and the quality of her voice that is so outstanding rather than her range.

Aside from the vocals, production matches up and is brilliant throughout. The difficult task of bringing together the emotive lyrics and vocals provided by Thorn with the striking hooks and beats that make this an electro/drum and bass influenced recording has been completed successfuly. Everything just sounds fantastic and most tracks are both instantly distinctive and appealing. The two remixes that appear (courtesy of Omni Trio and Todd Terry) seem tacked on to beef up the tracklist but this can't really be said to flaw the album - there a nice little extra if nothing else. Overall, this is a much over-looked piece of Electronica history that anyone with even a slight liking/interest for the genre should adore.

Maybe overlooked by most of electronica fans (and above them all, drum 'n bass elitists), this album was one of the first and one of the better in blending pure pop and cold beats, giving a very warm result. After working with Massive Attack in "Protection" (in the, IMHO, the best two tracks of that album), and after a very acoustic work called "Amplified heart" (the one which had "missing", and the infamous todd terry mix) they tried trip-hop and drum 'n bass but without changing the heart of the melodies. So Tracy still sang about love, deception, mixed feelings and self-compasion with chaotic but charming beats, synth strings and some loops. The results are far above contemporary or later singer/songwriter/beats attempts like Olive, Baxter, or even Lamb, at least in terms of heart. The melodies are inmediate, the hooks are great, and the mellow drum'n bass helps to make the mood the melody transmits more alienated (in "Walking wounded") or more desperate ("good cop bad cop"). The album ends with an unnecessary Todd Terry mix of "wrong" and one of the better Omni Trio mixes, "Walking wounded" (though it sounds shockingly similar to his "who are you"). Definitively, one of the most crucial works of electronica in the 90s.