With her gorgeous mellow tone, understated delivery and slightly melancholic timbre, Tracey Thorn possesses one of the most distinctive – and beautiful – voices in pop. Though a large portion of the 53-year-old chanteuse’s career has been intertwined with her husband, Ben Watt – for 16 years they performed as the internationally successful duo, Everything But The Girl – this new compilation focuses on projects she released under her own name plus sundry collaborations, remixes and assorted feature spots. Above all else, this 34-track assemblage highlights the fact that Thorn’s trajectory has been an unpredictable and surprising one.
Her early work – represented by the charmingly jejune Plain Sailing from her 82 debut LP, A Distant Shore – boasts skeletal acoustic arrangements that lean towards a folk sensibility while her most recent recordings have embraced disco and electronica. In addition to her solo forays this retrospective includes Thorn’s guest cameos on the Style Council’s jazz-infused Paris Match, Working Week’s Latin-inflected Venceremos (a duet with Robert Wyatt) and Massive Attack’s Protection and Better Things, where she imbues the trip-hop pioneer’s grooves with a mournful soulfulness. These together with the singer’s more recent collaborations (Tiefschwartz and Tevo Howard) serve to underline Thorn’s versatility and eclecticism. - Record Collector.
Disc: 1
1 Oh, the Divorces!
2 Under the Ivy
3 Small Town Girl
4 Plain Sailing
5 Hands Up to the Ceiling
6 Follow Me Down
7 Goodbye Joe
8 Hormones
9 Taxi Cab
10 Sister Winter
11 Overture (Feat. Tracey Thorn) - The Unbending Trees, Tracey Thorn
12 King's Cross (Hot Chip Remix)
13 Swimming (Visionquest Remix)
14 The Paris Match (Feat. Tracey Thorn) - The Style Council, Tracey Thorn
15 Venceremos (We Will Win) (Feat. Robert Wyatt, Tracey Thorn and Claudia Figueroa) (7" Bossa Version) - Working Week
16 How Wild the Wind Blows
17 Singles Bar
18 The Book of Love
19 Late in the Afternoon
20 Joy
Disc: 2
1 Protection (Feat. Tracey Thorn) (7") - Massive Attack, Tracey Thorn
2 Easy
3 Better Things (Feat. Tracey Thorn) - Massive Attack
4 Night Time
5 Raise the Roof (Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve Re-animation)
6 You Are a Lover (Clock Opera Remix)
7 It's All True (Escort Extended Remix)
8 Grand Canyon (Ada Remix)
9 Why Does the Wind? (Morgan Geist Remix)
10 Damage (Feat. Tracey Thorn) - Tiefschwarz, Tracey Thorn
11 Without Me (Feat. Tracey Thorn) - Tevo Howard, Tracey Thorn
12 The Tree Knows Everything (Feat. Tracey Thom)
13 Swimming (Visionquest Remix)
14 The Tree Knows Everything (Clean Edit) - Adam F., Tracey Thorn
