Track Listing

1. Five Fathoms
2. Low Tide Of The Night
3. Blame
4. Hatfield 1980
5. Temperamental
6. Compression
7. Downhill Racer
8. Lullaby Of Clubland
9. No Difference
10. Future Of The Future (Stay Gold)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20827 in Music
• Released on: 1999-09-27
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Temperamental is ample evidence of Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn's continuing evolution from an acoustic- guitar-based pair of comfortably suburban love griots to acoustically accomplished soundscape explorers who still have a weakness for a pleading melody. After Todd Terry's remix of "Missing" (from Amplified Heart) revitalised the duo, Watt took the opportunity to open their sound up to the clubs, all the while managing to retain the sense of warmth against which so much anonymously ironic dance music actively rebels. In doing so, Watt managed to create a bed of music that mirrors and complements Thorn's impossibly expressive, impossibly flat vocals. Though it carries EBTG's sound farther away from their deep roots, a good half of the songs on Temperamental still sound right at home next to their earlier acoustic work ("Hatfield 1980", "Low Tide of the Night" and "Lullaby of Clubland", which straddles the gap)--and those that don't, "Blame" and the instrumental "Compression" are more than enjoyable on their own terms. --Randy Silver

Customer Reviews

A perfect transition
I had only realised a few months ago that this album actually existed. I had always assumed when five fathoms was released, no album followed, but an album did follow, and what an excellent album. I was expecting to like the album, from after hearing the great single five fathoms, and I was really impressed.

I thought Tracey's voice always suited next to dance music than EBTG's previous work, and an album like this proved my point. With their hit song missing, I thought they'd be back with more to follow. But instead, two great albums followed. The previous album walking wounded was almost like changing over from their old style to the new, and in this album, they get it spot on. As soon as I first heard low tide of the night on this album I got shivers down my back, I could tell I was in for a great album.

I had their best of album for years and must've listened to it about 200 times, and I had always especially loved the remixes of driving and missing. I had always craved for more, and this album was almost like the missing piece of my puzzle.

This album is filled with perfect house music and two very addictive drum and bass songs, blame and compression, with a booming bassline and beats to blow your mind. This album was the stepping stone for Ben Watt to lead him on to a future in dance music as lazy dog.

So, to summarise, even if you've only heard of their song missing, you should definitley get this album. I'd give almost every song on this album 10 out of 10. A very underrated album. What a pity it all had to end here.

New forms, old ethics
New readers start here: Temperamental continues the long, slow evolution of Everything But The Girl, a band who've never been shy of exploring different styles and trends: jazz-flecked Eden, agit-pop on Love Not Money, coffee bar music with Idlewild, even big band sounds and smoooth shiny, shrink wrapped soul on Baby, The Stars Shine Bright and The Language of Life. Course it helps that Ben Watt is as talented a composer and arranger as any in the business, and the cool and lovely voice of Tracey Thorn could be singing the ingredients list on a cereal packet and you'd still want to listen. But what makes them special is they're keen observers of the human condition from blissed out lovers to drugged out club hedonism to marriages fallen apart and the restricted lives people lead because of poverty and fear. Temperamental explores new forms in rhythym and dance yet remains true to their old ethos - quite an achievement.

habit-forming
I have to 'fess up from the outset to hating almost everything about clubs. Avoiding the drunks and drugheads. Dodging the yobs swinging punches at each other amid the pools of sicked-up lager. Being made to stink of other people's cigarettes. And the incredible self-absorption of the least interesting, worst-dressed people on earth.

And the pounding crassness of most of the music. I mean, this market is so staggeringly uncritical of poor quality, it made a hit out of "Boom boom boom." That's how bad you can be and still make money.

Why am I banging on about this? Because in every decade there've always been one or two brilliant, tuneful dance acts. And when dance is good, it's very, very good. There's just something about listening to timeless dance music in the dark, in the car, in the rain. In the Seventies, it was Chic. In the Eighties, it was Shalamar. Today, it's EBTG.

This stuff is brilliant. I can't think of another word. I think their secret is that the tunes come first. All of these songs actually have one; the dance gloss comes later. There are a few tracks that sound like they've been listening to themselves a bit much, it has to be said. There's another Wrong and another Single on here. But that's OK cuz I loved those too.

I'd have given this five stars except that Ben and Trace have always been a bit up themselves lyrically, and they're getting worse. Poor old Trace remains in deadly earnest, like she's still a pale and interesting English student at Hull University (an oxymoron, if ever there was one) rather than a filthy rich woman pushing forty who doesn't work for a living.

But hey, who's complaining. Anything's better than "Boom boom boom, lemme hear ya say whoa. Whoa!"