Whenever I listen to music now, it’s seldom anything recent. I guess I have become a snob in my early twenties (I started this article at 22 and my birthday is in six days), but I just can’t really get into anything new that I hear. So when I try to discover new music I go way back into past decades and those are usually goldmines for great music. (Sidenote: Of course, there’s great music out now, but I had to make a point.) I have been on an 80s Synth and Sophisti-pop kick for the past couple months and Baby, The Stars Shine Bright has been the album I go back to on a weekly basis. I discovered Everything But The Girl (EBTG) after Tyler, The Creator mentioned lead singer Tracey Thorn during his Flower Boy interview with Jerrod Carmichael. He also wasn’t shy to let people know that he’d listen to their song “Night and Day” every single day at the exact same time every day. Now, I don’t hide the fact that Tyler is my favorite artist ever so, when I heard him say that, then hearing the song on Koopz from Stray Rats’ radio show, Koopz Tunez, I knew I had to dive into their catalog. “Night and Day” is a cover of Cole Porter’s song of the same name. Tracey sings in her trademark sleepily, deep voice over other member Ben Watt’s homey, filtered sounding guitar playing. I instantly knew why Tyler loved it. It has the same effect that “Bonita Applebum” by A Tribe Called Quest has, it’s timeless. It’s really stripped down, but it’s not doing too little. It’s just enough to hold your attention then by the end you’re like, “I have to play this fifty-eight more times.” The lyrics, too. Especially that second verse:

Day and night
Why is it so
That this longing for you
Follows me wherever I go?
In the roaring traffic’s boom
In the silence of my lonely room
I think of you
Night and day

That feeling is everlasting. So, if all of their songs were like that, I was in for a treat. And for the most part I was right.

Their first handful of albums are what you’d expect from a UK sophist-pop outfit from the 80s: Groovy bassline, a couple of horn sections, some reverbed drums, and Tracey Thorn’s singing to wrap it all together. But, when I got to Baby I was looking at the cover and saw the words, “ARRANGED FOR ORCHESTRA BY BEN WATT” and, if you know me, orchestras are an instant cheat code when it comes to getting me hooked. I noticed something else, too: There’s virtually no press for this album. No archived reviews, no 1986 interviews, nothing. It would be easier to attribute that to the group not being big in the states until the 90s, but you’d think there’d be a hometown publication or some weird hip zine from back in the day that caught on early, but no. Almost every other album the group has made has gotten its share of criticisms, but this one is few and far between. When you do find it, you’ll see that people hated the “left-turn” they made and said it began a “middle-period” for the group. Granted, right after this they when right back to their more stripped-down brit-jazz roots. Idlewild sounds more like Sade than anything. Then, fast forward to their 1994 effort, Amplified Heart and everyone loves the more digital approach to the production that the group took, but for my money? Baby is the one.

So, I hit play on “Come on Home” and was immediately greeted with an inviting string section that makes way Tracey and Ben to knock your socks off with just her voice, a bass/lead guitar, and piano. Then, the strings comeback in to say hello and once you think you know where the song is headed, the hook comes and it’s arrival is signal by these bombastic horns that sound like royal is descending from the castle. The lyrics are as timeless as ever. Speaking of longing for your special person to be at your side again and forget everything that’s going on outside.

For it’s mighty quiet here now that you’re gone
And I’ve been behaving myself for too long
‘Cause I don’t like sleeping or watching TV on my own

You don’t want to do your routines without them you’re basically begging them to come home so things can feel right and get back to normal. Right out the gate the duo have their feet on the gas, and they keep it there the entire album. “A Country Mile” is a song about how tempting the trappings of fame seem, but the right person could lead you on the right path (I think.) This song catches me because it sounds like a beautiful country song. Ben plays the guitar with some twang as if Johnny Cash had a guest verse. Same effect that Alabama Shakes has. Plus, how Tracey’s voice keeps going up in pitch at the end? Wow. Something you’ll notice while listening is the classic case of “Major-key instrumentation, Minor-key lyrics.” “Cross My Heart” is an insanely-awesome example of this. I legit love this song. Okay, stick with me, it starts off with just a vibraphone and horn accompanied with Tracey’s harmonies then the drums do a fill almost saying, “You’re not gonna believe this.” Then (!!!), the strings and guitars come in for the hook and your entire face scrunches up because the musicality is just way too much. While all of this is going on, Tracey is detailing an emotionally distant relationship that went south and fast. She tries to act confident about the relationship being in the past, and tries to cement it with “If I should tell a lie, I cross my heart and hope to die.” But, by the end of the song she admits that she often wonders what they are doing and if it’s okay to pry into their personal life. Then, at the end just outright admitting, “I hope we never die, cross my heart.” If you hear that outro with Tracey repeating “Cross my heart” as the song slowly fades out and don’t shed a tear I don’t know if you’re human.

The stretch from “Sugar Finney” to “Little Hitler” might be some of the best music from 86. Okay, first off, “Sugar Finney” is a song inspired by the life of Marilyn Monroe. Thorn wrote the song after reading her autobiography and seeing her in a different light. She said, “I think of her [Marilyn Monroe – Ed] as someone crushed by the American way. I wrote about her after reading a biography and becoming aware of her in a way which hadn’t occurred to me before.” Sugar Finney was the name of the cat that belonged to Monroe’s stepchildren, Bobby and Jane. Sidenote: Damn, her life was sure depressing. I could make a whole article about how old Hollywood was a weird and depressing time. Anyways, this song is a classic headbobber, as long as you don’t dive into the lyrics. Those horn stabs mesh perfectly with the strings. The piano is the gift-wrap and the drums are the bow on top. The piano descends notes when Tracey says, “America is free, cheap and easy” the first time, then ascends before the second time she says it and it’s those little touches that you can only get with live instruments. You get the sense that everyone was in the same room looking at each other like, “Woah, you really just did that.” Especially during the bridge, Ben takes lead with the main guitar, and everyone else is in such a pocket. Listen to how the drummer, Rob Peters, hits those snares with this soft ferocity. The bassist, Micky Harris, holds that groove like his life is depending on it. Watt and the pianist, Cara Tivey, bounce off each other to the point where it literally sounds like the piano is bouncing off of the guitar notes. It’s so incredible. Right after this track is my hands down favorite song on the album and my favorite EBTG song so far, “Come Hell or High Water,” listen, I absolutely love this song. Tracey sounds so sad, yet triumphant. It’s what I love about good country songs. There’s always an air of triumphant melancholy within the vocal delivery and the lyrics. This song is oozing that. Right out the gate Tracey commands your attention by singing in a louder volume over just piano, drums and guitar. This is sick because you really feel the emotion in her voice, and as she sings other elements get added in, but you’re so entranced by her voiced that you don’t notice until the strings come in and you go: “Oh, there’s instruments!” They play a pretty straightforward melody the entire song, but after the second verse the background harmonies and strings get more prominent and it create this beautiful sound landscape. For those not from here, this is what a Nashville sunset sounds like. “Fighting Talk” is a song that goes absolutely dumb for no apparent reason. A song about abusive arguments shouldn’t sound this good, but hot damn it does. Thorn sings about a relationship that is on the rocks, one person turns verbally abusive during disagreements while the other just wants them to find peace with each other. Sounds depressing right? Read this:

“But it’s so cruel how the moment can let you down
And how eloquence deserts you
When you find yourself on sensitive ground
You slam the door and turn the catch
You turned our home into a prison
Conversation to a slanging match“

That’s the whole second verse. But, every instrument is playing major notes so it creates this air of contrast. Plus, the laughs after the bridge make you think that this is a positive song, but the lyrics say otherwise. File “Little Hitler” in the “How To End an Album” category. For a couple reasons, too. 1. Tracey ascends into another echelon of harmony on this one, she sounds like a god on this one. 2. Those drums, oh my god they punch a hole in your chest. 3. The strings sound like they’re crying because of the lyrics and the saddening circle of violence Tracey describes. 4. That fucking piano, ’nuff said. 5. One specific moment that makes my entire body scrunch up and react like my world just collapsed: After the last chorus, the strings all ascend and your eyes start to well up and right when the tears are about to fall, they just cut out. Oh my god it’s the best thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life. Seriously, I can’t believe that that existed for DECADES before I finally heard it. It sounds like something I should’ve grown up with and had in my head forever, but I’m so thankful that I did eventually hear it. Music is so amazing, man.

This album slips through the cracks of EBTG’s legacy quite often, but it’s my favorite album by them. I’ll scream my head off about this one forever, to whoever will listen. I love it that much. Endless love to Tracey and Ben for making something this timeless. Speaking of, the duo just released a new album this year called, Fuse. Give it a spin! They’re keeping music interesting as they always have and I hope they keep turning heads.

Follow DESHAUN*: @deshaunstar

Follow Us: @thebummermag