Walking Wounded

I was a late adopter of EBTG falling in love with their most recent release ("Tempermental" in '99), and then devouring their work backwards. EBTG's sounds have morphed very significantly since the 80's but I would say that "Tempermental" and "Walking Wounded" are quite similar (Tempermental is my personal favorite). This band is always at the razors edge of innovation. As evidence, this album could be considered "modern" if released today despite its being almost a decade old.

Similar to "Tempermental" in theme, this CD is even more melancholy; centered around the pain in losing love, coming to grips with a new life, and suffering the understandably conflicted feelings of blame, optimism, and nostalgia as a newly single woman...

Aside from the extraordinarily addictive rhythms, the asymmetrical tempo of percussion and base, the ominous sounding samples that pepper this entire album, it's the voice of Tracey Thorn that stitches everything together, softening it, warming the clinical into the comfortable...as I note in the title of this review, this is one of those few electronic CD's that, despite the occassional speed in tempo, I take to bed with me.

Every song on the album is worth getting acquainted with, although my favorites are:

"Single"...if this isn't THE SONG to listen to post-breakup to stir your emotions (as if they'd need any more rousing)...

"Before Today"...just as with "Single", this song shares the same theme but is laid against more determination (vs. resignation); much faster, and less likely to make you...well, let's just say it's less likely to make you feel very emotional (forgive me, but I'm a man and would rather not be advertising the potential of this song to "make you cry").

"Walking Wounded"...erratic electronic tempo (which may be an intentional reflection of the kind of conflicted and pained emotions she attempts to convey in her lyrics) set against hauntingly beautiful vocals.

"Good Cop Bad Cop"...i almost always forget to play this song when I'm listening to this CD (it's track 9); just a gem of a song. Very simple lyrics (almost all hook) set to a background that oscillates between near silence, and machine-gun fast percussion.

I really couldn't say enough good things about this album. For those of you who've only heard what's been played on the radio, and love it, absolutely buy a CD from this group. I guess the only question would be "which one". As I mentioned earlier, "Tempermental" is my favorite album of theirs, but not by too wide a margin.

If you find yourself absolutely in love with this type sound I'm afraid I won't be much help in finding you a close match, although consider checking out "Zero 7", their new album "When It Falls" is a fantastic (albeit slower) type sound with similarly beautiful vocals against modern and interesting rhthyms.

Hope this helped.