Which, when applied to Everything But The Girl, can only result in a resounding Yes! and YES!!
I was over the moon when Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt announced on Twitter last November that they had made a new EBTG album, their first together in 24 years. Fuse will be out in April and the first single was teased yesterday.
Nothing Left To Lose is a spectacular comeback, a familiar fusion of heartache and hard beats. When Tracey comes in with the opening lines "I need a thicker skin / The pain keeps getting in", it's like meeting an old friend for the first time in a long while but feeling the hurt in that separation, as well as the joy of reuniting.
The video, directed by Charlie di Placido and choreographed by Miranda Chambers, is spectacular on an intimate level. No cameos from Tracey or Ben, but the five dancers in a cafe in the depth of night brilliantly captures the essence of the song.
I cannot wait to hear what the rest of Fuse sounds like. This promises to be no nostalgia trip but exactly how Everything But The Girl could and should sound in 2023.
Today's selection is a nostalgia trip, however, taking you back to the late 1990s and when Tracey and Ben were deeply immersed in club culture. I've avoided the obvious Todd Terry remix of Missing (Chris & James do the honours there) and gone for his rework of Wrong. You also get a healthy dose of BPMs courtesy of Darren Emerson and Peter Rauhofer as well as some pre- and post-club remixes from Brad Wood and Trevor Jackson.
The closing track is an older song, Everything But The Girl's cover of I Don't Want To Talk About It, which they released as a single in 1988, spending 9 weeks in the UK chart and reaching #3. Housemeister 69 put out a bootleg remix of the song in 2005, the same year that Virgin released the Adapt Or Die: Ten Years Of Remixes compilation. At that point, Tracey and Ben were doing their own thing - brilliantly, it has to be said - and six years on from the last EBTG album, even then the prospect of new music seemed remote.
It turns out the wait would be four times that but, if Nothing Left To Lose is anything to go by, boy is it worth it.
1) Single (Brad Wood Memphis Remix) (1996)
2) Missing (Chris & James Full On Club Mix) (1994)
3) Before Today (Darren Emerson Underwater Remix 2) (Full Length) (1997)
4) Five Fathoms (Club 69 Future Club Mix By Peter Rauhofer) (Full Length) (1999)
5) Wrong (Todd Terry Remix) (Full Length) (1996)
6) Driving (The Underdog Mix By Trevor Jackson) (1996)
7) I Don't Want To Talk About It (Housemeister 69 Mix) (Cover of Crazy Horse) (2005)
