Album Review: Solo: Songs and Collaborations 1982-2015 by Tracey Thorn

Amusingly split into two halves called 'Bedist' and 'Disco Queen', this look back at the Everything But The Girl singer's solo career pulls together the best of both, with the former including collaborations with Robert Wyatt and The Style Council, and the latter featuring remixes and collabs from Massive Attack, Morgan Geist and Tevo Howard. It's on the 'Disco Queen' side that Thorn's voice really shines through, with both Geist's mix of 'Why Does The Wind' and Escort's extended remix of 'It's All True' being as good as anything Todd Terry did to EBTG back in the 90s. File under Design of two decadesDownload 'It's All True' (Escort Extended remix), 'Raise The Roof' (Beyond The Wizard Sleevere-animation)Like this? Try Everything But The Girl 'Temperamental' (Virgin)Released: 23/10/2015 .

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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.

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Tracey Thorn‘s career trajectory is – or surely should be – the stuff of a Hollywood movie. Shy acoustic wallflower murmurings sung from her cupboard (due to crippling stage fright); emerges through her entanglement and subsequent marriage to partner Ben Watt; all tunefully documented on albums taking in samba, sombre and string-laden paeans to modern love, loss and longing. That’s not even mentioning her being one of the defining voices of landmark trip-hop through work with Massive Attack and her ensuing rebirth as a dance-auteur collaborator.

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As half of the dance duo Everything But the Girl, Tracey Thorn and her brooding alto turned the downtempo lament “Missing” into a late-’90s monster hit. But Thorn’s talents go far beyond her ability to turn gloom into something danceable. The two-disc compilation “Solo” takes a tour through her solo career, from the scruffy, thoughtful tracks she released with the label Cherry Red through the songs she contributed to the 2014 girls’-school mystery “The Falling.

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