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Temperamental (Everything but the Girl album)

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Temperamental
Studio album by
Everything but the Girl
Released27 September 1999 (1999-09-27)
Genre
Length56:47
Label
Producer
Everything but the Girl chronology
Walking Wounded
(1996) 		Temperamental
(1999) 		Like the Deserts Miss the Rain
(2003)
Singles from Temperamental
  1. "The Future of the Future (Stay Gold)"
    Released: 21 September 1998
  2. "Five Fathoms"
    Released: 13 September 1999
  3. "Blame"
    Released: 6 December 1999
  4. "Temperamental"
    Released: 21 February 2000
  5. "Lullaby of Clubland"
    Released: 27 November 2000

Temperamental is the tenth studio album by English musical duo Everything but the Girl. It was released on 27 September 1999 and issued by Virgin Records and Atlantic Records. It was the last Everything but the Girl album before they entered a two-decade hiatus.

Background

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Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt recorded Temperamental in the immediate period following the birth of their twin daughters in 1998. Due to Thorn's preoccupation with motherhood, her level of involvement in the creation of the album was scaled back, with Watt taking on a more prominent role in writing lyrics and music.[1][2] Thorn recorded most of her vocals during late-night studio sessions, after the twins had gone to sleep.[1] In her autobiography Bedsit Disco Queen (2013), she remarked that "in a sense, [she] ended up being guest vocalist on someone else's album".[1]

Watt continued to build on the sound of Everything but the Girl's previous album Walking Wounded (1996), on which the duo worked with electronic music artists such as Howie B and Spring Heel Jack, in producing Temperamental. He incorporated production techniques that he had learned from his three years as a resident DJ at Bar Rumba and Notting Hill Arts Club into the album's songs, including crossfading, back spinning, and filtering.[3]

Composition

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AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine viewed Temperamental as a continuation of the musical direction pursued by Everything but the Girl on Walking Wounded, merging electronica with elements of folk, jazz, and pop.[4] He described the album's musical style as a minor refinement of that of Walking Wounded, downplaying its drum and bass and trip hop influences in favour of a more house-driven sound.[4] Salon's Amanda Nowinski wrote that Temperamental retains drum and bass breakbeats but is mostly informed by "old-school" garage house,[5] while NME characterised the album as "a left-turn into deep house ambience and trip-hop grooves" that is "punctuated by vulnerable lyrics and vocal performances" from Tracey Thorn.[6] Music journalist Roni Sarig wrote that it explores "various beats and textures while pairing them with soul/pop melodies."[7] Michael White of The Quietus called Temperamental "an aesthetic continuation" of Walking Wounded, "synthesizing the most recent developments of clubland with the duo's intrinsic song-based approach."[8] This reliance on dance music is notable on the album's first single, "The Future of the Future (Stay Gold)", which features Deep Dish and is composed upon a sample of the band's 1996 single "Stay Gold".

Erlewine noted that the songs on Temperamental "are essentially in the singer/songwriter vein" and described the album as a whole as "more of a meditative, reflective piece", while also observing a relative lack of pop hooks compared to Walking Wounded.[4] White remarked on the contrast between the "swaggering urban rhythms" of the music and the deeply introspective nature of the lyrics.[8] "It's not as poppy as Walking Wounded," Thorn would later write, attributing the album's darker and less accessible nature to the circumstances surrounding its creation: "It's like going back to Amplified Heart: you can tell it's made by people who are in a stage of turmoil and change again."[2] Thorn, composing lyrics for Temperamental, found herself unable to articulate her feelings about motherhood and other significant changes occurring in her life at the time, and as a result she instead opted to write from a non-autobiographical standpoint.[2] It has been suggested that much of the material also deals with the duo's feelings towards the fame they had attained, following the success of Todd Terry's remix of their 1994 track "Missing" and Walking Wounded. According to Laura Snapes of Pitchfork, songs such as "The Future of the Future (Stay Gold)" feature "pessimistic lyrics [that] spoke of alienation not just from other people, but from any sense of the past or the future."[9]

Release and promotion

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Temperamental was released in most territories on 27 September 1999 by Virgin Records, while in the United States, it was issued the following day by Atlantic Records.[10] By the end of 1999, Temperamental had sold 115,000 copies in the US, according to Billboard.[11] It sold over 500,000 copies worldwide[12] and was met with success in the dance market. Five singles were released from the album: "The Future of the Future (Stay Gold)" on 21 September 1998[13] (US Dance No. 1, UK No. 31), "Five Fathoms" on 13 September 1999[14] (US Dance No. 1, UK No. 27), "Blame" on 6 December 1999,[15] "Temperamental" on 21 February 2000[16] (US Dance No. 1, UK No. 72), and "Lullaby of Clubland" on 27 November 2000[17] (US Dance No. 3).[18][19] The tracks were remixed by high profile DJs, such as Kruder & Dorfmeister, Hex Hector and Mac Quayle, Kenny Dope and Deep Dish, as well as Watt himself. Videos were made for "The Future of the Future" (dir. Huds), "Five Fathoms" (dir. Mark Szaszy) and "Temperamental" (dir. Mike Mills).

Everything but the Girl toured the album in the United States and Europe, playing gigs, festivals, and TV shows such as Nulle part ailleurs and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Their show played at the Montreux Jazz Festival on 15 July 2000 remains the duo's last concert in front of an audience. Since then, Thorn has stated that she has no intention of playing live due to anxiety, and Everything but the Girl likewise has no plans to perform live.[20][21]

Temperamental was reissued by Edsel Records as a two-disc deluxe set on 4 September 2015.[22]

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
The Boston Phoenix[23]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[24]
Los Angeles Times[25]
NME1/10[26]
Pitchfork5.3/10[27]
Q[28]
Record Collector[29]
Rolling Stone[30]
Spin9/10[31]

Spin critic Barry Walters said that on Temperamental, "EBTG's early bossa-nova folk has been fully transformed into a contemporary sonic physicality that washes the album's desperation with sweaty, regenerative joy", finding that the duo's "radical departure" on Walking Wounded sounds "tentative by comparison."[31] In his review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that "Temperamental isn't all that different than its predecessor, but its blend of house, electronica, pop, jazz, and folk is equally satisfying as that landmark album."[4] Ernesto Lechner of the Los Angeles Times stated that the duo manages "to dispel any doubts about its validity in the field of ethereal dance music",[25] while in Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield noted their "elegantly morose songcraft" and concluded, "if Cole Porter had composed a disco song cycle for Dusty Springfield, it might have sounded like this."[30] Daryl Easlea, in a retrospective review for Record Collector, highlighted Thorn's performance on the album, commenting that "her ability to understate emotion is arguably unparalleled in British pop music".[29]

In a more critical assessment, Pitchfork's Ryan Schreiber felt that Everything but the Girl had not progressed musically on Temperamental "despite extreme advances in the sound of electronic music in the three years since Walking Wounded was released".[27] NME reviewer Gill Whyte disparaged the duo's take on house music as "diabolically banal, ersatz coffee-table, piss-weak tinniness", and their lyrics as "nothing more than the moanings of a 30-something, glossy-reading self-help enthusiast".[26]

Track listing

[edit]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Five Fathoms"Ben Watt6:24
2."Low Tide of the Night"Watt4:45
3."Blame"
6:18
4."Hatfield 1980"
  • Watt
  • Thorn
5:12
5."Temperamental"Watt5:20
6."Compression"
  • Watt
  • Thorn
7:11
7."Downhill Racer"
  • Watt
  • Thorn
3:49
8."Lullaby of Clubland"Watt5:30
9."No Difference"
  • Watt
  • Thorn
4:26
10."The Future of the Future (Stay Gold)" (with Deep Dish)
7:52
Total length:56:47

2015 Edsel Records reissue

[edit]
Disc 1
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Five Fathoms"Ben Watt6:24
2."Low Tide of the Night"Watt4:45
3."Blame"
6:18
4."Hatfield 1980"
  • Watt
  • Thorn
5:12
5."Temperamental"Watt5:20
6."Compression"
  • Watt
  • Thorn
7:11
7."Downhill Racer"
  • Watt
  • Thorn
3:49
8."Lullaby of Clubland"Watt5:30
9."No Difference"
  • Watt
  • Thorn
4:26
10."The Future of the Future (Stay Gold)" (with Deep Dish)
7:52
11."Firewall" (b-side)Watt5:26
12."Come In" (demo)Watt4:59
13."Temperamental" (live at The Forum, London, 1999)Watt6:02
Total length:73:14
Disc 2
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Five Fathoms" (Club 69 Future Club Mix)Ben Watt9:18
2."Five Fathoms" (Kevin Yost's Enlightenment Mix)Watt7:31
3."Temperamental" (Pull's Timewrap Mix)Watt6:03
4."Temperamental" (Hex Hector & Mac Quayle Revers Drum Dub)Watt5:51
5."Temperamental" (Wamdue Project Remix)Watt14:55
6."Blame" (Fabio Remix)
  • Watt
  • Thorn
6:54
7."Blame" (J Majik VIP Remix)
  • Watt
  • Thorn
6:02
8."Downhill Racer" (Kenny Dope Remix)
  • Watt
  • Thorn
3:31
9."Lullaby of a Clubland" (Markus Schulz Tribal Journey)Watt7:24
10."Lullaby of a Clubland" (Matty Heilbronn II Deep Club Mix)Watt7:38
Total length:75:07

Personnel

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Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[32]

Everything but the Girl

  • Tracey Thorn – vocals
  • Ben Watt – bass, guitars, keyboards, strings, beats, scratching, sound editing and programming, mixing, production

Production

  • Andy Bradfield – mixing, vocal production on "The Future of the Future (Stay Gold)"
  • Ricky Graham – mixing (assistant)
  • Geoff Pesche – mastering
  • J Majik – additional production on "Blame"
  • Danny Jay – additional production on "Blame"
  • Deep Dish – mixing, programming, and production on "The Future of the Future (Stay Gold)"

Design

  • Dolphin Trax – design
  • CJ Field – artwork coordination
  • Graham Rounthwaite – cover illustration

Charts

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Chart (1999) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[33] 3
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[34] 48
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[35] 29
French Albums (SNEP)[36] 18
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[37] 65
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[38] 17
Scottish Albums (OCC)[39] 45
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[40] 14
UK Albums (OCC)[41] 16
US Billboard 200[42] 65
Chart (2023) Peak
position
UK Dance Albums (OCC)[43] 28

References

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  1. ^ a b c Thorn, Tracey (2013). Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star. Little, Brown Book Group. pp. 174–175. ISBN 978-1-40551-398-2.
  2. ^ a b c Wilson, Lois (May 2018). "Small Town Girl". Record Collector. No. 479. pp. 64–66. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  3. ^ Smith, Dakota (30 September 1999). "Everything But The Girl Still Going Techno On New Album". MTV. Archived from the original on 24 July 2021. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Temperamental – Everything But the Girl". AllMusic. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  5. ^ Nowinski, Amanda (28 September 1999). "Being Everything But the Girl". Salon. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  6. ^ "This week's big vinyl releases to buy and pre-order". NME. 8 May 2020. Archived from the original on 14 May 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  7. ^ Sarig, Roni (2004). "Everything but the Girl". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 288–289. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  8. ^ a b White, Michael (23 September 2019). "20 Years On: How Everything But The Girl's Temperamental Helped Me Live Again". The Quietus. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  9. ^ Snapes, Laura (21 April 2023). "Everything But the Girl: Fuse Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  10. ^ Stratton, Sally (28 August 1999). "Everything but the Girl Gets 'Temperamental' on Atlantic". Billboard. Vol. 111, no. 35. pp. 34–35. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  11. ^ Paoletta, Michael (25 December 1999 – 1 January 2000). "If Labels 'Believe' in Dance Acts, Success Will Follow". Billboard. Vol. 111, no. 52. pp. 34–35. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  12. ^ "About". ebtg.com. Archived from the original on 17 March 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  13. ^ "New Releases 21 September 1998 – 27 September 1998: All". Juno Records. Archived from the original on 27 September 2004. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  14. ^ "New Releases – For Week Starting 13 September, 1999". Music Week. 11 September 1999. pp. 26–27.
  15. ^ "New Releases – For Week Starting 6 December, 1999". Music Week. 4 December 1999. pp. 24–25.
  16. ^ "New Releases – For Week Starting 21 February, 2000". Music Week. 19 February 2000. pp. 26–27.
  17. ^ "Lullaby Of Clubland Top 3 Dance Hit". ebtg.com. Archived from the original on 8 February 2001. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  18. ^ "Everything but the Girl Chart History (Dance Club Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  19. ^ "Everything But The Girl". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  20. ^ Coleman, Nick (15 May 2015). "Tracey Thorn: 'I'm terrified of everything so I write songs to make sense of it'". The Independent. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  21. ^ "Contact". ebtg.com. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  22. ^ "Deluxe Re-Issues of Walking Wounded and Temperamental out Sep 4". ebtg.com. 2 September 2015. Archived from the original on 1 December 2015. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  23. ^ Freedberg, Michael (8–14 October 1999). "Everything but the Girl, Temperamental (Atlantic)". The Boston Phoenix. Vol. 28, no. 41. p. 29. Archived from the original on 19 January 2000. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  24. ^ Scherman, Tony (4 October 1999). "Temperamental". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  25. ^ a b Lechner, Ernesto (26 September 1999). "Everything but the Girl, 'Temperamental,' Atlantic". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  26. ^ a b Whyte, Gill (12 October 1999). "Everything But The Girl – Temperamental". NME. Archived from the original on 9 March 2000. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  27. ^ a b Schreiber, Ryan (28 September 1999). "Everything But the Girl: Temperamental". Pitchfork. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  28. ^ Duerden, Nick (October 1999). "Everything but the Girl: Temperamental". Q. No. 157.
  29. ^ a b Easlea, Daryl (June 2020). "Everything but the Girl: Temperamental". Record Collector. No. 506. p. 92.
  30. ^ a b Sheffield, Rob (14 October 1999). "Everything But the Girl: Temperamental". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 24 April 2008. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  31. ^ a b Walters, Barry (October 1999). "This New House". Spin. Vol. 15, no. 10. pp. 151–152. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  32. ^ Temperamental (liner notes). Everything but the Girl. Virgin Records. 1999. 7243 8 47896 2 6 / CDV2892.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  33. ^ "Australiancharts.com – Everything but the Girl – Temperamental". Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  34. ^ "Ultratop.be – Everything but the Girl – Temperamental" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  35. ^ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 7320". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  36. ^ "Lescharts.com – Everything but the Girl – Temperamental". Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  37. ^ "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  38. ^ "Charts.nz – Everything but the Girl – Temperamental". Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  39. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  40. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Everything but the Girl – Temperamental". Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  41. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  42. ^ "Everything but the Girl Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  43. ^ "Official Dance Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
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