Everything But The Girl - Eden - Deluxe Edition [CD]

First released in 1984, Eden is the acclaimed debut album from Everything But The Girl — the best-selling UK duo formed in 1982 by singer-writer-musicians Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt — and arrives in a new 26-track deluxe CD reissue edition featuring additional B-sides and extra tracks.

Recorded and mixed over nine days in September 1983 and produced by Robin Millar, Eden spawned the UK Top 40 hit Each And Every One and went on to sell over half a million copies worldwide.

Thorn and Watt met at Hull University in 1981 and over the next two years became successful solo artists and songwriters on London indie Cherry Red. Eden signalled a major label move to Blanco Y Negro/Warner and is the merging of the pair's respective worlds. Thorn's unshowy soulful voice and Watt's jazz-folk guitar and latin-flavoured arrangements take centre stage. The sound is sharpened by lyrics that offer both acerbic takedowns and a bittersweet disarming intimacy.

The album features a handpicked band including Simon Booth (Weekend, Working Week) on additional guitar, Colombian double-bassist Chucho Merchan, Brazilian percussionist Bosco D'Oliveira, veteran alto saxophonist Peter King, and Charles Hayward from experimental London futurists, This Heat, on drums.

Some B-sides from the time were recorded shortly after the Eden sessions. Later tracks from the same year point towards the tighter pop sound the pair were to develop both on the road and on the follow-up album. June Miles-Kingston (Modettes, Fun Boy Three) joins on drums, Phil Moxham (Young Marble Giants) on electric bass, and Johnny Marr guests on harmonica on Native Land.

The running order follows the template of the last deluxe edition in 2012, but — with the master tape only recently unearthed — adds the duo's 1983 version of Paul Weller's English Rose, originally recorded for the NME's Racket Packet cassette.

Mastered at Abbey Road Studios by Miles Showell, the album features the original artwork by Jane Fox in a new layout by John Gilsenan at IWant Design, with full lyrics, credits and photos from the period.