About

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. Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt recorded the LP 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. Thorn recorded most of her vocals during late-night studio sessions, after the twins had gone to sleep. In her autobiography Bedsit Disco Queen (2013), she remarked that "in a sense, [she] ended up being guest vocalist on someone else's album".

Everything but the Girl's resurrection as a sophisticated electronica outfit may have been unpredictable, but it certainly revitalized the duo's music. Prior to 1996's Walking Wounded, Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn had taken their charming, jazzy acoustic pop as far as it could go. Adding electronica, primarily drum'n'bass and trip-hop, to the equation broke their potential wide open, as the captivating, seductive Walking Wounded proved. It was such a drastic, fulfilling departure that it did raise the question of where they go from here; its 1999 sequel, Temperamental, answers that by offering more of the same, except just a little different. Temperamental tempers the lightly skittering drum'n'bass and eliminates trip-hop, yet retains the same feel as Walking Wounded. House music, everything from classic '80s house to contemporary house serves as the musical foundation, which actually opens the doors for slight jazzy inflections, along with long, hypnotizing instrumental passage.

Weirdly, it also serves as a good setting for a batch of songs that are essentially in the singer/songwriter vein. In fact, there aren't as many clear pop hooks here as there were on Walking. "Five Fathoms," "Tempermental," and a couple of other tracks work as singles, but the album is a more of a meditative, reflective piece, like a singer/songwriter album -- except it's dressed in sultry, evocative electronic dance music. That means, of course, 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. — (via AllMusic)

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Label: Buzzin' Fly Records
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue
Country: Europe
Reissued: 2020 / Original Release: 1999
Genre: Electronic
Style: Breakbeat, House, Leftfield

File under: Downtempo
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