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When you think of some of the great vocalists in electronic music Tracey Thorn is guaranteed to come up in most people’s minds, whether as Everything But The Girl with hubby Ben Watt or in collaborations with those such as Massive Attack or Deep Dish, and now as a solo artist. Before we go on I should make the point that her new album, ‘Out Of The Woods’ is different from her work as EBTG, mainly in the fact the seven out of eleven tracks were produced by Ewan Pearson. Pearson takes a more electro-disco direction than the heavy broken beats that Watt often used.
There are roughly three types of tracks on this album, firstly we have the non-Pearson produced tracks that feature Thorn and some organic instrumentation. The melancholy ‘Hands Up To The Ceiling’, with its soft keys, is a lovely track and the light strings in the background work well. As do the violins on the folksy ‘Here It Comes Again’, Thorn’s vocals are incredibly delicate in this track. The second group are those that show off Pearson’s clubbier side of his producing, the pumping electro tinged house beats of ‘Grand Canyon’ stand out, reminiscent of some of Watt’s productions, expect to hear remixes of this in the future. The first single to be lifted from the album however is the spaced out disco vibe of ‘It’s All True’, Pearson making use of funky synths and samples allowing Thorn’s more powerful voice to come out in the form of an incredibly catchy hook. The highlight on this album for me however, is ‘Get Around To It’, a fun upbeat number with cruisy, sexy vocals, funky bass line and a smattering of horns late in the piece.
The rest of tracks are a bit of a mixture of Thorn’s laidback vocals and Pearson’s quirky electronic beats. Highlights include ‘Easy’, background squelches fit incredibly well with a piano loop and ‘Raise The Roof’, which allows Thorn to show the true range of her vocals as she hits incredibly high notes above the laidback beats and spaced out samples. This is a good album but I feel it jumps around a bit too much and the flow suffers as a result. As mentioned I am sure there will be more than one successful single lifted from this, so expect to hear Thorn’s amazing vocal talent around the traps and on the radio. I would like to be the first to officially say: Welcome back Tracey, we missed you.
